SkyWatcher Star Adventurer Ultimate Kit recommended?
Hi,
I recently bought a second hand Canon 450D and am thinking of buying a SkyWatcher Star Adventurer star tracker (Ultimate Kit) from AstroPetes for some longer exposures and am looking for some advice before purchasing. This kit includes the mount head, latitude base, counter weight and bar, ball head adapter and a tripod. Would this kit be recommended, including the tripod? Can anyone confirm that I can set up the camera first then polar align with this package? It does include a counterweight and bar. I don't want to have to polar align then put the camera on. Also, if I was to manage to do up to 2 or maybe 3 minute long exposures (I would do shorter ones with longer focal lengths) with the 450D would this be too long to get good shots in light pollution, taking noise and shot exposure etc into account? I do plan to use Deep Sky Stacker and Star Tools to reduce noise as much as possible but just wanted some input before I buy as I have never done these length exposures before. I have an 18-55mm lens and a telephoto which extends up to 250mm focal length.
First up, Im a bit of a novice myself with astrophotography.
I just purchased the Star Adventurer Kit about 2 months ago and over the weekend took it out for the second time. Im loving it so far. Im using it with a Sony RX100Mk4.
The first extra that I would suggest would be a ball head, this will connect to the ball head adapter or L bracket, it means that you can point the camera in any direction without moving the mount, I personally brought the Joby GorillaPod SLR-Zoom and its easy to use (even in the dark) and holds fast.
I didnt buy the tripod myself, i built one from about $100 worth of parts from the hardware store, its super rock solid, let me know if you want more info on that.
I have mine set up with the L Bracket, the cutout down the center allows me to still use the polar scope even after everything is mounted up. Its a little more fiddly but works.
I have managed to get 2 mins at 70mm with only really rough polar alignment, I have heard of much better with better alignment. I usually do batches of 30sec exposures though. Over the weekend I did a batch of about 20 exposures and didn't notice and star trailing or drifting from my very bad alignment.
for example using the calculator I entered a polar alignment error of 2 degrees, for a 3 minute exposure the stars will drift 95 arc sec at the celestial equator and 70 arc sec at the declination of Eta Carina and the Cross. This is suitable for a 3 minute exposure with a 10-15mm lens to keep the drift to less than 1 pixel in the camera.
Example 2
Let's say you can get your polar alignment to <±1 deg
taking 2 minute exposures
and you'll accept 4 pixels of drift seen as 1 pixel when the image is viewed screen size ~ 25% of full res.
Then you're looking at a drift of around 30" at the celestial equator and 24" at the Cross. You can then use a 135mm focal length for a 2 min exposure. Exactly what Phil found.
2. Periodic Error On the SW star adventurer this is about 50" however if you keep the exposures short, you will only see part of this drift during an exposure. You may need to take several, toss those with big drifts and keep those with smaller drifts.
Sorry there is no one line simple answer to your problem
I had a SA for a while, it was recommended to me not to use a ball head even though this does make your life easier, mount the camera directly on the end of the L bracket for less "wobble"/drift and use RA and declination to aim the camera.
I was using mine on an Induro AT-413 tripod.
For future proofing, have you thought about saving the $675 that you are thinking of spending on the SA and buy a USED HEQ5 Pro instead ? Payload of 13.5kg compared to 5kg, much better tracking (lower PE), comes with motorized GoTo handset, heavy duty tripod.
Spend a little more but get a whole lot more mount that will take you further into AP, but less portable than SA and requires 12v DC power.
Thanks for the helpful replies. I gave some thought to buying a second hand HEQ5 but it unfortunately isn't an option for me just now. I am taking it that if I was to set up the DSLR mounted directly on the end of the L Bracket that the Ultimate Kit from AstroPetes that I mentioned in my previous post would have everything I need to do this. Is this right or is there anything else I would have to buy? I suppose that it would include everything but I just wanted to be sure. The Ultimate Kit includes-
Star Adventurer Mount Head
Latitude Base
Counter weight and bar
Ball Head Adapter
Tripod
Yes, you can and it will help with the tracking as opposed to using the camera on a ball head as the mass is kept more centralised. Downside is that it's a little more tricky to frame the shot as you are restricted to the EQ axis movements.
