2nd light Star Adventurer(test)

[JemC]

 

This is my second go at using the Star Adventurer, Target > Orion (again) 

This time i got everything ready during the day that i was going to need, and used a little of  @SteveNickolls advice,
waited patiently for the skies to darken enough to be able to see Polaris,

approx 17:50 took the mount out and proceeded to polar align, used polar finder app which showed Polaris at this time to be in the 6 o'clock position (bottom of reticule), 
once positioned i then checked to make sure it was Polaris i had lined up on,happy to say it was, i then carried out one full rotation in RA to see if it remained on the circle, which it did,
i then carefully rotated my set up to get Orion in view/position for imaging, re checked polar alignment and it had moved slightly, most probably because of handling the mount to set up, so made a small adjustment to get it back into position,

There was some drift over the course of the imaging session (will probably put that in another post to query)
I eventually had to abandon at 19:30 due to cloud,

So, equipment used on this occasion was,

 
Star Aventurer
Celestron Travel Scope 70
Canon 600d
ISO 800
Baader UHC-S filter with an additional Light pollution filter 

I also included a set of darks,bias and flat frames this time,

24 x 60 sec lights
28 x darks
36 x flats
32 x bias

then run through DSS, Photoshop cc, rotated and cropped slightly,
this is my image that i ended up with, excuse the core, it's blown,

 

[PhotoGav]

You must be delighted with that result, well done! The scope has a focal length of 400mm, so to get 60sec subs with only slight trailing is admirable. You must have been well polar aligned. I have struggled to get anything useful above about 35sec with a 400mm lens on my star adventurer. Good job! Great little mounts, aren’t they?!

[SteveNickolls]

That's a good looking image, you should be proud of it. The dark, flat and bias frames certainly make a difference. Very interested in you getting a minute from the set up at 400mm FL.

Best of luck for the future.

Cheers,
Steve

[JemC]

1 hour ago, PhotoGav said:

You must be delighted with that result, well done! The scope has a focal length of 400mm, so to get 60sec subs with only slight trailing is admirable. You must have been well polar aligned. I have struggled to get anything useful above about 35sec with a 400mm lens on my star adventurer. Good job! Great little mounts, aren’t they?!

Hi Gav

very delighted with it, polar alignment is something i paid a little more attention to, i actually used 2 different apps to confirm position and then for good measure i used my little laser pointer (after making sure no aircraft were in the area) to validate i was on polaris

42 minutes ago, SteveNickolls said:

That's a good looking image, you should be proud of it. The dark, flat and bias frames certainly make a difference. Very interested in you getting a minute from the set up at 400mm FL.

Best of luck for the future.

Cheers,
Steve

Hi Steve

those darks,flats,bias certainly did make a difference, 

polar alignment was made easier by using your advice,

this is 1 x 60 sec light, had no processing done other than to convert from Raw to jpeg to put on here

[Davey-T]

Excellent result James, just got the WOZ61 setup on my SA waiting for the permacloud to go away.

Dave

[Anthonyexmouth]

Just now, Davey-T said:

Excellent result James, just got the WOZ61 setup on my SA waiting for the permacloud to go away.

Dave

ive been looking at this little scope, how do you find the build quality?. im finally debt free and its not a nice feeling. cant decide on what to get for my first ap setup and its between this and an SWED80 and for a mount a SA or Heq5. 

[Davey-T]

Build quality looks excellent, haven't got to image with it yet, bear in mind you will probably need to budget for the flattener about £155.0 delivered so a not insignificant amount, of course you can use it without it.

As a starting point for astro imaging I don't think you can beat it, really portable, self contained, runs for ages on batteries, no laptop needed, plenty of bright targets suitable for reasonably short exposures, what's not to like.

Dave

[Anthonyexmouth]

for the learning period how important would you say the flattener is

[SteveNickolls]

1 hour ago, JemC said:

polar alignment was made easier by using your advice

Thanks for the feedback JemC, I'm pleased the polar alignment timing technique worked for you  :-)

Cheers,
Steve

[Davey-T]

1 hour ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

for the learning period how important would you say the flattener is

Not that important as long as eggy stars at the edges don't bother you.

Dave

[Anthonyexmouth]

be more about getting things dialed in to start. focus and tracking. although, can not having a flattener disguise set-up/tracking issues?

[Davey-T]

No wouldn't worry about it, unflattened image may have stars radiating in the corners, tracking issues will get you eggy stars all in the same orientation.

Try to get the stars about a third away from the centre at sharpest focus.

The best thing for improving DSLR images is lot's of subs, dark skies plus but only once you get the hang of the basic process, bit of dithering.

Dave

[Ryan_86]

On 03/02/2018 at 13:18, Davey-T said:

Excellent result James, just got the WOZ61 setup on my SA waiting for the permacloud to go away.

Dave

Hi guys, Dave you can take all the blame foe this poor weather haha. Any how here is my SA setup. Yet to test the Z61 and guiding RA.

Cheers

Ryan

[JemC]

16 hours ago, Ryan_86 said:

Any how here is my SA setup

Nice set up,

can i ask what tripod is that you are using, do you find it sturdy enough

[Ryan_86]

Hi, it is a Horizon heavy duty tripod from girst light optics. Yes its very sturdy. However I have repositioned the leg brace, so the the legs are wider making it even sturdier and lower. 

I plan to attach a 4kg runners ankle/wtist weight to each leg. Less chance of wind moving the weights.

Hope this helps

Ryan