Staradventurer Test Run

[Domain105]

Hi all,

I've finally managed to get my hands on a Star Adventurer Pro to allow me something less bulky than my SW 150PDS / EQ5 to take quick shots of the sky. The nights are so short now so I thought I'd try a very crude imaging attempt primarily to see how precise I needed to be with Polar Alignment. To be honest I was very surprised at what I achieved.  I have a fair idea which way north is from my house so I set the SA to roughly 51N and then pointed the SA to where I thought North was from inside my office. I just sat it on my window sill - no tripod or anything! Without the SA I was getting approx. 7 seconds exposures with a Canon 450D and a Canon 50mm 1.8 and then I could see trailing so I thought with my very crude Polar alignment without actually being able to see the North I might be able to push exposures to about 15 or 20 seconds.  Lets say I was surprised with the results!  I was able to get nice round stars even with exposures lasting 150 seconds.  Just to show you, I've attached a pic of Lyra through my windows with the following details:

5 x 120 second lights  @ 50mm F3.5 (Bortle 8 - Inner City Birmingham)

5 x Darks

10 x bias

Stacked in DSS and a very quick run through Photoshop levels and curves. All in all around 5 minutes of processing.  As far as a test goes, I am very pleased with the SA. I always thought even for wide field I needed my PA to be somewhat close but to align with no view of the sky to the north it was a relaxation.  I also imaged at around 23:00 (from the UK) so the sky was not dark yet. 

 

Edited June 2, 2020 by Domain105
Added Location and Bortle info