Milkyway Galaxy with the Vixen Polarie

[iceman (Mike)]

This shot of the Milky Way Galaxy was taken at Cape Leveque using my Canon 5D Mk 2 with the Vixen Polarie Star Tracker on my normal camera tripod.

The Vixen Polarie is a self-tracking unit that you can attach to any camera tripod, and after aligning it with the South Celestial Pole, allows you to track the stars and do longer and deeper exposures without getting star trails.

This particular image is a single exposure of almost 4 minutes, using the Samyang 14mm lens @ f/2.8, ISO3200.

It was my first real field test with the Vixen Polarie, and I didn't take time to try and align it perfectly accurately with the SCP, or with the latitude (I was about at 18deg South), so there's some slight trailing in the full-res version of the shot, but at the lower resolutions it's difficult to tell. So all in all, I was pretty impressed with its performance - especially for an exposure of almost 4 minutes.

If you took the time to more accurately align it, it would be a great unit to use out in the field when travelling, especially because it's so small, light and easy to transport.

I took a few other nightscape images with the polarie, and I'll get around to posting those in the next week or so.

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Thanks for looking.

[gregbradley]

I am very interested in this shot as I am considering a Polarie.

Are you sure that is rotational errors rather than coma? The trailing seems to radiate from the centre. I have seen trailing even on 30 seconds and it is true that further away from the SCP trails more than closer in so not 100% sure here. And I did not notice anything unusual in your other 14mm Samyang shots.

Still it does show a lot of potential.

Greg.

[Irish stargazer (John)]

Beautiful image. A Polarie is next on my wish list

[iceman (Mike)]

Hi Greg

There's most certainly coma with the Samyang 14mm out near the edges, and is no doubt exacerbated with the longer exposure as a bit of trailing is introduced too.

I can take a crop of the centre of the frame if you'd like.

Thanks John! They're a great little unit.

[gregbradley]

Originally Posted by iceman

Hi Greg

There's most certainly coma with the Samyang 14mm out near the edges, and is no doubt exacerbated with the longer exposure as a bit of trailing is introduced too.

I can take a crop of the centre of the frame if you'd like.

Thanks John! They're a great little unit.

Yes a crop would be interesting. It is sometimes hard to tell which is tracking errors and which is coma when so widefield. The outer edges of my 30 second 14mm images show greater trailing as well compared to centre (which is usually further away from the SCP).

Greg.

[ourkind (Carlos)]

I love the detail in the nebule, particularly near and around Antares!

Beautiful shot