nubs292

Hello!

I am not able to balance my SA on the DEC axis with my DSLR and 300 mm lens. Is it OK if I track with it? I mean, if the clutch is tightened, then it shouldn't damage the motors? Or not? Please, someone with more experience, I need your help because I don't want to damage my newly bought tracker. Thank you!

Hi!

I recently got a Star Adventurer Pro. I don't know how to balance my DSLR and camera in the DEC axis. I want to use the tracker with the counterweight bracket. Basically, if I turn the camera left or right, the imaging equipment is out of balance, which is understandable, but I don't know how to align the DEC axis. Do I need to buy a dovetail to align in the DEC axis?

Thanks.

10 minutes ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

I assume this is not much different from polar aligning the EQ5 mount which also has a central hole.  Rather than crouching to peer through the hole, it is actually easier to mount a scope in the 'home' position and use its finder, followed by a look through the main scope (at low power) to confirm you have the mount set in the right direction.  You should then be able to look throuh the axis (probably after moving the scope to horizontal) to confirm you can see Polaris.  In an urban environment, the extra light grasp of a polarscope makes it easier to see Polaris and fine-tune the alignment.

If you have got this far, this ia more than good enough for visual use, but if you are taking images with a long focal length and long exposures it may be necessary to tweak the alignment further. In which case I think you will need the polarscope and polar adjuster, which will certainly make the process less trying.   Note that there are electronic methods of gaining an accurate polar alignment for imaging purposes (which assume you have mechanical adjusters that work smoothly).

I assume 300mm is the focal length??

Thanks! Yes, 300 mm is my focal length, I shoot with a camera lens and DSLR.

Hello,

for anybody who has experience with the ES iEXOS 100 PMC 8 mount, how precise can you get the polar alignment without the azimuth adjuster and polar scope, just looking through the hole in the mount? I want to use this mount with 300 mm optics, but I don't really know if it is absolutely necessary spend extra 100$ on the azimuth adjuser or the polar scope.

Thanks!

2 hours ago, carastro said:

FLO ships to Latvia, take a look at their website.  The HEQ5 is good for AP (I use one) it's a bit dearer than the one you wanted but not as expensive as many other imaging mounts.

Carole 

 

Thanks for the suggestion!

Hello,

I wanted to buy an iOptron SmartEQ Pro+ mount as my first tracking mount, but it is not really possible to ship it to my country. If anybody knows, are there any other mounts that have GOTO, but don't cost more than the iOptron SmartEQ Pro+? I will use it with a simple DSLR and lens setup, but the reason I would prefer GOTO is because I know I will be using a dedicated astrophotography camera in the future, without having to buy a new mount.

Thank you!

Hello!

I'm looking for my first tracking mount or star tracker to buy. I will be using it with a DSLR and lens setup, but I will upgrade to a small apo in the future. I had kind of settled on buying the Skywatcher Star Adventurer, but then I came across this https://www.astroshop.eu/equatorial-with-goto/explore-scientific-mount-iexos-100-pmc-8-wi-fi-goto/p,61886

This mount seems quite cheap, judging that I think it includes a tripod and GOTO capability (controllable with an app), only 419 EUR. It just seems to be too good to be true, because the Star Adventurer costs about the same price. Has anybody had any experience with this mount?

Thank you!

7 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

I think people are confusing driving, tracking and guiding. A regular EQ5 can be driven, so track, but you need the goto version for guided tracking.

Here's my 'grab and go' 102mm apo on a driven EQ5. Visual only, but it could be used for planetary imaging.

Oh, now I get it. I really was confusing the three, thank you! But is it like that, where you have to buy the goto version for guided tracking, for most mounts or only the EQ5?

1 hour ago, Carbon Brush said:

If you are planning ahead on a mount/tripod....
I think in terms of the biggest/heaviest mount and tripod my back (for lifting) and my wallet (for buying) will handle.

Agree with @Budgie1 on thinking goto rather than tracking. At some point you will want goto.

Of course if you have to carry the mount and tripod down 3 flights of stairs and then up a big hill, the guidance may vary.

The EQ5 tripod is good and solid. That is the first thing you need for astrophotography.

I don't know what scope or DSLR + lens you are planning to use.
A rule of thumb on mount sizing for astrophotography is to gone size up (at least) on the mount compared to that offered in a package scope & mount deal.

HTH, David.

 

Thanks for the reply!

Thanks for your reply @malc-c, I guess I should have dug deeper into how the EQ5 (and all mounts in general) is actually sold and how it works, I didn't fully understand what GOTO actually is. But yeah, I'll probably get the Star Adventurer, as I have now done untracked astrophotography for more than a year, with a DSLR and lens. In the future though, I will probably advance to something like a Zenithstar 61 and probably autoguiding too. Now, I have seen some people autoguide and image with a dedicated astronomy camera on a Star Adventurer. And knowing I'll probably get to that point of astrophotgraphy one day, in case I do buy something like an EQ5 or HEQ5 as my first tracking mount, can you even attach a DSLR and camera lens to it? Do you need to buy some other accessory like a dovetail to do that? Thanks!

Hi, I am thinking of buying either the Skywatcher Star Adventurer Pro Pack or the Skywatcher EQ-5 mount (without GO-TO) as my first tracking mount. I don't know if the Skywatcher EQ-5 tripod is absolutely necessary or if it can fit on a standart tripod like the Star Adventurer. And the reason I'm thinking of the EQ-5 is because so that when I get a more robust setup with an Apo, I won't have to buy a new mount.

Thanks!

I am planning on buying my first tracking mount for nightscape and deep sky imaging. I know that the ioptron skyguider pro and skywatcher staradventurer are good options, but since I live in a country, where you can't buy those (I can ship them from the US, but the shipping fees would be horrible), I'm thinking of the skywatcher eq 3-2, but I don't really know, if it is suitable for dslr and lens astrophotography, because all videos and tutorials on it are with telescopes and not camera lenses. Would be great if you know, thanks!

On 2021.01.17. at 23:24, Moonshed said:

Are you using a hand held remote for taking the picture, such as an intervalometer, because if so set a delay of 1 or 2 seconds before taking the picture, this will allow time for any shaking created by the mirror to have died down.

Are you sure that it is the mirror creating the blurred image? How certain are you that the focus was correct? Are you focusing the image using only the camera screen or are you connecting to a laptop and viewing it using one of the popular free apps, such as SharpCap?

It would help if you gave details of all the equipment you were using. Thanks.

I already posted, that it wasn't from it shaking, but from too long exposures, but thanks for the replies!

Thanks! I just realized, that I forgot about the object moving because of Earth's rotation. I really don't remember what shutter speed I was using, but I know that my maximum shutter speed at that focal length was 0.1 seconds, so it could've been because of that. If that is not the case, I will definitely check if my camera does have those functions.

When I try to image the Moon with my Orion XT4.5, the camera shakes the telescope a tiny bit when moving it's mirror and taking the image, resulting in the image being quite blurry. Is there a way of fixing this? Thanks!

Thanks!

I am pretty new to astrophotography, so I was wondering, how big should an image be? The image below that I stacked and processed a bit is around 330MB. Is that too large? Because in other websites, like Telescopius, that is too large to post. Should I also be converting the .tif file to JPEG or something? Thanks.

Autosave005.tif