Nerf_Caching

Getting this scope was arguably the best decision I've ever made! Image quality is excellent with no obvious chromatic aberration. It is also quite lightweight and comes with a case, all for a reasonable price.

If you do get the Star adventurer, get the pro pack. It includes a declination bracket and counterweights should you wish to mount a telescope on it. I occasionally plop my Skywatcher evostar 72ed refractor on top, hook my dslr (a Canon 650d unmodified) up to it and shoot away! Really good mount for wide-field stuff. I suggest you forget about the 130pds for now and start with a small wide-field refractor(preferably less then 400mm in focal length, although I could just get by using 420mm). They are forgiving in tracking accuracy and easier to balance too. If your budget can't accommodate a telescope at this price point, just stick with your current lenses for now.

Well I took this using a Canon kit lens at 135mm on top of a skywatcher star adventurer mount, so your 200mm lens will definitely do better than this!

Ah cool! I've only taken my rig out a few times but this is what I've done so far. All of them are composed of 30-second subs. Picture of my rig included. M45: 38 minutes, M31: 9 minutes, Flame and Horsehead: 1 hour.

Do you use guiding with the star adventurer? I'm asking because you have got the exact same setup as I do, minus the astro-mod to the 650d!

Also took the Flame and Horsehead nebula with the same equipment as above. 1 hour of integration.

I was shooting through the grating on my window sill, that's why they are there.😁

Here's just a reprocess of my Orion Nebula which was taken with an alt-az mount. It was a Nexstar 5se mount using an SW evostar 72ed and unmodded 650d dslr. One and a half hours of integration under a Bortle 8 sky with 30-second subs at iso 1600. A broadband light pollution filter was used also.

Perhaps a Skywatcher Evostar 72ed will fit the bill. I use mine on the SA and have gotten good results so far. This is 38 minutes on the Pleiades using an unmodded Canon 650d. Each sub was 30 seconds at iso 1600 from a bortle 8/9 sky.

I used StarTools and Gimp to process this photo. It is 1 hour of integration from a bortle 8 sky using a Skywatcher Evostar 72ED refractor on a Star adventurer mount. The camera was an unmodified Canon 650d. 120x30 seconds at ISO 1600

Hi all! I was rewarded with a clear night tonight. I decided to make the most of it by doing a couple of deep sky sketches. Bearing in mind that I was observing from a backyard under a bortle 5 sky, here was what I managed to see. Attached are sketches of the Orion Nebula and the Bode and Cigar galaxies. Any advice would be appreciated as I'd like to start doing more of these sketches since they really force you to pick out the faint details in a DSO. Colors were inverted with Gimp. Thanks!

At 30 seconds, my histogram spike was a third of the way to the right, initially halfway even due to LP.

Here is my first attempt at the flame and horsehead with an unmodded canon 650d dslr, a SW 72ed refractor and star adventurer. Very noisy but will add more data. It is 1 hour and 7 minutes of integration under bortle 8 skies. 135x30 seconds at iso 1600.

Here is my first attempt at the Pleiades. Don't mind the noise as this is only 17 minutes of integration in a Bortle 8 area. This is the first time I've used a small refractor on this mount. OTA: Skywatcher Evostar 72ED refractor Camera: Unmodded Canon 650d Mount: Skywatcher star adventurer Subs: 30 seconds each at ISO 1600 w/ light pollution filter. Stacked in DSS, processed with GIMP.

Is your camera modded?

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