My Milky Way 'EMU' photo http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...d.php?t=105857
was used at the IOptron Skytracker stand at NEAF 2013. Great little product looking forward to getting somewhere dark to take some better pics.
So two gripes I've come to with the Skytracker are
a) the battery compartment is such a tight fit that i have damaged a battery trying to get it out and also snapped off the little plastic tabs on the cover trying to get it closed. So now I have to tape the cover shut with some electrical tape
b) the edges on the polar finder are quite harsh and I came home with a bit of skin irritation under my eye on sat night while trying to align it from constantly rubbing against it. Will be trying to find a rubber grommet that might fit over it before next use.
Apart from that the unit tracked very well over my 3hours of viewing on sat night.
What I previously thought to be advantages certainly are - the solid and flex-free altitude adjustment and polar scope (with illumination) that you don't have to remove to install camera . The lack of reticle pattern for southern sky is annoying but not serious.
The battery compartment is very annoying and could easily have been better. Fiddly to change batteries and the wires look a little vulnerable as well as the compartment lid.
I Haven't had any injuries from mine yet, but I have to agree that you must be very careful with the battery compartment.
There is another interesting development in the wind for the Skytracker in that there is a counterweight arm accessory in development it appears in this video of the product at NEAF 2013
I ordered a SkyTracker with polar scope from Telescopes and Astronomy in Adelaide for $440 (pick up). Stock should arive at the Australian distributors in mid May, according to iOptron in Boston.
Some changes to the Skytracker a couple new features.they've increased the payload to 7.7 lbs. and added an adjustable AZ base (for easier polar positioning). The base is available on it's own so you can upgrade your existing unit. Suposed to be available mid June.
Saw an ad in a US mag for the new improved model. Few US stores doing them for $399 if you can get one to ship to Aus. Although with the lower AUD might not be worth it anymore.
Iīve been using one for a while I could do 4 minute exposures at 135mm good but not as good as the Polarie which got me to 10 minutes exposures using the same lens. This is because of polar-alignment precision not because of tracking accuracy.
The battery door in mine is already broken and taped. The lack of azimuth control was solved buying a Feisol panning base, it matches the Skytracker exactly and then I donīt need a 2nd tripod head or moving the tripod for PA.
The polarscope is bad, plain, and the lack of the octans trapezium is at least hard to understand I donīt use an Iphone so I have to align using a chart or planetarium software on my android tablet.
The led of the polarscope is too strong to see the reticle but too dim to see if the unit is working or not.
Battery runtime is fantastic, many nights with the same 4 batteries, this is good because changing batteries in this unit is a nightmare.
The controls are very bad to be used in very cold weather.
I received my SkyTracker on Monday but it has been cloudy and raining all week so I had time to make a few plans....
The SkyTracker was made to mount on a normal photographic tripod but I wanted a bit more stability so I made a plate that mounts on my old Meade tripod with the SkyTracker on top. This is very solid and I wont have to worry about vibrations or accidentally bumping the tripod out of alignment.
The polar alignment scope is not the best one in the world and I decided to get close to target with a laser pointer. I made an aluminium bracket out of two pieces of square aluminium and made sure that the two pieces are perpendicular to each other. It is now a simple matter of clamping the bracket on the SkyTracker body and pressing the laser switch while using binoculars. I am sure I would even be able to use the polar alignment scope if I clamp the bracket a bit lower.
Has anyone else had experience with both the Polarie and the ioptron?Are your experiences similar to Luigis?
Bo
Quote:
Originally Posted by luigi
Iīve been using one for a while I could do 4 minute exposures at 135mm good but not as good as the Polarie which got me to 10 minutes exposures using the same lens. This is because of polar-alignment precision not because of tracking accuracy.
The battery door in mine is already broken and taped. The lack of azimuth control was solved buying a Feisol panning base, it matches the Skytracker exactly and then I donīt need a 2nd tripod head or moving the tripod for PA.
