Bobby1970

As far as I know they are the same mount. Not sure what you mean by "no computer interface". It has GOTO and as far as I know can be guided. It's more of an EQ5 class mount I think so nothing like as portable as the SA.

This one is new, and it's been reduced

There was an SA for sale on astroboot for £145. If that's any use??

And that takes this months astro spending to.........????? ;-) Can't wait to hear what it's like mate.

This image was taken with my DSLR. Only used the gp cam for polar alignment. :-)

I have used the polar align feature in sharp cap a few times, it seems pretty good, the thing is, i wonder about knocking the PA out just by loosening and retightening the RA clutch to be honest. Once i get the alignment in sharp cap so it is reading just in arc seconds i call it a day and go with that. Not done any guiding yet, but it is coming soon. How much do you need to reduce ISO levels by so that you don't end up with a totally washed out image after say 5-10 mins ???? This thread is great by the way, keep the contributions coming guys and girls :-)

Re the focus, i tend to just use the "focus peaking" feature on my DLSR on the live view screen. Perhaps the focus has shifted a little as i locked the focuser. I think i need to start doing some flats as well, and probably buy some decent processing software such as star tools maybe.

That makes your images even more impressive in my mind. Or is it a case of the guiding correcting for any inaccuracies with polar alignment????? Don't fully understand how it all works TBH lol

What do you do in terms of polar alignment? I assume you don't just use the built in polar scope?

At the weekend i stuck my Altair Lightwave 72ED-R on my SA just to see what i could do. I think its 400mm ish focal length. This was 60x60sec after using the polar alignment tool in sharp cap with the scope and altair gp cam first. It is also cropped a little too.

Can I just ask. You guys talking about 8 and 10 minute subs, that is guided right??

Another stunning effort Steve. Well done.

Thats incredible Russ May i enquire as to sub length and other settings??

I love my Star Adventurer. It is definitely the best single piece of astronomy gear I have bought. A couple of my recent efforts. Sony A57 with a Minolta 70-300mm @ 300mm Another vote for the regular SA, not the mini.

its easier to get forgiveness than getting permission. :-) Quite fancied a Vixen 80mf myself. Sounds like you got a real bargain. Clear skies.

I had a go with my ST80, GP Cam + 0.5 focal reducer. On my Star Adventurer it seemed to work ok.

I haven't actually tried capturing any images yet. But I could only get to within "minutes" of alignment rather than "seconds" with the heavier mount. I used the SA to familiarise myself with the sharpcap polar alignment prior to getting the bigger mount set up to use it on. I have used the SA previously with the ST80 and DSLR though. Thought using sharpcap may help achieve some longer exposure times.

I have done this with my ST80 and Altair Gp cam. Couldn't get it as close as with a eq5 type mount. But probably still useable.

I used it again last night. Seemed to work well. Had the 70mm travelscope on top of the st120. Got to within 30 seconds and left it at that. Seems like an excellent solution in my limited experience

My new Opticstar EQ goto mount with Skywatcher ST120.

Robin, thanks for the info I was struggling on a previous attempt to get my celestron 70mm travel scope to work. I think it was possibly due to thin and patchy cloud cover not allowing a decent view of the polar area. I tried again last night using the same scope and it worked fine. Until the front element dewed up. Lol. Many thanks for the info again. Much appreciated.

Can anyone suggest what sort of c mount lens would be good to use with Altair Gp cam for polar alignment within sharpcap? I only have the small meteor lens at the moment. I assume this will be no use?

Posted on error

This is what I have started doing. The illuminator is not very good imho. And useless when the dovetail is fitted. First time I used a small frac with my SA the other night and I adopted the shining the torch down polar scope approach.