Opinions sought on the iOptron SkyTracker

DarkKnight (Kev) · #1 13-06-2015, 08:18 PM

Hi all,

New member and first post. My current interest is night photography with terrestrial foregrounds.

My camera gear is a Nikon D800 with lens from the Samyang 14mm f2.8 up to the Nikon 300mm f4.

I've done a few shots and two things are very obvious. First, I need to find dark skies without a glow on the horizon and secondly I need a basic tracker so I can do longer than about 30 sec exposures.

The iOptron SkyTracker seems to fulfill my immediate requirements although I'd like a bit more leeway with the load which their SkyGuider seems to offer.

Any thoughts or alternatives appreciated.

Thanks

Kev

DarkKnight (Kev) · #2 15-06-2015, 05:47 PM

70 views and no opinions. I guess that tells me something.

Anyway I've gone off it as I think it is a bit light for my current and intended uses.

The EQ5 looks more robust with double the carrying capacity.

Atmos (Colin) · #3 15-06-2015, 05:51 PM

I've got a HEQ5 (overkill I know) that I have used in the past, works well though. Never used the SkyTracker though.

pluto (Hugh) · #4 15-06-2015, 06:04 PM

I used to have the SkyTracker. I think it's pretty good though I was never successful in using the polar scope so my PA was never spot on. Nevertheless I got some nice images with exposures around 2 minutes for wide lenses (~24mm) and some great 30-60 second 50mm images. To be honest when I'm under dark skies I concentrate on my bigger gear so I never really got the most out of the SkyTracker.
As for what to go for then I guess, like everything else, it's about your budget and how much gear you want to lug around. I got the SkyTracker as it fit in my camera bag though in hindsight I only ever really used it when I had my car anyway so I could have gone for a small eq mount, which probably would have been easier to polar align.

If I did it again I'd probably look at that the SkyWatcher Star Adventurer (anyone used one?), or the AstroTrack, which seems to get rave reviews. Maybe even the zeq25 if I wanted to get serious about it. Maybe even an EQ3 with a motor drive would be a cheap option, but I don't know how well they track.