Imaging with a Star Adventurer

[Snooze]

On 03/12/2019 at 21:46, DaveHKent said:

I have a few basic questions after finally getting some cloudless nights and really have a play with my SA.

1) How do you aim the SA at your target, especially if you are using a scope on the dovetail bar, rather than a camera on a ball head? Does anyone use the DA dial or is it just a case of manually moving the RA and DA axis until it points into about the right place, then zoom in for finer positioning?

2) Is there any benefit to having the tripod lower than higher? I have a manfrotto 055 tripod, so it is pretty stable, having it low did mean kneeling on damp ground for polar alignment.

3) What do people do with their intervalometer when doing long exposures? I left mine swinging for one exposure and it did affect the quality. If there is not a common solution, I might look at 3d printing a holder bracket.

1) Do you have the L bracket? You can mount your scope as in the picture posted by 6footgeek

On 16/07/2019 at 23:59, 6footgeek said:

 

2) The main advantage of having the tripod lower is for stability. The lower the centre of mass of your setup, the more stable it is. But if you feel your tripod is rock solid then adjust it to a more comfortable height for polar alignment

3) My intervalometer's cable is long enough so I just put in on the ground while imaging. Avoid having cables/weights dangling around because they can introduce vibrations.

 

Here are a few images I made with my Star Adventurer Mini this summer:

Edited December 9, 2019 by Snooze

[kirkster501]

I received my SA yesterday.  I am very impressed with the quality - it far surpassed my expectations.  I gave it a quick whirl under the moon last night and it was tracking perfectly.

[jimjam11]

I don't know if others find similar but I cannot get on with the l-bracket/counterweight:

Using just a ball head I measured the guided performance of my SA at 0.85" rms but using the l-bracket I get 4" and it seems the root cause is the way vibrations propagate through the l-bracket.

With a simple ball head the weight seems closer to the mount head (despite being unbalanced) and tapping the camera shows a significantly shorter settle time. I would guess settle time with a ball head is approx 1s, compared to 4s with the l-bracket.

 

[DaveHKent]

On 09/12/2019 at 19:51, Snooze said:

1) Do you have the L bracket? You can mount your scope as in the picture posted by 6footgeek

2) The main advantage of having the tripod lower is for stability. The lower the centre of mass of your setup, the more stable it is. But if you feel your tripod is rock solid then adjust it to a more comfortable height for polar alignment

3) My intervalometer's cable is long enough so I just put in on the ground while imaging. Avoid having cables/weights dangling around because they can introduce vibrations.

 

Here are a few images I made with my Star Adventurer Mini this summer:

Thanks. I do have the L bracket. Some of it is that I have never used an eq mount before, so plenty new skills to learn.

 

If I can produce images like that, I’d be over the moon

[tony8690]

How do you aim it so well? is there a trick i'm missing?

 

T

[Andy R]

3 hours ago, tony8690 said:

How do you aim it so well? is there a trick i'm missing?

 

T

If I’m imaging say a constellation with and a 50mm camera lens then generally aim it at the area of sky take photo and check then recompose if needed. 

If I’m using my redcat 51 (250mm focal length) on smaller less visible targets, I use a red dot finder and sky safari app to star hop to where I think it should be  take a picture and adjust, usually I find it first time or within 10 minutes.

 Before I had a RDF I could take up to an hour on some targets. I had a very rough idea where I was pointing (looking through camera view finder) and would try and match the star in my image to SkySafari. I got very frustrated, I even gave up on one or two occasions and imaged other more obvious targets   

Andy

 

[jimjam11]

Another alternative for longer focal length such as 200mm is plate solving. Using something like sgp for capture and astap for plate solving you can get precise, extremely fast pointing.

 

[Thalestris24]

7 minutes ago, jimjam11 said:

Another alternative for longer focal length such as 200mm is plate solving. Using something like sgp for capture and astap for plate solving you can get precise, extremely fast pointing.

 

Great for EQ goto mounts but how can you do that with no DEC motor?

[cjdawson]

8 minutes ago, Thalestris24 said:

Great for EQ goto mounts but how can you do that with no DEC motor?

With my ASI Air, I simply turn off the "mount" which is only ever set to "on-camera".  Then take a preview and hit the plate solve button.    Once it's completed, I can then plug the RA and dec into Sky Safari and hey presto.  I know where the scope is pointing.     I'm currently thinking about trying a hack by setting the mount to the demo mount and seeing if I can connect SkySafari to the ASI Air and have it auto download the cooordinates.  I would love for the On camera mount of the ASI Air to be able to keep track of the RA and DEC from the last plate solve.    That would make like easier - of course, it shouldn't then be given to anything other than SkySafari.   (that could be confusing)

[jimjam11]

On 11/12/2019 at 13:28, cjdawson said:

With my ASI Air, I simply turn off the "mount" which is only ever set to "on-camera".  Then take a preview and hit the plate solve button.    Once it's completed, I can then plug the RA and dec into Sky Safari and hey presto.  I know where the scope is pointing.     I'm currently thinking about trying a hack by setting the mount to the demo mount and seeing if I can connect SkySafari to the ASI Air and have it auto download the cooordinates.  I would love for the On camera mount of the ASI Air to be able to keep track of the RA and DEC from the last plate solve.    That would make like easier - of course, it shouldn't then be given to anything other than SkySafari.   (that could be confusing)

I do something similar. I tell SGP my telescope is the ascom telescope simulator and connect. I then tell sgp to slew to my target followed by a solve and sync. This then syncs the ascom simulated telescope with your actual location. If you want visualisation beyond the coords you can hook cartes de ciel up to the same simulator and they work together...

