Omegon MiniTrack LX2 Tracking DSLR Mount

[Space Oddities]

What camera and lens are you using?

Your polar alignment could be off. If you have the original version, you polar align with a straw, which I doubt is precise enough to do 4 minute exposures, even at 20mm.

Another reason would be that your setup isn't well balanced, and too heavy for the gear. That's why they added an ingenious spring mechanism, to counterbalance the effect of a heavy camera/lens.

Source: https://www.amateurastrophotography.com/minitrack-lx2-review

[BlueStinger]

Sorry for bump but finally gotten around to ordering the LX3 set direct from Omegon. Got the bag too. My first tracker mount. I'm quite excited to be honest

[Nigella Bryant]

I got a manfrotto tripod for £30 for my LX2, used with a small wedge. Not used it much so far but got Neowise with it using a canon unmodded 700d and 70-300mm telephoto lens.

[BlueStinger]

It arrived today. I can't get over just how small it is! Can't wait to have a go with it.

[Nigella Bryant]

1 hour ago, BlueStinger said:

It arrived today. I can't get over just how small it is! Can't wait to have a go with it.

It's a brilliant little mount, I get 30secs at 300mm with no trails and even more with smaller lenses.

[BlueStinger]

Hi,

Right so tonight was the first night I got to use the tracker. Lack of time, poor choice of location for first pic, iffy at best polar alignment in second shot, forgetting to level tripod, and using a cheap pan and tilt headed tripod didnt help, but colour me impressedwith myself! First pic is heavily cropped from the 18mm kit lens original as there was bushes that I didn't take any static shots of and they were all blurred to hell as you can imagine but kept the final image as it's the most detailed picture I've ever taken and my very first with any star tracker! Having Jupiter and Saturn in there is very nice I think. 5 stacked 4 minute shots iso 800 f4.5

This one I was going for Andromeda, and when checking I saw the little blur and thought all was well, turns out I missed it but managed to get Triangulum instead haha! This was with a 50mm 1.8 lens at f2.8, 6 stacked 1.5min shots iso 200

Edited July 28, 2020 by BlueStinger

[BlueStinger]

Hi.

Following up from last nights first attempt with the LX3 I now have lots of questions! Mainly regarding a tripod and wedge. Last night really showed just how poor my cheap £21 Amazon basics tripod is when it comes to this. Not only is it too wobbly even when weighed down but the pan and tilt head is far from smooth enough to make any sort of polar allignment with the polar scope frustrating to say the least, for me as a beginner anyway. I knew it would be bad but thought it would tide me over. No, it has to be replaced, asap. My budget is £130ish, as the car is sucking up funds at the moment. Could I even get away with just a better tripod like this Bresser? Or is the wedge really the best option? If so I was looking at something like this one.  which I can remove the included ballhead and put a wedge there. Maybe something like the Sky watcher one for the star adventurer or Omegon's own one?  Would this be a decent set up?

FInally to the polar scope and allignment. The above shots I just pointed the tracker towards Polaris the adjusted using the small scope holder. Not great of course but as I was going widefield I thought it would be ok. I tried the included scope, but couldn't really see much and the tripod heads movement was so jerky it made it impossible for me. I want to use it though. There is an overlay in the eyepiece (which I couldn't see as it was dark) and there is also a clock face around the eyepiece, which I read is for the meridian. How do I do that with this LX3? I see it can be lined up if used on a star adventurer and such but not this tracker. The LX2 just had a tube, can this LX3 make full use of this scope for precise allignment? The instructions just say put scope in and point at polaris, which isn't really helpful as they say the same thing for the tube for the LX2.

I do love the ticking noise the mount makes though, it's quite soothing I thought.

Cheers.

[Nigella Bryant]

Hi, I got a second hand manfrotto tripod for £30 and fitted a mini wedge to it. Brilliant tripod and wedge can image with a 300mm telephoto lens on the camera, probably at max load. The wedge is an ioptron alt-azimuth adjustable base £59.

Edited July 28, 2020 by Nigella Bryant
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[BlueStinger]

I'd be more than happy with that setup. I shall also check used tripods too then. Thanks for the pics!

