Stuf1978

@Alanjmolloy Yeah I roughly align through the SA reticle then use Sharcap to nail the PA down. I never frame my targets up before polar alignment, so I have to move the scope after alignment. I find as long as I tighten everything down properly on the SA wedge and don't tighten down the SA clutch too much it doesn't cause too much of an issue. Once I'm aligned and my target is framed up in the scope and my guide scope is pointing in the same direction it's just a case of setting the guiding away in PHD2 (make sure you have deactivated declination). I was surprised at how effective guiding is on the star adventurer as it's massively increased my exposure time and the number of sub frames I can keep. The only time my camera fouls on the wedge or the tripod is when I'm shooting something that's more or less overhead which is not very often. Hope that helps 😀

Not at all, the RDF doesn't weigh much and I need something to get roughly on target. Plus in the configuration shown the counterweight is below the guidescope in order to achieve balance, so there is still loads of room to move it about if needed 😃

I guide the star adventurer when I use the 72ED and it's pretty effective. I've managed subs up to 5 minutes with nicely rounded stars (haven't tried longer subs yet). As daemon indicated good polar alignment is required and I use Sharcap for that 😁 Here's my set up:

Yeah clear outside looks half promising. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you 👍

Thanks, yeah this winter has been a bit of a write off for astrophotography. Good luck with the next session.

For 150 euros it was definitely worth a shot, I've seen some earlier copies of the lens go for similar sorts of money and that's why I've been tempted.

Nice, how do you find the sigma 70-200 f2.8 for imaging? I've heard mixed reports but the price of these used compared with the canon equivalent makes them hard to ignore.

Orions belt using a star adventurer, modded 450d and a sigma 150mm f2.8 macro lens. About 2.5 hours exposure from my bortle 8 garden.

Just bought a SW 72ED with the intention of using it on the SA with guiding. Still need to get myself a guide camera but thought it I'd give it a shot anyway. Ended up ditching approx 50-60% of the subs in this M42 image. Total integration was 22x60 second lights with 10x15 seconds for the core. Darks, flats and bias applied, stacked in DSS and processed in Ps. Hopefully once I'm guiding I'll get longer subs with an increase in keepers 😃

Thanks, yeah clear outside is indicating it should be ok after midnight tonight (just in time for orion to clear the tree line to the south of my house) 😁

Is that the skywatcher FF/reducer? I've ordered the OVL flattener from FLO so I guess I'll find out if this perpetual blanket of cloud ever disappears from the north east.

Brilliant thank you. Yeah it's the new 72ED so should be fine 👍

Hi all, Does anyone use this combination when imaging with a dslr and if so can you achieve focus with just the scope, FF and camera adaptor? I've read conflicting reports on whether you can achieve focus with this combo. Thanks

Started with Astrophotography at the end of last winter. Here's a couple of images I'm quite happy with. M51, shot with a Canon 80D on a skywatcher star adventurer. Sigma 70-300mm @300mm F5.6, 96 lights @60 seconds, 10 darks, 20 bias, Stacked in DSS, PP in PS and LR, taken from my bortle 7/8 garden North America and Pelican shot with a Canon 450D modded, Canon 70-300mm F4-5.6L @ 180mm F5, Skywatcher Star Adventurer, 82 light frames @ 90 seconds, 32 Darks, 77 bias Stacked in deep sky stacker, Processed in Ps and Lr. Taken from Bortle 4

Hi, I had a bit of a play around with your data as I don't need any excuse to practice processing as I'm still rather crap at it. There is plenty of detail in your tif file but I couldn't seem to get shot of the halos around the stars. So you may be right about the filter. Stu

That's good enough for me. Thanks for confirming what I thought 👍

I have a self moddded canon 450d where I only removed the LP2 filter and I'm looking to add a light pollution filter. I've been looking at the skytech cls and cls-ccd but I'm unsure which one I need. The cls-ccd indicates that it's for modded cameras, however I'm sure I read somewhere (which I now can't find) that I don't need the ccd flavour as the camera still has good UV cut as I left the LP1 filter in place. So is the cls-ccd only needed for a full spectrum modded camera and should I just save myself some cash and get the cls variant? Thanks 😃

Thanks everyone, I'll remove the filter and if I struggle to get focus ill just send it off to get the sensor re-shimmed 👍

So in theory I should be fine 👍

Hmmm may just send it off to cheap astrophotography services and get it modded with the shim then I know I'll have no issues.

Brilliant thank you, I guess it's just a case of trying it. If i can't achieve focus I guess I can always get the sensor shimmed to retain auto focus and therefore the ability to manually focus correctly.

I've bought a cheap canon 450d with the intentions of doing a self mod for astro and removing the LP2 filter. I intend to image widefield targets with a variety of lenses: Canon ef 50mm f1.8 Canon 24-70mm F4L Canon 70-300 f4-5.6L What I'm concerned about is achieving focus manually using live view. Is this still going to be possible? I understand I'm going to lose auto focus but the camera will only be used for astro so I'm not bothered about that. However, I've read conflicting reports online that I'll not be able to focus to infinity with the modded 450d and lens combo. Has anybody had an issues manually focusing a lens on a modded 450d? Thanks Stu

My star adventurer arrived this afternoon so I had a quick go at setting it up. It's a really nice bit of kit, easy to set up and polar align. Weather conditions were rubbish though with intermittent cloud and it was a bit blowy. Looking forward to some better conditions to see what it can do ?

Just taken me about 2 hours to read through this thread and I'm very impressed as to what this little mount can do. Planning on buying one next month and can't wait to get my camera pointing skyward ?