Upgrading from Sony A6000

[agthomson]

Afternoon all! I'm back again to ask your advice.

At present I have a SkyWatcher Star-Adventurer mounted on a pretty stable Manfrotto tripod. On that I have a William Optics ZS61, Flat61 and an A6000 camera (unmodified). This has been the prefect setup to progress through astrophotography, having started with a 400m prime lens. I plan on adding a QHY Polemaster to my setup later this year, as to be honest polar alignment on the Star-Adventurer is a pain, especially if I have lowered the tripod legs to try and eliminate / reduce wind interference.

That said, I am seriously looking at replacing the A6000 with a dedicated camera, with a budget of around £1000 give or take. Would the Star-Adventurer provide enough accuracy unguided to capture the exposure lengths required to make best use out of a £1k dedicated camera, such as the ZWO ASI 294MC-PRO? As guiding is only in a single axis, is it really worth adding guiding given the extra payload? Would it improve things proportionately?

The idea would be to move to a HEQ5 or NEQ6 mount the following year - I just need to move away from the Sony A6000 and the star-eater issue / limitation as soon as possible and would rather not buy things for the sake of it, only to have to upgrade other parts later. The A6000 can return to terrestrial use.

[Kaliska]

Personally, I'd be upgrading the mount before the camera. The HEQ5 as the bear minimum.

[agthomson]

I appreciate that the mount setup isn't great, but the camera really is starting to wear thin on me. Not really wanting to have to spend £2k this year, so it's one or the other. The mount would mean sticking with the A6000 for another season, and reduces the portability of the setup.

[agthomson]

Okay, to flip the question on its head, and start with the main question I have - would an ASI 294MC-PRO (or similar OSC) produce unmodified DSLR quality images at 60 - 90s subs? Would it be an improvement on the A6000?

The set-up would be polar aligned using a PoleMaster to provide the best possible unguided platform before moving to a heavy-duty guided mount next year.

[JimothyC]

I'm using the star adventurer with an unmodified DSLR. I've just added a small guide scope and camera which has allowed me to get longer subs. It's also allowed me to use the polar alignment feature in sharpcap pro which also helps for better tracking.

You'd probably be better off getting an autoguiding setup instead of the polemaster, you'll get double the benefit for about the same price.  

 

[agthomson]

14 hours ago, JimothyC said:

I'm using the star adventurer with an unmodified DSLR. I've just added a small guide scope and camera which has allowed me to get longer subs. It's also allowed me to use the polar alignment feature in sharpcap pro which also helps for better tracking.

You'd probably be better off getting an autoguiding setup instead of the polemaster, you'll get double the benefit for about the same price.  

 

I had planned to use the PoleMaster with Sharpcap. I assume your guider would essentially work in the same way - and it's something I hadn't even considered to be honest. Has it made polar alignment easier, as I really don't like the built-in polar scope?

[JimothyC]

I've not used the Polemaster so I can't really comment on that. But a guidescope and camera with sharpcap is probably the only way I've been able to get a satisfactory polar alignment with my Star Adventurer for the focal length I'm using. In fact it wasn't until I started using it that I realised how imprecise and clumsy the Alt/Alz controls on the wedge are, you need a very light touch to get good alignment. 

I'm sure the Polemaster would give you great alignment, but the guidescope and camera will do that and give you auto guiding as well. 

[agthomson]

Yeah, the PoleMaster is essentially just a high-sensitivity widefield camera that would normally replace the polar scope of a mount. On the Star Adventurer it just attaches to the L-Bracket / Counterweight and points in the same direction as your polar scope. I have seen people attach their Guider in the same direction so will look into that, as with having the guider piggy-backing on top of the ZS61 i'd be concerned about losing polar alignment when loosening off the clutches to aim at a target.