[BlueStinger]

Hi, I would like to get the very best polar alignment possible with what I have so have a few questions. Please excuse my noobishness. 🤪

I have the LX3, polar scope, a decent tripod and I have ordered a mini wedge which looks exactly like the iOptron one in the pics Nigella kindly posted above. Hopefully it will bring clear skies with it! https://www.omegon.eu/equatorial-wedges/omegon-polar-wedge-with-55mm-dovetail-bar/p,64973

Now when I got the tracker I didn't care about alignment because I knew I could get away with a 'rough' alignment. The LX2 comes with a plastic tube so I know that just getting Polaris in the sight would produce good enough results. Plus I know where Polaris is and from home it's always perfectly visible so I didn't think anything of it. Now that has changed, and I know that a rough alignment and a proper alignment are quite different when using longer lenses and I want to be able to use my 55-250 stm lens and not just the kit lens and the nifty fifty. With the incoming mini wedge allowing me to be more precise than either the ballhead of my new tripod or the 3way pan head of my old one brings me to the polar scope itself and here is where I need a little help. There is a polar clock around the scope and an overlay within and I've worked out that my home location coordinates means if i put Polaris at 2pm then the centre of the clock will be true north and thus properly aligned? Here is the view through the scope.

Finally, I can't see the overlay at night, is there an illuminator available like the one that comes with some other trackers? Would be very helpful.

Cheers!

[Nigella Bryant]

To be honest I've used up to 300mm telephoto lenses on my mini lx2 and wedge with using only the plastic tube to align with and get good results. I think the LX mini wedge adjustment tracking spring settings are more important to get right then precise alignment. That's been my experience anyway. Image of comet Neowise taken with my setup using a 300mm telephoto lens, max payload.

[petevasey]

I must have missed some of this thread - pity 'cos I might have been able to help 'Blue Stinger'.  But he's ordered a wedge now.  Just that I recommended this pan head early in this thread.  I have a used one where the body was slightly cracked and one of the serrated discs (which lock the position of the control handle) was worn.  But I made a replacement disc and thoroughly araldited the weakened part of the head.  It is eminently useable and has smooth movement.  Just lying in a cupboard now!  So if anyone wants it, it's yours for a fiver (to cover my fuel to a Hermes pickup point) plus the P&P.

Cheers,

Peter

[BlueStinger]

Stunning pics. Yes the spring settings are still something I'm getting used to too. Weather has been not good this month. Maybe i'm looking too deep into it of you can get those pics without all the extra work. I will look more into the spring settings, I have been listening for the change in speed of the ticking so far. Thanks

[BlueStinger]

4 minutes ago, petevasey said:

I must have missed some of this thread - pity 'cos I might have been able to help 'Blue Stinger'.  But he's ordered a wedge now.  Just that I recommended this pan head early in this thread.  I have a used one where the body was slightly cracked and one of the serrated discs (which lock the position of the control handle) was worn.  But I made a replacement disc and thoroughly araldited the weakened part of the head.  It is eminently useable and has smooth movement.  Just lying in a cupboard now!  So if anyone wants it, it's yours for a fiver (to cover my fuel to a Hermes pickup point) plus the P&P.

Cheers,

Peter

Hi, sorry I missed that post it seems. Does look a decent head and I actually like the handle on those. My old one was actually easier than the ballhead of my new tripod untill I had to lock it down, that threw everything off lol. This one looks much better quality. But yes I have ordered a wedge now and after watching a bunch of Peter Zelinka videos I have my heart set on it hehe. Though I really wanted the William Optics one but that price....

Your pan head will be an absolute bargain for someone.

[Mr niall]

36 minutes ago, BlueStinger said:

There is a polar clock around the scope and an overlay within and I've worked out that my home location coordinates means if i put Polaris at 2pm then the centre of the clock will be true north and thus properly aligned? Here is the view through the scope.

Finally, I can't see the overlay at night, is there an illuminator available like the one that comes with some other trackers? Would be very helpful.

