Radders

The Polar Illuminator really is pathetic isn't it? Tried mine in the kitchen last night. I couldn't even see the reticle. Changed the battery tonight but still the same level of brightness. Any solution other than shining a red torch down it?

Cheers Dave. Just thought I'd square everything up properly. Will try again when I get the right Allen key and the light was fading last night.

Set up the Star Adventurer in the garden and aligned it up the side of a chimney. When rotating on the RA axis it seemed ok but when I got my head round the dials and checked its position at 31st October, 0 and 6 were not straight down. So it appears I'll have to adjust it. I've found a page where some replaced the grub screws with M3 threaded thumb screws so I'm going to do that. Any idea what size Allen key I need for the grub screws? The smallest one I had was too big.

Thanks.

Just a quick question, is it essential that you calibrate the Polar Scope?

Managed to try the Star Adventurer for the 1st time last night. Put a 18-55mm lens at 18mm, done a rough Polar Alignment ie just facing North at the right latitude and level tripod didn't use the Polar Scope. I was getting trails at 30 seconds. I thought this can't be right. It took me 10 mins of faffing around before I realised it was set for the Southern Hemisphere. Duh! Anyway I took 8 subs at 2 mins each, no darks and stacked them in DSS. Quick edit in Lightroom. Do the Stars look ok? I find focusing on live view at x10 really hard to get pin sharp.

It was in there after all. Thanks guys.

Hmmm. I'll have a look..

Cheers Dave I'll order one of them. Is that how you mount yours? On the black thing or with ball head on the end of L bracket? How about your polar scope illuminator? Special adaptor to fit the L bracket?

Got my Star Adventurer the other day. Not had a chance to try it out yet although debating whether to tonight but the near full Moon is putting me off. Do people most commonly attach their ball head directly to mount itself or the L bracket? I tried to attach my ball head to the black thing on the end of the L bracket but the thread was too big on the ball head. Is there a way round this or just attach my dslr directly to it?

Hi, after a 2yr absence (sold my Celestron 8" scope to fund baby things) I have ordered a Star Adventurer which hopefully should be arriving tomorrow. I have a Canon 700d with 3 lenses. 18-55mm f3.5-5.6. 55-250mm f4-5.6 and a 50mm F1.8 Does anybody have tips, must do's or extra things to buy to aid my experience?

As there is a serious lack of astronomy shops in the Midlands I was happy to come across ENS Optical in Birmingham, on the Internet. Got in touch and asked if they collimated scopes. Was told to bring it along which I did today and I was in shock at how quick it was done. Top stuff! Was actually good to talk to someone face to face about astronomy. Radders