Star Adventurer, Redcat 51 & Canon 80D Question

[Shawn]

Howdy all, as an intro I was into astro photography many years ago now. But had to give it up. However I have since retired and find myself often traveling to places with great conditions for this interest. My other interest is wildlife in particular birds. Nothing flash in the camera department, one for me and anther for my wife. 80D and P900. Cutting to the chase I have ordered the Star Adventurer 2i pro bundle, and the Redcat51. My question is should I be looking at a different camera other than the 80D, given that my needs are portability and versatility, cost also a consideration, but not as much as the other two.. Is anyone here using this combination, If so your experiences/ tips and niggles you may have would be helpful..


Thanking you..
Shawn

[gypsy]

Hi Shawn

I use the star adventure 2i pro
with a Nikon D850 and a Tamron 150 600 lens without any guider
and just use a Monfrotto 190 pro tripod
i have had some pretty good success with this set up
the red cat is a similar weight (Tamron 1950grm Redcat 1800grm) you might find you will need a little extra counter weight you can buy these but I just made one out of lead.

The cannon 80D would be more than capable of giving you some great images, it has live view so easy to fine tune your focus on stars with a Bahtinov mask

the 2i Pro is light portable easy to set up, once you get the hang of it takes 15 mins
I find tracking for exposures of 20 to 30 seconds will give you up to 80% keepers
but start pushing it over 40 seconds and that drops a fair bit maybe 50% I hear guiding helps a lot and people can get over a minuet
if its windy forget it.

I set up with a compass and just eyeball the needle to south strait thro the middle of the 2iPro. Then use one of the little LED levels you can buy for around 25 bucks place it on top of the 2i Pro and set your latitude to the correct degrees I usually find that’s close enough to have octans in the view finder for fine tuning
I also made a plywood shelf that attaches to the trip pod legs using small truss clamps this makes for a pretty steady tripod
one little niggle I had was if you play around with the wifi settings it remembers them, so when you switch back to star tracking it will only track to the last wifi setting
You need reset the 2ipro by pressing and holding the 2 buttons until they flash then it will track for as long as you want

hope this help you out a little

kind regard’s
mick

[Drac0]

For the versatility/portability I would stick with the 80D (I've used an unmodified 70D for ages) or maybe a second hand modded DSLR. Going to a dedicated astrocam requires additional gear to get the most out of them - external power, a laptop/pc, filters, etc. And a good astrocam matched to the Redcat, something like the ASI183MC Pro, isn't a budget option at ~$1300.

So for now, stick with the 80D. Test it out, see how it suits what you want to achieve. It has both the portability & versatility you require & can be used both for astro & wildlife as is. Then if you want more for your astro consider a modified DSLR.

Cheers

[Shawn]

Hey Mick and Mark, thank-you so much for this feedback the Wifi would have definitely tripped me up.. Some of the best sites I go to I cannot actually see the SCP.. I,m in FNQ you see,So it is often obscured be an inconveniently placed mountain.. I,m guessing there as work around for this too.. I am familiar with drift alignment but my last scope was permanent so I only did it annually. What do you guys do at these short FL,s if the SCP is obscured, I would prefer it not be drift align , I'm already suffering significant hair loss..But yes, OK, the 80D will suffice for the time being. Again ..Thankyou..
Shawn


...

[Drac0]

Seeing as all my gear is connected through a laptop I use your undesired drift align through PHD2 (if guiding) or N.I.N.A. Much easier than doing drift align the 'old' way. I did see a video recently of someone using Google Earth to find a prominent feature directly towards the pole from their location to line things up then using a digital level to get the correct elevation, but it's not something I've required or tried.


Cheers

[OzEclipse]

Hi Shawn,
I don't own but have used an 80D. A good friend of mine is very keen on astrophotography but doesn't have a tracker and doesn't know how to process. So when my friend comes out for a visit, I set up and polar align my mount, put the 80D camera on, help with targeting, focus and settings, then process the images.

The 80D isn't the greatest camera for astro. Although it was a 2016 release model, its noise levels are only comparable to many other 2010 release APS C model cameras. I have a 2010 model Pentax K5 and it seems to have very similar noise levels to the 80D. Other models with similar noise levels are the Nikon D5100, D7000, Sony Alpha 580.

Nonetheless, with multiple sub-frame averaging, I have found that decent results can be achieved. Unmodded, the camera, has just enough H alpha sensitivity to record some red nebulosity.

The Redcat 51 is probably a little on the long focal length side for unguided imaging on the Star Adventurer unless you do very short exposures. Another friend of mine uses one and can only do reasonable length sub exposures (2 mins) with lenses up to 70mm. He finds the PE too great when he tried to use a 300mm f4 telephoto, closer to your Redcat. However, the QA on these devices vary and you may get a unit with a better drive precision than his.

The attached examples:-
The first image HDR stack is the average of stacked exposures from shorter exposures for the nebula core up to 4 minute exposures with a 50mm f2.8 at ISO 800.
The second image "Orion Copy" is ISO1600 16mm f2.8 2 mins. Stack of about 6 images.
The third image Canon 80D 29 Dec is a single capture with an 11mm f2.8 ISO 1600 processed only in Lightroom.

Shot in Bortle 2 skies.

Joe

[Shawn]

Thankyou Mark and Joe for the very informative info. Yes I see the 80D does an admirable job even when pushed, I had completely overlooked the apparent change in FL of a crop sensor, that may push this mounts usability to its limits with the redcat. Now given that everyone raves about the flat field of the cat, just maybe I should use it, eliminate the FL issue and address the ISO in one hit. The EOS R seems to fit the bill, nice price bracket, furthermore I can salvage some of my lenses..Your thoughts gentlemen ?..


The Nikon Z5 is in the mix too...


Kind Regards Shawn


...

[astro744]

Focal length is focal length. It doesn't magically get longer because of the crop sensor. Its the sensor that is smaller and focal length in relation to full frame is calculated as longer. An APS-C sensor intercepts less of the field as a full frame sensor does with the same lens.

As far as tracking and guiding go the focal length is the same. e.g. A 200mm lens will still be a 200mm lens when connected to either APS-C or full frame. Field of view in deg. (length x width) = sensor length in mm (length x width) x 57.3/focal length (200). You can get same image scale on full frame if you use 320mm lens which will then match the image scale of APS-C at 200mm (for Canon). An increase in real focal length will mean better guiding is required (or shorter exposures to minimise trailing)

Full frame has larger sensor so field of view is wider but focal length of lens is still 200mm. Crop factor is the difference in sensor size, which is 1.5 for Nikon and 1.6 for Canon. (Not sure about others).

[Shawn]

Hey thanks Astro, yes of course it doesn't change it only the image, although that would make tracking errors less noticeable..If I understand it right.. doh....Its doing my head in really... :lol:
Anyway, i just jumped in because of the headache it was giving me and just picked up a Z6. What can possibly go wrong ?...;)


I spent the last several days, umming and arring between the 80 D, the EOS R, and the Nikon Z5. It was a gimme when a Z6 fell in my wifes lap "Kudos to the net savvy of us" for 1500 bucks with only 700 shutter count, and a legit receipt.. Sorry circumstances for the previous owner sadly.. It seems to stack up against other contenders in this price bracket even without the discount.. it kind of destroys the opening thread topic, but there it is.. You can laugh later..:P. I might kick off a new thread to ask questions of the members here more relevant to what I have bought.. Taking the leap into full frame mirrorless...