That’s not quite right but it’s probably not worth getting into the details - the point is that Polaris moves through the sky all night in a circle around celestial north (NOT True North) so for the graduations to work you need to calibrate it against your exact time and adjusted date you use it - and the Lx3 lacks the date rings to make that possible. 

generally using 0 as longitude is effective enough.

a much easier way is to download a free app called “polar align” which shows you exactly where to point everything bush bash bosh.

Ive had 60 secs at 300mm with a ball head easily enough - the trick is to align AFTER you’ve mounted your camera on it to compensate for sag.

I normally shine my phone torch across the front at an oblique angle - works fine imho

[Mr niall]

11 minutes ago, BlueStinger said:

I will look more into the spring settings, I have been listening for the change in speed of the ticking so far. Thanks

Download a metronome app. You are aiming for 130-135bpm. As long as you are in that window you are all set, otherwise adjust spring to suit

[BlueStinger]

10 minutes ago, Mr niall said:

That’s not quite right but it’s probably not worth getting into the details - the point is that Polaris moves through the sky all night in a circle around celestial north (NOT True North) so for the graduations to work you need to calibrate it against your exact time and adjusted date you use it - and the Lx3 lacks the date rings to make that possible. 

generally using 0 as longitude is effective enough.

a much easier way is to download a free app called “polar align” which shows you exactly where to point everything bush bash bosh.

Ive had 60 secs at 300mm with a ball head easily enough - the trick is to align AFTER you’ve mounted your camera on it to compensate for sag.

I normally shine my phone torch across the front at an oblique angle - works fine imho

Ah yes I see. The circle inside the scope is the travel of Polaris depending on the current time. Good to know for the future then if I get another tracker that has the date rings. I will focus more on the spring tensions as Nigella suggested. I got an app called taptempo so will practice in the mean time with positions and load. Oh and a good tip about the phone torch, didn't even think of that

Thanks for all the help everyone, I'm excited to get the most from this tracker in the coming months! 

Edited August 29, 2020 by BlueStinger

[Stub Mandrel]

There's an app you can download - Polarfinder by Jason Dale

It shows you where on a 'clock face' Polaris needs to be positioned. Makes it all very quick and easy

[BlueStinger]

Well the wedge arrived this morning so I just set it all up for a looksy. I think I'm all set now for some clear nights. Some pics of the setup and a bonus image of Andromeda I did a few weeks back before I got the wedge and replaced the tripod. I've now got Lightroom too so had a little play with it a few days ago so sorry for the overblown stars etc.  Im looking forward to improving not only the images I take but also the editing.

[petevasey]

Nice starter pic.  BUT  wedge, minitrack, new tripod (?) polar scope.  And I bet you let all the magic clouds out of the boxes 😈

Disaster!

Best of luck with the new kit 😄

Peter

[BlueStinger]

I've been taking quite a few pics using the minitrack but my editing skills are so bad they always come out rubbish. So, I've spent the last few days on Lightroom and Photoshop actually learning stuff slowly and created this monstrosity from the same stack of images as above. I like it though and it's a start.

[Daf1983]

I used my new minitrack lx2 for the first time last night. Managed to get a decent shot o Pleiades, using my Canon 600d and a pentax 40-80mm zoom lens at 80mm. Took 25 exposures at 45 seconds each, and stacked them in deep sky stacker.

I was impressed how well tracking was, even though I found polar alignment very hard with just a tube!(I think I might have fluked it this time) I think i might invest in a laser to make pa easier.

[BlueStinger]

Seems there's a Minitrack LX4 on the way very soon. Only info I can find about it is on Omegon's shop. Upped the capacity to 4kg and made some changes to how the spring tension is set from what I can see. I look forward to a review of sorts. https://www.astroshop.eu/mountings-accessories/mountings/camera-mounts/15_55_10_50/m,Omegon

 

[woldsman]

I’ve got an LX2 and used it for first attempts at AP with a Canon nifty fifty (a pain to focus!).  Have since upgraded tracker and lens but still use the LX2 for 14mm f/2.8 Milky Way/meteor showers with exposures of around 20 seconds, or with binoculars for observing. At shorter exposures the polar alignment is very forgiving and set-up is hence very quick. Heavier set-ups and lenses with longer focal ratios strain the clockwork and limit the exposure times.