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Old 12-01-2021, 01:20 PM
Aurorae (Sara)
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Skywatcher Star Adventurer 2i Pro Kit

Hi - I just wanted to hear your thoughts on the Skywatcher Star Adventurer 2i Pro Kit. I am waiting for a delivery of the William Optics Redcat51 - I am doubling the use of it for astro and for macro photography - and I wanted to find out what your thoughts were on the Skywatcher.

It is fairly basic, and I am interested in taking photos of things like Centaurus A or maybe the Carina Nebula (both as a hobby but also as a tool to learn more about the whole process), but I know that a mount is massively important.

Any advice?
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Old 12-01-2021, 03:45 PM
RugbyRene (Rene)
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Carina will be good in the RedCat as it's nice and big. As for Cent A that is another matter. Yes it is large as galaxies go but with the RedCats wide fov it may not look much more than a smudge.

You might want to head over to the following website www.telescopius.com It will let you set up your equipment and show you what a given target will look like with your setup.

As for the mount......hmmmm there's 2 camps with the Star Adventurer. Those who love it and those (like me) who think you'd be better off getting an inexpensive but quality goto.

Rene
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Old 12-01-2021, 05:46 PM
Aurorae (Sara)
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Originally Posted by RugbyRene View Post
Carina will be good in the RedCat as it's nice and big. As for Cent A that is another matter. Yes it is large as galaxies go but with the RedCats wide fov it may not look much more than a smudge.

You might want to head over to the following website www.telescopius.com It will let you set up your equipment and show you what a given target will look like with your setup.

As for the mount......hmmmm there's 2 camps with the Star Adventurer. Those who love it and those (like me) who think you'd be better off getting an inexpensive but quality goto.

Rene
Thanks, that's actually really helpful. I am after something powerful, but also portable and that has been rather challenging. Do you have any recommendations that are very portable but powerful enough to take those pictures, preferably something interchangeable between a macro lens used, say, for bird photography, and astro?

I guess, in terms of the skywatcher, I think its portability is pretty good, and I have heard some positives for the iOptron Skyguider too. What I am really after is something automated and easy to use - it does polar alignment for instance - and that I can take around with me, something that a heavy mount cant really do.

Thanks again, I really appreciate your response
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Old 13-01-2021, 10:18 AM
sneaks (Paul)
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Hi Sara,

I'm a complete beginner to astrophotography, but bought my Star Adventurer Pro 2i a week ago. I've been a bit baffled by it. For example, there is an app you can install on your phone to control it, and the camera also, if you get a cable to link the camera to the mount.

BUT, I could NOT get my phone to work with the app. My phone can connect to the mounts wifi just fine, but the app says "not connected". You actually have to turn off cellular data usage!!! and then the app will connect. Needless to say, that is a real problem for phone use. How can I use the console app and internet at the same time?!? But I ended up installing the console app on an old iPad, and that works just fine. But pretty stupid imho.

Also, when you connect to the mount via the console app - it does NOT track. You have to start a photo run for it to start tracking! That is bizarre. It means you lose your target tracking until you start imaging. Again, that makes it pretty pointless if you ask me.

I do not know if there are fixes for those issues or not - I'm still trying to learn. But there wasn't much online from my google searches.

However, using the mount without app control is pretty good. It tracked nicely for me. Well for 30s exposures anyway, which is the longest I've tried so far.

Hope this helps.
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Old 13-01-2021, 04:47 PM
Aurorae (Sara)
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Hi Paul - it is hard to tell sometimes whether they are technical faults or whether it is all part of the learning process and we are not aware of our mistakes.

For me, I guess am trying to list some of the features that I want and align that with what is available:

1. Star tracker that is portable and lightweight for general celestial objects and nightscape photography
2. Easy polar-aligning would be nice, so I can get straight into it
3. Not having to use software and a laptop, but manually use live-view on my DLSR

I don't want to be an expert or anything, but I do love the opportunity and option to take some photos of deep space objects that are nearby. The app was in someway a bonus feature, but I would prefer to manually fix the position of the object .

The alternative is a mount with automatic alignment and deal with the heaviness. I think, from what I am gathering, the Skywatcher Pro and the iOptron Skyguider Pro are both really good options, at least, until I transition from beginner to intermediate/advanced. By that stage, I would have learnt a lot and can decide to take the next step if I want to.

