Nerf_Caching

Well, I tried again a couple hours later and the problem seems to have fixed itself, so I wonder what’s going on! Attached are slightly out of focus 1-minute subs of the Pleiades and results using the DARV method to drift align. I hope my mount is working alright bearing in mind that I accidentally dropped it from a foot above a table while unboxing it!

Wow great work! Yes I do agree that It's a pain to focus a camera lens effectively in the dark, but lots of detail here! With regards to polar alignment, there's a relatively easy way to do so even without the pole star being visible. Look up "DARV method" on google and there should be a Cloudy Nights article detailing it. I use it sometimes and it works well.

Is it safe to rule out any internal problems with the mount?

From my understanding, the darv method should exhibit a clean-looking 'V' shape, but mine displays a rather wonky 'V'. Could that be the result of a wobbly tripod as mine isn't particularly strong?

Hi all, after using the Star Adventurer a few times, I ran into a very worrying problem with tracking tonight. I performed a rough Polar alignment with the mount with my lens set to 300mm. Stars in my image had very unusual trails like the images below. And yes, I did turn the mount on to track. In the second image I slewed the mount back and forth in RA if that helps.Could it be batteries or poor polar alignment? Or something worse relating to the motors? Thanks for the help in advance!

I have to admit that after imaging using an AZ mount, I have caught the bug and now I'm an owner of an EQ mount!. Should be fun trying to polar align a Star Adventurer without Polaris as I live at 20 degrees latitude and the NCP is obstructed by apartment buildings.

Hi all, I am about to receive my star adventurer pro. I was wondering how I am able to remove the standard pan and tilt head that comes with most tripods so I can mount the SA with wedge directly onto the tripod if possible? Thanks!

There was a lot of light pollution. I couldn't even make out the nebula in a single sub and there were problems with stacking in DSS due to too few stars visible. It did stack in the end though.

Two more from me again. The Sculptor Galaxy and the Helix Nebula. I am having a LOT of trouble gathering signal for the Helix Nebula. The image quality is just so poor even after an hour and a half of integration using 30 second subs! If anybody can offer me any solutions I would really appreciate it. The Sculptor Galaxy is a little better and is also an hour and a half using 30 second subs. Same equipment as before.

Here's one from me, the classic Orion Nebula. I took this picture by mounting my SW Evostar 72ED with my Canon 650d dslr to my Nexstar 4se mount. Because it is able to sit on top of a table, all I did was plant the rig on my window sill (with the window open of course!) and snapped away. Please excuse my bad processing skills. Specs is as follows: I forgot exactly the number of subs, but it is an hour and a half of integration using 30 second subs at ISO 1600 with a light pollution filter. Bortle 8 skies using unmodded dslr. I've also attached my initial stacked file if you want to mess around with it, so feel free to have a fiddle! M42 stack 2.TIF

Hi all. So I'm planning on buying a Skywatcher star adventurer to place my evostar 72ed and dslr on and I'm looking for an inexpensive, travel friendly tripod that could hold the load of the scope and mount. I am aware that FLO sells a tripod for the SA for 55 pounds, but does anybody know of any alternatives? I plan on fitting the tripod in a suitcase if that helps, thanks in advance!

Okay. Since you have a cpc, which is already ideal for planetary imaging due to its long focal length and omission of the need to track well over long exposures, I think you should focus more on deep sky. That being said, I recommend you get the 72ed from Skywatcher or equivalent because it has fast optics and a wide FOV so it doesn't place as much demand on tracking accuracy as a longer FL scope. For the price of under 300 GBP it is a really good telescope. Perhaps you should save some of your budget on stuff like a dslr/dedicated astronomy camera, mount (eg HEQ5) and guiding etc.

Depends on which type of AP you priortize. If you are more interested in planetary, then a 120 or 150 (which do work for deep sky to a certain extent I believe) will work or perhaps an SCT as it's more compact. However, if you priortize Deep sky, then a small refractor like the 80ED or even the 72ED (which I have for DS imaging and is a blast to use; on an alt-az tracking mount mind you!) will be preferable. It will also be more tolerant to tracking imperfections too!

It's freezing though! I managed to take my Canon 650d with the 50mm prime out to take some shots of the Andromeda Galaxy. I had about 30 minutes for that.

Here's my process on Gimp. I've only got very basic processing skills, but here you go.