Polarie on the way!

[JB80]

I just got confirmation that the Polarie has been paid for and is on the way from Austria.

I'm pretty excited about this, I was going to hold off on one of these but it's been niggling at me ever since I first saw it and was just too hard to resist. I decided to forego the polar scope for now and see how it goes first especially since there was talk about an adaptor for SW polarscopes.

I probly won't be able to get the best out of it from all the LP at home but with holidays coming up and a few short trips here and there I should be able to get some good dark sky usage out of it.

Now to find a tripod and ball head that are in stock to arrive about the same time as I doubt my little Camlink tripod and small manfrotto ballhead will be up to the job even for testing purposes.

Either way I'm a happy chappy and will be more so when it arrives, I'll post some pics of it then.

Enjoy the clouds folks, sorry.

[ollypenrice]

I thought the first light/review images posted on here looked great. Polar alignment will be important but there are not enough great widefield images posted and I'm as guilty as the rest for neglecting them. Hope it works out. Imaging from a dark site is the stuff of life, believe me!

Olly

[garethmob]

ooooo i'll be interested in this i have a astrotrac but you never know

my astrotracks mounted on a AZ3, fairly light and it had a camera screw on top (not sure if this was standered) might be better / stirder

[JamesF]

Am I the only one who read the title of this thread and thought: "Ooh hello! I'm Julian and this is my friend Sandy!"?

James

[JB80]

I thought the first light/review images posted on here looked great. Polar alignment will be important but there are not enough great widefield images posted and I'm as guilty as the rest for neglecting them. Hope it works out. Imaging from a dark site is the stuff of life, believe me!

Olly

Ever since seeing the pics and the review I have been smitten somewhat by the Polarie, like I said I was going to hold off in anticipation of maybe moving somewhere where the skies are darker but now we are starting to do more trips I should get more of a chance to use it.

I have read other reviews saying that the rough alignment using the sight hole can give quite a few minutes before trailing so I'll test it out to come to terms with it and probably buy the polarscope anyway.

ooooo i'll be interested in this i have a astrotrac but you never know

my astrotracks mounted on a AZ3, fairly light and it had a camera screw on top (not sure if this was standered) might be better / stirder

I've seen claims of 10 minutes with a 50mm lens but not sure how they'll hold up in practice, by me.

I want to keep mine portable so I can carry it in luggage and hike around so I just upgraded to a more sturdy camera tripod. I could put it on the eq-2 at home I imagine.

Am I the only one who read the title of this thread and thought: "Ooh hello! I'm Julian and this is my friend Sandy!"?

James

Hmmm.. Obscure pop-culture reference.

*googles*

ahh I see..... It's in the wiki page at least.

[JB80]

Goodie, the new tripod just arrived, it's a Triton FLX32. It's an absolute beast compared to the one I already have but it folds up smaller and thankfully has a nice carry bag.

I'm hoping the Polarie turns up today but it's more likely it'll be Monday.

[JB80]

It's finally here.

It's very sexy I must say. I knew it was on the small side but I hadn't realised just how tiny it was although it's fairly hefty in weight.

I have put it next to a regular dvd so you can get an idea of the size of the thing.

I can't wait to try it out but not entirely sure when that will be.

[garethmob]

ooooo i thought they were gonna be red tho?

[JB80]

I checked on that and recieved various different answers and the one that seemed to have a ring of truth to it was the red polarie seen in AN was a prototype only and is not available.

It was also mentioned that they plan to release coloured versions next year but take a big pinch of salt with that one.

[garethmob]

ahhhh kwl at least its the same colour as all the other vixen stuff:P

when you gonna test it out / what you gonna test it with?

[JB80]

The way the weather is it's highly likely I won't get a chance to test it out until we go to Crete at the end of the month but really the first clear opportunity I'll be out there for sure.

I bought a new triton tripod which is fairly sturdy and what I'll be taking on holidays with so I'll give it a run on that first with the 450D, I'm not sure if I'll need the second ball head as the tripod has a 3Dhead but it might get in the way, I don't know yet.

[garethmob]

ooooo bet it be great:)

[JB80]

I'm sure it will be.

