Only three minutes of data

[Nerf_Caching]

Hi all, I had a frustrating night trying to photograph the Lagoon and Trifid Nebula at 420mm using a Star Adventurer, a stock Canon 650d and 72ED refractor from Skywatcher. I didn't have a clear view of Polaris so I had to rely on trial-and-error drift aligning. My optical train was also rear-heavy so dec balance couldn't be properly achieved as there were only one of two threads on the bottom of the dovetail to attach onto the mount. As a result, I suffered from wonky star trails for reasons yet to be known; I hope the tracking motors aren't broken! Anyway, I was surprised at how much detail there was on offer for only 3 minutes of data using 30-second subs. I also used an Astronomik CLS filter.

Edited July 12, 2020 by Nerf_Caching

[x6gas]

Sounds like you learnt a lot during that session!

I'm not completely clear on why you couldn't balance the scope properly...

[Nerf_Caching]

9 hours ago, x6gas said:

Sounds like you learnt a lot during that session!

I'm not completely clear on why you couldn't balance the scope properly...

Scope was back-heavy with a dslr. There was no dovetail saddle on the star adventurer to balance properly in dec which in turn throws off RA balance when I point the scope to different areas of the sky. 

[Jarvo]

I love this image. Not over processed   Looks really natural. Less is more 😊

[tooth_dr]

5 hours ago, Nerf_Caching said:

Scope was back-heavy with a dslr. There was no dovetail saddle on the star adventurer to balance properly in dec which in turn throws off RA balance when I point the scope to different areas of the sky. 

Nice photo _ I understand the issue!  I had the same problem with my solar scope as it was back heavy and the clamshell bracket meant I couldn't move the scope enough.  I bought one of these, attached it to the L-bracket, and it's really made a huge difference.

 

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dovetails-saddles-clamps/baader-vixen-style-dovetail-clamp.html

[Nerf_Caching]

2 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

Nice photo _ I understand the issue!  I had the same problem with my solar scope as it was back heavy and the clamshell bracket meant I couldn't move the scope enough.  I bought one of these, attached it to the L-bracket, and it's really made a huge difference.

 

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dovetails-saddles-clamps/baader-vixen-style-dovetail-clamp.html

I'm thinking of buying something like this as well. Might also have to replace the stock dovetail with a longer one as it is a little too short to balance a camera properly.