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SW Star Adventurer


Earl

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Arrived yesterday, had a quick look and pleased at how light it is.

Today i set it up.

For starters, you only need the main mount if you have a good tripod head already and a ball joint to mount you dslr on, tripod also.

The EQ Wedge head is light but feels well made no sloppyness and all the turning parts have a firm and solid movement. mine as you can see is in go faster red.

This has a thread to go on your tripod, bubble for leveling and a dovetail clamp to attach the main mount head too.

I have not put batteries in yet but the mount uses 4 AA and has a usb power in, on off, and dial for tracking speed, shutter control port and also the guide port.

the polar scope is in the middle like all other synta EQ mounts, the illuminator however fits into a hole under the dovetail you mount onto, meaning you cant align with your camera attached, so dont knock it when attaching your imaging device / setup (possible point of frustration)

to go any further i need to work out how im going to control my camera, apt, byeos, nebulosity etc.

once thats sorted and i can control by my tablet ill have a proper run.

is this better than the astrotrack, well its smaller, but chunkier, not sure on the polar scope, not been able align with you gear all on could be a royal pain. saying that you only have to remove a dovetail though, but dont knock it when installing it back in.

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I agree, i am really considering one after hearing a few good things about it! Although after my last purchase i dont think i will be able to afford one for a while!

Shame about the polar scope routine. But i did read about someone guiding with it the other day and they were getting 10 minute subs. Would be great to have it an a secondary mount for widefield stuff while the NEQ6 carries the scope! Do you need any form of counter weight? Im sure i seen it mentioned somewhere?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Can I just ask, do you still have to align/calibrate the polar scope on these little mounts like you have to on the larger EQ mounts?

Was possibly thinking of getting one but I don't think I could cope with another few months of failure trying to align/calibrate the polar scope.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Mine came out of the box with a very well calibrated polar scope (bought it at Widescreen Centre near Baker Street).  It was better calibrated than the PASILL3 I have on my Mach1. Needless to say I didn't touch the Star Adventurer's polar scope anymore.  The illuminator is a Bad Idea . So far I just don't use it.

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  • 4 months later...

I was hoping to find a more 'complete' review on these.  Maybe elsewhere?   I own one but have not yet had chance to use it.  I can add that currently (Jan '15) the counterweights appear to be in short supply in the UK. 

The unit as a whole seems very well made. On the issue of polar alignment with a camera onboard:  if you use the 'L' bracket/dovetail instead of the basic ball head mounting dovetail, there is a 'slot' in the dovetail for the specific purpose of permitting polar alignment.  That leads me on to - something that I wasn't aware of until I went to see it at the dealers - it is possible to mount TWO cameras, or a single camera plus a small scope (i.e. ST80 etc) for simultaneous tracking (not sure that Astrotrak & co have that covered).

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If you get the dovetail L bracket and file out the centre slot to fit the polar scope illuminator you can polar align with everything mounted and also keep a check on it while it's running, pity they didn't make the slot a bit wider then it wouldn't need filing.

No problem using the illuminator. 

Dave

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Good job Davey-T.  I noticed that too.  One reviewer mentioned that he uses a red gelled flashlight and shines that into the polar scope so this "problem" did not concern him.  I was going to try this first since I will have one of those with me.  But I like your approach too.

My Star Adventurer has some black crud in the scope.  Should I be getting a replacement?

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All I did was open up the slot with a flat file equally on both sides along the length until the Polar scope jammed in it, you need a sharp file, it took me about 15mins, then I toshed it over with a black aerosol.

Dave

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I was hoping to find a more 'complete' review on these.  Maybe elsewhere?   I own one but have not yet had chance to use it.  I can add that currently (Jan '15) the counterweights appear to be in short supply in the UK. 

The unit as a whole seems very well made. On the issue of polar alignment with a camera onboard:  if you use the 'L' bracket/dovetail instead of the basic ball head mounting dovetail, there is a 'slot' in the dovetail for the specific purpose of permitting polar alignment.  That leads me on to - something that I wasn't aware of until I went to see it at the dealers - it is possible to mount TWO cameras, or a single camera plus a small scope (i.e. ST80 etc) for simultaneous tracking (not sure that Astrotrak & co have that covered).

Astrotrac certainly has :D

Astrotrac_TP3065_Pier.jpg

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