BCN_Sean

The AC adaptor? If it's the output voltage of the Canon AC-E6 you are looking for, that's either 7.2v at 2 amp or 8v at 3amp.  There's a couple of different variations about.

Thanks @TerryMcK & @KP82, that's eased the thought process somewhat as I'm coming off a Haig mount and that maxes out at 200mm ~60 seconds and was not knowing what to expect with a portable unit.  At the moment, I'm going to be sticking to the same lenses that I have in my terrestrial photography setup whilst I get my head around the mechanical and post capture side of things, then at the end of the year (or may be next, depending on how long we've restrictions for) sitting down, looking through where I'm at and looking where I want to go from there.

1 hour ago, Tomatobro said:

I regularly use a Star adventurer pro and pulse guide via PHD2 , ZWO  mono camera and a 50mm guide scope.  Accurate polar alignment is essential and I use Sharpcap pro for both polar alignment and image acquisition. 120 second exposures can be done with this setup. My favorite lens is a modified Samyang 135mm at F2

Thanks for that! I don't think I'd be going down the sharpcap route, but PHD2 is where I'm thinking with guiding.  That Samyang has tempted me a bit but at the moment it's not that high priority on the list as I've already got that area covered, but with how many folk wax lyrical about it, it's on there!

Apologies if this is in the wrong section, I didn't know whether to put it here or in the getting started with imaging sub-forum.

I'm currently looking to build myself a portable astro-photo setup, nothing too big as one of the considerations is to be able to pack it in to a carry box that is similar in dimension to roughly airline hand luggage size without the tripod.

The plan I'm looking at over the next year is to go up to 300mm maximum, adding in a small guider setup running on a Raspberry Pi 4 and using a lightweight mirrorless (APS-C, ~4.8µm pitch) and a dew band for the time being to get (hopefully) 60 - 120 seconds per sub with an all up weight of a bit less than 3kg if all mounted on the same end of the bracket.

Mount wise, I'm leaning towards the SkyWatcher StarAdventurer 2i as with a few others I've looked at in a similar price range seem to have a few compromises although may be slightly better (mounts like the iEXOS-100, AZ-Gti) or my local place doesn't supply them (the smaller iOptron mounts).

Is this a sensible setup or am I expecting for too much from too little?

Any insights, suggestions or prods in different directions greatly appreciated!  Thanks in advance.

12 minutes ago, Dave Lloyd said:

Hi Sean, welcome. 

Thanks Dave!

Thanks all!

28 minutes ago, Floater said:

Welcome. Have lots of fun but take care around the rabbit hole! 🙂

I'll do my best, but not promising anything... At least I've a bit of a safety net, my other half is an accountant and she'll probably be able to nag me some way out of it.

Hello, I'm Sean, originally from the UK, but now living up a mountain about an hour or so north of Barcelona in Spain.

Whilst looking for something to do during the restrictions we have here, I ended up building a type 1 with some bits I found down in the basement for a bit of fun doing a bit of astro off the balcony (built one in my scout group many years back, but now a lot less frustrating with digital cameras, micro-controllers and stepper motors) however I started to really find that I'm enjoying the slowness of doing wide-field and rediscovering what's above the head and often overlooked.

A fella I know on a photography forum recommended to pop over here, so I've been lurking for a bit and decided to sign up.

At the moment, I'm still not fully decided on where I'll be heading equipment wise, but I've a feeling that's going to be an ever deepening rabbit hole!