Last edited by Aurorae; 17-01-2021 at 03:27 PM.
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Old 16-01-2021, 10:40 PM
Zuts
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Hi,

There is really no such thing as auto polar alignment. Whatever mount you buy and given you are setting up each night with it, after setting it down pointing south you will still have to fiddle with bolts and levers to get a good polar alignment, if you want to take nebula photos with the Redcat. Mind you the FL of 250 mm maybe means you dont have to be perfectly aligned, but since you are unguided the closer the better.

This is not to say it is difficult, there are apps like sharpcap which help you polar align, but it is not automatic. Sharpcap requires a laptop, but there are a few mobile phone apps that can help as well.

You also left out 4, focusing. This can be a bit fiddly as well even with live view as of course you cannot use the autofocus on the DSLR with a Redcat, perhaps you can read about the benefits of using a Bhatinov mask for focusing.
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Old 17-01-2021, 03:36 PM
Aurorae (Sara)
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Originally Posted by Zuts View Post
Hi,

There is really no such thing as auto polar alignment. Whatever mount you buy and given you are setting up each night with it, after setting it down pointing south you will still have to fiddle with bolts and levers to get a good polar alignment, if you want to take nebula photos with the Redcat. Mind you the FL of 250 mm maybe means you dont have to be perfectly aligned, but since you are unguided the closer the better.

This is not to say it is difficult, there are apps like sharpcap which help you polar align, but it is not automatic. Sharpcap requires a laptop, but there are a few mobile phone apps that can help as well.

You also left out 4, focusing. This can be a bit fiddly as well even with live view as of course you cannot use the autofocus on the DSLR with a Redcat, perhaps you can read about the benefits of using a Bhatinov mask for focusing.
Well, not auto alignment like StarSense but rather easy alignment, such as the iOptron SkyGuider Pro Mount with IPolar that has an electronic polar finder scope even when the pole star is obscured and there is no need to position towards the south.

You are absolutely spot on with focusing, but I have decided that I may instead go for the Zenithstar 61 because of the larger aperture and it is still small enough to fit on the skywatcher. But, definately, a member here showed me how to use the Bhatinov mask and it was amazingly simple. Definately want that!
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Old 17-01-2021, 05:36 PM
Zuts
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Aurorae View Post
Well, not auto alignment like StarSense but rather easy alignment, such as the iOptron SkyGuider Pro Mount with IPolar that has an electronic polar finder scope even when the pole star is obscured and there is no need to position towards the south.

You are absolutely spot on with focusing, but I have decided that I may instead go for the Zenithstar 61 because of the larger aperture and it is still small enough to fit on the skywatcher. But, definately, a member here showed me how to use the Bhatinov mask and it was amazingly simple. Definately want that!
There is a difference between starsense alignment and polar alignment. Starsense is for alt az mounts and allows accurate gotos after telling the mount where it is. If you want to take better nebula photos you need to be polar aligned which is aligning the mount to point at the south celestial pole. Star sense does not do this, it just builds a model that the mount can use to goto objects. I am not sure if you are getting an eq or alt az mount. If it's alt az then you will get little circles as the stars rotate around the polar axis as the mount cannot track properly in the eq manner. At your focal length with short subs this may not be an a great issue.
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Old 17-01-2021, 08:37 PM
Aurorae (Sara)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Zuts View Post
There is a difference between starsense alignment and polar alignment. Starsense is for alt az mounts and allows accurate gotos after telling the mount where it is. If you want to take better nebula photos you need to be polar aligned which is aligning the mount to point at the south celestial pole. Star sense does not do this, it just builds a model that the mount can use to goto objects. I am not sure if you are getting an eq or alt az mount. If it's alt az then you will get little circles as the stars rotate around the polar axis as the mount cannot track properly in the eq manner. At your focal length with short subs this may not be an a great issue.
Thanks for the clarification, and I mentioned in the post title the skywatcher star adventurer, which makes the process inevitable and given the size it is really no big deal. The comments were really just about what would be great to have, but not necessarily what I need. I do know that the mount is the most important thing, and this decision was really about that portability and being able to travel with it as I don't want those big, heavy mounts.
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