Nadine2704

Thanks, both!

Louise - I used brand new batteries and do have a ballhead atop the Skytracker   

Ronin - I just levelled it by using the compass on the skytracker - I assumed when the compass lay flat (as opposed to tilting at an angle) it was accurately levelled.  Am I doing it wrong? Haha

The latitude 56 setting does look as though it points in the right direction.  Glad to know that I wasn't doing anything drastically wrong and it was probably a case of just being slightly out with all my measurements etc.  Will definitely take more care when setting up next time (if I ever get a clear night, that is!)

Hiya,

I recently treated myself to the iOptron SkyTracker and tried it out for the first the the other night.  I kept getting star trails (which I later realised may have been due to the fact that I had it set to half speed!  Silly me!)  But I also had a lot of trouble with the polar alignment and I feel that, even if I had had it set to the correct speed, I still would have been getting star trails...

These are the steps I went through, can anyone tell me if I am doing something wrong?

I levelled my tripod and faced the tracker towards North

I set my latitude to around 56 for the UK (Perth)... am I right in thinking that Polaris should then be within the field of view if I just pan my tripod around?  This is where I think I messed up, as I couldn't find Polaris anywhere and had to significantly increase the latitude to find (what I thought) was Polaris.  Did I maybe not level my tripod properly at the beginning?  I was in such a rush to start imaging, that I probably didn't pay enough attention when I was setting it up!

I used a polar alignment app and placed 'Polaris' (in hindsight I think it might have just been a random star that I thought looked decent enough ) where it was meant to be... but I just got rubbish pictures...

So if anyone has any advice, I'd be very grateful!!  Also, if anyone has any images taken with the iOptron SkyTracker and wouldn't mind sharing them, I'd love to have a look!  I live in a fairly light polluted area and my first target was Andromeda... not the best combination, but is it still possible to get a semi-decent picture?

Thanks!