I bought a star adventurer and took it out for the first time last Sat Night.
It was almost impossible to use the polar scope in the southern hemisphere. The backlight kills the stars in Octans.
I mounted my Guide scope and guide camera and did a polar alignment with Sharpcap. This mount is rather difficult to move small amounts for the alignment. Azimeth is not bad but altitude is very course.
Anyway, I got a fair polar alignment and did about 17 Subs at 5 mins with negliable star trails. I was using my QHY10 and a Sigma 10-20mm Zoom lense aimed at the center of the milky way. I have yet to process my image. With such a large FOV a close alignment was acceptable. Must have been around 120-150 Deg FOV.
I would recommend this mount for astrophotography. And with its 5kg payload even small scopes can be used with it.
I agree with Charles, the SA is a nice little unit and I've also used a small refractor on it. You may need extra CW with a refractor and so I use small stainless steel archery stabiliser weights. For example, the Infitec weights come in 28, 57, 113 & 198 g sizes that can be threaded together in any configuration with the included 1/4" 20 threaded rods of varying lengths. I screw the weights to the bottom of the SA CW bar with a cheap 1/4" to M6 adapter from eBay. Works well.
The Star adventurer is a great unit for lenses, and when honed into Polar alignment, can take some good pics with small scope, comes down to exposure length etc, as you seem to already know, :-)
One does not need a camera ball-head mount, you can point any without a ball head, there are clutches on both axis, Ra & Dec. which you loosen, when all set-up, balanced, polar aligned etc, turn the unit On, loosen clutches, twist/turn the head to point camera in desired direction, tighten clutches back up, Ready to Go !
Ive found even polar align with Heq5, neq6 mounts that the polar backlight is bright, but I do the polar align before turning any mounts on, same with star adventurer, ?
If location is dark enough to see polar stars, 'Octans' I used my red headlight,,with hand covering the light, letting a little light through a gap/s in fingers, sort thing, and move in-front of the polar scope, the objective end, not the eye end, just enough to lightly highlight the star patterns for a few seconds to get idea where to move the Alt or Azi adjusters, this way, you don't end up blinding ones dark adapted eyes 'much' if any !
You definitely need to get your tripod Level & point south a best as can before placing on the adventurer & camera/s !
One will be surprised using a very wide lens, 10-30mm and just polar aligning with a compass and inclimometer, but as with any astro imaging, practice, get to know your gear :-)
But yes, these trackers are good units and what you get in the complete package you mention, is all you need, just a camera on it and your away :-)
I am looking into a Polemaster after the comments about the stars in Octans being hard to see in light pollution and am thinking about getting the Universal Adapter as well as the unit from Gama Electronics and mounting it on the screw pointing forwards at the lower end of the L Bracket. Would anyone be able to tell me if this would work well? I would be polar aligning after setting up the camera etc. I attached a photo of what I am thinking about.
I am looking into a Polemaster after the comments about the stars in Octans being hard to see in light pollution and am thinking about getting the Universal Adapter as well as the unit from Gama Electronics and mounting it on the screw pointing forwards at the lower end of the L Bracket. Would anyone be able to tell me if this would work well? I would be polar aligning after setting up the camera etc. I attached a photo of what I am thinking about.
Thanks,
jman17
I have a polemaster but have now stopped using it. I find the Polar alignment in sharpcap much easier to use and it yields better results. Another advantage of Sharpcap is it will use your existing Guidescope and camera. You don't need to buy anything.
The Polemaster is normaly mounted in the Polar Scope hole and is in the center of the RA rotation. It may work mounted away from there. You will have to try it, Or maybe someone already know ?