I'd even take a partly cloudy night to test it, I just want to give it a go.

[JB80]

It's really easy and quick to set up too, it shouldn't take more than 5 minutes.

It's really quiet and when all setup there are no vibrations or other obvious issues. I'm fairly confident my setup will hold up well on holiday.

I just want to try it out, all this waiting is hard.

[pete_gamby]

ooooo i thought they were gonna be red tho?

The red unit in the picture in the AN review was shown at CP+ (a Japanese photo and imaging show - http://www.cpplus.jp/en/index.html) in February 2011 when the product was first being developed.

I'd sent the images to AN and Ninian (the reviewer) when we first started discussing the product - my fault for not advising that the product would only ship in Vixen white!

Cheers, Pete

[Photosbykev]

The way the weather is it's highly likely I won't get a chance to test it out until we go to Crete at the end of the month but really the first clear opportunity I'll be out there for sure.

I bought a new triton tripod which is fairly sturdy and what I'll be taking on holidays with so I'll give it a run on that first with the 450D, I'm not sure if I'll need the second ball head as the tripod has a 3Dhead but it might get in the way, I don't know yet.

I'm not sure if the photography just doesn't show it but you do have a second ball & socket head between the camera and the polarie unit don't you?

The existing tripod head under the polarie will help setting up your polar alignment but you need a second head above the polarie to position your camera onto your targets.

[JB80]

Yeah, this pic may show it up a bit better. Not much better but they were the only two pics I took.

[Photosbykev]

phew thank you Jarrod

[Davey-T]

Will you be able to post pics while you're on holiday or have we got to wait for you to get back

Davey-T

[JB80]

I'm not sure, probably not as we will just take the galaxy tab. I might be able to get away with some single shots if I find the right cords to take but it's probably better to wait till I get home.

[JB80]

Oooooh, my preliminary first very rough test shots are extremely promising.

I already love it.

At 50mm for 98 seconds with a rough alignment I get the picture posted below which by my reasoning isn't too bad, even when zoomed in trailing is seemingly less than a regular 8-10 second exposure. It was ISO1600 though hence the high LP tint.

I have also gone to 203 seconds and when zoomed in there is noticeable slight trailing when zoomed in but it still looks good but it's pretty much washed out from LP at that length. Actually the 98 sec one is pretty much washed out too but at least it gives an idea of the tracking.

I can't wait to get this thing to dark skies.

In the mean time I will crack the LP filter out I think and experiment a bit, I'm going to need more AA batteries for sure.

[JB80]

Right, here are two from last night at 50mm. I wasn't trying to get an image as such just to check how the tracking was going to work and I think it went well.

The first pic below is of the one above at 50mm for 98 seconds I have just changed the curves on it so it's not as badly washed out and the same with the second one which is a 203 second exposure at 50mm.

Tonight if I get a chance I'll go out with the LP filter and try at 18mm and I want to try out the starscape mode as well.

[Daniel-K]

them stars look pretty good on that 2nd one i was looking at one of these maybe later in the year after the obsy is done keep the pics coming

[JB80]

Yeah it's not bad at all, it's only if you zoom in you start seeing a bit of trail and I still think it's less than what you would see with an 8-10 second exposure on a stationary tripod.

Interestingly the manual says at 50° latitude with a 50mm lens you should still get pinpoint stars at 3 minutes 12 seconds, I'm nearly at 51° and that pic was 3 minutes 23 seconds so even with a rough PA and no polar scope it performs very well.

Still waiting to get out again but as soon as I do I'll post some more test shots.

[JB80]

Had another chance to get out last night so I tried at 18mm for 5 minutes, the tracking seemed fine but I think my PA was off a bit as there is slight trailing no matter what exposure I did.

One thing is unless your eyes are night adapted it can be a bit tricky using the sight hole on the side.

I'll probably bight the bullet and get the polar scope soon.

The pic is a stack of 5 minute exposures using the cls filter but I'm having trouble getting any colour from it so I'll just post it anyway, it's a 55 minute stack.

Processing is really not my strongest point. I'm thinking if I'm going to use the cls then I probably should use a custom whitebalance.