Indulged in an iOptron Startracker

[Jaypat75 (Jason)]

Thanks to fellow member garymck, I have got hold of an iOptron Startracker to play with. Have had limited opportunities to try it out, but have been able to get out in the last couple of nights. First night tried exposures with my 15-85mm Canon lens with mixed results. With very vague polar alignment I was able to get some okayish returns at 15mm using approximately 90sec exposures. Tonight I tried out the 10-20mm Sigma with exposure lengths around 3mins (again with rough P.A). Didn't even try for stacking, more an experiment to see what is possible with the Startracker. First image 90secs @ 15mm f/3.5 ISO 3200.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4403/...c8be259c_t.jpgIMG_3881 by Jason Paterson, on Flickr

Second image 180secs @ 10mm f/4.0 ISO 3200

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4337/...f6f2a10e_t.jpgIMG_3885-2 by Jason Paterson, on Flickr

Unfortunately the location where I took these shots are under a flight path, and I'd imagine a fair amount of light pollution from the lights of Lismore had an effect on the final result. Both images processed in LR. Constructive criticism and advice welcome.

Cheers

Jason

[raymo]

We've got to have images large enough to view, Jason, but from what
I can see, there seems to be a huge amount of noise, and both seem
to be well out of focus, but maybe that is to do with the processing.
I look forward to larger versions.
raymo

[Jaypat75 (Jason)]

Trying to get a hang of the best way to post images on here. Try clicking on the image number to the right of the link it should direct you straight to the image on flickr.

[raymo]

O.K. that's a bit better. You have a good start there. Obviously, the first
one's composition is all wrong, but I don't suppose that you are worried about that at this stage. The obvious thing with both is the LP that you mentioned, but its not that bad. If you cut back on the exposure time, or knock back the ISO, or a bit of both, and stack lots of subs, you should get a really nice result.
If you can get to a darker site, experiment with exposure times, but I
would recommend cutting the ISO back to 1600.
raymo

[sil (Steve)]

The star tracker is very capable, definitely work on improving your polar alignment, thats always the limiting factor and the more time you spend in getting it correct instead of close will pay off in the shots later on. Also if you're close to an airport you can try using that to your advantage creatively and capture the milky way and lots of plane trails for contrast.

[Rigel003 (Graeme)]

Nice start! When i began using my iIptron Startracker I did some web research on the easiest star hopping method to line up accurately with the position of the SCP. This works well for me within the polar scope field of the Startracker, moving from Small Magellanic cloud to Beta Hydri to the Octans trapezium to SCP. Happy to send you a PDF with description and detailed charts if you're interested.

[Jaypat75 (Jason)]

Thanks for the input everyone! With a fair bit of practice with the wider lenses, I'm sure when I use the longer focal length lenses it will be much easier. Getting the hang of locating SCP will go a long way towards making things easier. The two pics I posted were more of experimentation rather than hoping for a stunning result. Just wanted to push the limits of what was possible with rough PA.

Originally Posted by Rigel003

Nice start! When i began using my iIptron Startracker I did some web research on the easiest star hopping method to line up accurately with the position of the SCP. This works well for me within the polar scope field of the Startracker, moving from Small Magellanic cloud to Beta Hydri to the Octans trapezium to SCP. Happy to send you a PDF with description and detailed charts if you're interested.

That would be awesome Rigel! I can use any bit of assistance to help. Appreciated mate!

Cheers Jason