[david_taurus83]

Looking forward to having a go with this. It's super portable! Early testing looks like I should be able to guide to around 3" and that was before I added the extra weight to balance it properly. Attached to the ballhead is a W10 mini PC with Sharpcap for polar alignment, APT, PHD2 and Stellarium. I can take a shot in APT, platesolve and send the coords and FOV to Stellarium to show where its pointing. The challenge will be seeing how much fine adjusting I can do with the RA buttons and the Dec tuner to frame objects.

[cjdawson]

20 hours ago, david_taurus83 said:

Looking forward to having a go with this. It's super portable! Early testing looks like I should be able to guide to around 3" and that was before I added the extra weight to balance it properly. Attached to the ballhead is a W10 mini PC with Sharpcap for polar alignment, APT, PHD2 and Stellarium. I can take a shot in APT, platesolve and send the coords and FOV to Stellarium to show where its pointing. The challenge will be seeing how much fine adjusting I can do with the RA buttons and the Dec tuner to frame objects.

This looks like a lot of unneeded weight hung off the SA.  Have you considered hanging the computer and associated power bits off one of the tripod legs instead?

[david_taurus83]

11 minutes ago, cjdawson said:

This looks like a lot of unneeded weight hung off the SA.  Have you considered hanging the computer and associated power bits off one of the tripod legs instead?

Yes but I'm trying to keep the cables tidy. It also helps to balance the 4kg scope.

[cjdawson]

2 hours ago, david_taurus83 said:

Yes but I'm trying to keep the cables tidy. It also helps to balance the 4kg scope.

Good, I like that it's an informed decision about balancing rather than something that wasn't thought out and is the cause of the mount wobbling under the weight.

[Nerf_Caching]

On 16/04/2019 at 01:06, tooth_dr said:

I’ve just started imaging on a SA with a Nikkor 180mm. The total weight of my camera and lens and dovetail and remote trigger is 4 1/4 pounds ? (1.92kg)

The lens seems to present no trouble without a bracket holder. I took this last week - 16 x 120s ISO400 F2.8

 

 

Is your camera modded?

Edited December 17, 2019 by Nerf_Caching

[tooth_dr]

4 hours ago, Nerf_Caching said:

Is your camera modded?

The camera is not modified.

[daemon]

Just started imaging with a Star Adventurer and the following image was taken with an S/W ED72 on my Nikon D5300 DSLR.

34 Lights (60 secs- ISO800); 20 Darks; 40 Bias; 30 Flats

Guided (RA only of course) with PHD

The second image is of my rig just after capturing the data.

Daemon Steve

 

 

[AnonymousAnimosity]

Here's my first attempt at M42 with a 70-200 f4 lens (at 200mm) from a bortle 4 zone.

f6.3, ISO 800, 45x90" lights, no flats (I completely forgot, therefore it was necessary to crop the image drastically due to dust particles on the sensor)

stacked in DSS and processed in Startools. I am going to shoot this again soon aiming for more integration time, hoping to bring out some dust.

[Stuf1978]

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 😃

[Ken Mitchell]

One of my latest image, M78  with some Barnard's Loop, Sh 2-276

TS72 APO + TS72flat on a Nikon d90(mod)
432mm /f6/ iso800
2hrs.50min

Tracked with the Star Adventurer 
TS 50mm f3.6 guidescope connected on a zwo asi120mc-s

Stacked in DSS and processed in Photoshop

[Nova2000]

Hi

Needed recommendations of a small app refractor to mount on swsa . And how long can I go unguided with it 

Clear skies 

[Nerf_Caching]

6 hours ago, Nova2000 said:

Hi

Needed recommendations of a small app refractor to mount on swsa . And how long can I go unguided with it 

Clear skies 

Perhaps a Skywatcher Evostar 72ed will fit the bill. I use mine on the SA and have gotten good results so far. This is 38 minutes on the Pleiades using an unmodded Canon 650d. Each sub was 30 seconds at iso 1600 from a bortle 8/9 sky.

[Nerf_Caching]

Also took the Flame and Horsehead nebula with the same equipment as above. 1 hour of integration.

[Spaced Out]

I’ve just got myself a 2nd hand star adventurer mini. This is my first image taken last night from the back garden, it was just to test things out. Some nasty light pollution from Newcastle (35 miles to the south) was a right pain, I did my best to process this out but really struggled.

Anyway, first impressions - I really like this little mount ! I struggled a little with initial polar alignment but apart from that it seems very user friendly. 👍  

Canon 6D & Canon 50mm 1.8 STM (nifty fifty).

1x 90 sec exposure at F4, ISO 1600. No calibration frames.

[Nova2000]

That's a lot of red for a 90sec exposure.is your camera modded ?