The polarscope is bad, plain, and the lack of the octans trapezium is at least hard to understand I donīt use an Iphone so I have to align using a chart or planetarium software on my android tablet.
The led of the polarscope is too strong to see the reticle but too dim to see if the unit is working or not.
Battery runtime is fantastic, many nights with the same 4 batteries, this is good because changing batteries in this unit is a nightmare.
The controls are very bad to be used in very cold weather.
I have both and you can see some of my earlier comments above.
My rough test of tracking performance with 200mm lens on both got similar results. You're limited more by stability with weight and balance of a long lens than you are by tracking accuracy of the gears. I would comfortably use either of these with 50mm lens for ~2 mins and then stack to get whatever total exposure I wanted with *perfect* stars. Longer/bigger than that I would put on a bigger mount (but they can be pushed harder than that if you're careful or not seeking perfection).
With wide lens and short sub-exposures, you don't even need polar scope.. rough alignment is fine. Not having Octans in SkyTracker polar scope seems silly but can get used to roughly where to position Sigma (even without iPhone which I don't have) just based on trapezium orientation. Seeking perfection through the polar scope is a bit silly anyway because flex shifts things considerably, particularly with the Polarie where you have to take all the weight off the mount to use the polar scope. By the time you put all the weight back on, the axis of the mount has shifted considerably, plus whatever extra flex you have in your attachment to tripod.
It's hard to argue with the price of the SkyTracker and the fact that it has a flex-free altitude adjustable base that goes straight onto tripod is a big bonus. With azimuth adjustable element in new bases that's even better, plus you get polar scope included in the price. $300 for Polarie polar scope is hard to bear.
Thumb screws on the SkyTracker camera attachment plate are much bigger/easier to grip than on the Polarie. On the iOptron you never need to remove it anyway but on the Polarie you need to remove it every time you do or even check polar alignment which with cold hands is a real pain.
Battery compartment on the SkyTracker is poor.. Polarie much more refined design in details like that. But you can plug 12V into SkyTracker easily which is standard for my gear. Polarie you have to plug power in via USB.
Certainly agree with Phillip's comments regarding the silliness of unloading the Polarie to use the polar scope. However, putting the whole thing on a manfrotto geared tripod head with the backlash tightened out eliminated the slop problem, and I've had fairly good and stable polar alignment using the scope with a heavy dslr, 180mm lens, and 2 minute subs. http://www.astrobin.com/47941/
for example.
Also - having to shine a red light into the polar scope to see the reticle on the vixen is irritating, especially when you're kneeling on hard rocks, adjusting the angle of the polar scope, the two axes on the tripod head, and holding a torch at the same time...
cheers,
Andrew.
Certainly agree with Phillip's comments regarding the silliness of unloading the Polarie to use the polar scope. However, putting the whole thing on a manfrotto geared tripod head with the backlash tightened out eliminated the slop problem, and I've had fairly good and stable polar alignment using the scope with a heavy dslr, 180mm lens, and 2 minute subs. http://www.astrobin.com/47941/
for example.
Also - having to shine a red light into the polar scope to see the reticle on the vixen is irritating, especially when you're kneeling on hard rocks, adjusting the angle of the polar scope, the two axes on the tripod head, and holding a torch at the same time...
cheers,
Andrew.
That's an impressive result Andrew which shows what it is capable of.
Even without flex in the tripod mount, there is flex in the RA shaft itself which you can see just by wiggling the polar scope or camera around which makes trying to pursue perfect polar alignment with either of these somewhat 'pointless'. But at 180mm you're clearly polar aligned accurately enough for those subs so the flex is not as significant as I might have feared.
For somebody buying such a setup new, the cost of a Manfrotto geared tripod head on top of the polar scope makes the Polarie look a heck of a lot more expensive than the Sky Tracker which needs neither of those extra expenses. The Polarie is a sweet unit but some of these Version 1 issues and the cost of these extras are significant factors for anyone considering which one to buy.
