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Imaging with a Star Adventurer


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Hey everyone,

Thinking of buying a Skywatcher Star Adventurer to further my astrophotography with my Canon 1300d. Would like to see some examples. Can this thread be a showcase of shots being taken with a Star Adventurer? Doesn't matter on camera or lens, just show me what you've taken!

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Shot with the star adventurer on a velbon videomate 638, nikon d3300, nikkor 50mm f/1.8 @ 3,5 and an intervalometer under a dark sky this summer. 29X2min subs with no calibration frames 

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I really like the star adventurer and it is IMHO an excellent piece of kit.

Clear skies!

Victor

Edited by Victor Boesen
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Thanks for your post. I've had my Star Adventurer (SA) mount since April and can vouch for it's usefulness and capability. I have a Canon 600D DSLR and under dark skies this August on holiday took the following image-

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This was with my Samyang 135mm lens at f/2, ISO 1600 and made up from x8 180 second exposures plus x10 dark frames and x50  each flat and bias frames stacked in Deep sky Stacker and processed in StarTools.

Back home I struggle against the local light pollution and last week obtained an Astronomik UHC clip in filter allowing me to take 240 second exposures of the Heart and Soul Nebulae region on the 17th November and I am pleased with the result. This is using my 85mm lens at f/2-

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This is made from x30 light exposures at 240 seconds, ISO 200 and stacked with x16 dark frames and x50 flat and x57 bias frames. Again stacked in DSS and processed using StarTools.

The SA mount is very good and can be recommended.

Good luck,
Steve 

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Here's two of my better efforts so far. Was delighted that I was able to pull out the Horsehead from the Orion widefield. I have a lot to learn but I would not have caught the bug without the Star Adventurer!

 

All these done with a Nikon D3200 and Sigma 70-200mm F2.8. Exposures range from 60-120sec. Typically ISO800-1600 at f4-6.3. The lens really isn't the best but good enough just now.

 

I would not hestitate to recommend it to you!

orion new.jpg

andromeda_edit_2.jpg

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pleides_90sec.thumb.png.a703ea476cf6468f2ed2ede49455d86e.png

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Yep, definitely recommend it. I have a similar setup, canon 1300d, standard kit lens 75-300mm and I have mounted it on my aluminum tripod that my old EQ2 mount used to sit.

I use it now as my main mount because my telescope is only a 90mm mak-cass so it can easily take the weight as well, but mostly I just use the camera attached to a ball head adapter on the star adventurer.

Only criticism is the polar finder illuminator  (see my other thread about that and how I remedied it)

I can easily achieve 90 seconds at about 200mm and I reckon that if I really spent a long time polar aligning or maybe drift aligning and getting it absolutely perfect it would probably do much longer.

Anyway I have not had it very long but its a massive improvement over the EQ2 mount that I used to use, here are a couple of pics. Both 200mm lens 90 sec ISO 800. (I think I took about 90 subs, 15 darks, 15 bias, no flats. Stacked in DSS and then I adjusted in photoshop to remove gradients and set levels, curves etc.)

Andromeda and Pleides(The colours are completely wrong in this one though. I tried to bring out the blue but it caused the stars to turn green :), I think I need to reprocess

 

 

Andromeda_M31.jpg

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My efforts to date can be seen here.

Have only managed this one time out as the weather has been uber pump for me this year.

Am hoping to get back out and am going to using my ccd and Nikon 50mm this time out.

As a piece of kit, am very happy with it.  Is very easy to setup and get going and have also put the advanced firmware on to it too.

 

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27 minutes ago, M Astronomy said:

 Also any lens recommendations? 

For me, Carl Zeiss Jenna 135mm f3.5 is nice.

You have to be aware of the age as internal fungus can be a problem.

I picked up an imaculate example for arounf £40 (you need an adapter to mount)

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I love my Star Adventurer. It is definitely the best single piece of astronomy gear I have bought. 

A couple of my recent efforts. Sony A57 with a Minolta 70-300mm @ 300mm

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Another vote for the regular SA, not the mini. 

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15 minutes ago, serbiadarksky said:

I'm glad to hear that you like it!

Iso: 200

Exposure time: 8-10 minutes each

Number of images: 60

Aperture: set at f3.5

I would love to know how you're getting 8-10 min exposures especially @300mm, that's amazing!

 

Are you autoguiding?

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