Star Adventurer - Question regarding aiming at a target

[StellarViews]

Hi all, first post for me. :-)

I'm slowly getting into astrophotograhy as a hobby, and for the time being I rely on a Canon DSLR, a Manfrotti tripod as well as a Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer for most of my imaging. 

One of the goals I've set for myself is to image the Andromeda galaxy, easily my favourite DSO. Whenever I watch tutorial videos on YouTube, they tend to describe the process of polar alignment with the Star Adventurer, before they quickly pivot to actual imaging.

But there's one step in-between which I feel like they never explain:

How do you point your camera at your target when you've used Polaris to polar align? It's not like I can simply turn my tripod around, because then I'm no longer polar aligned. I have a ball head for the tripod and with that attached, I have some control over where I point my camera while remaining polar aligned. It does, however, add an element of instability to the rig and balancing becomes increasingly difficult.

What are your suggestions?

[Tomatobro]

Could you post a picture of your setup? It would help in getting the correct advice.  You are correct in thinking that once polar aligned you do not move the adventurer or the tripod.

[Chefgage]

Simply you just polar align and then move your telescope/camera around to your target whilst making sure the mount and tripod do not move.

If you have it set up so you can still use the polar scope with the camera/telescope attached then this is what I do. I position my tripod in roughly the correct position with the polar scope pointing towards the north (actually just to the east of the north where I know Polaris is).  I then point the telescope with camera attached to the rough area I know the target is. I then polar align the mount.  My next step is to then align the telescope with the target and switch on the tracking using the finder scope connected to the telescope and telrad that is connected to the camera.

[AstroMuni]

19 hours ago, StellarViews said:

How do you point your camera at your target when you've used Polaris to polar align? I

Take a look at this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1PGjeBCVSc

HTH 🙂

Edited July 24, 2020 by AstroMuni

[Davey-T]

Welcome to SGL

Do you actually have the wedge or are you mounting it on the ball head to polar align ?

As said a picture always helps.

Dave

 

[DaveHKent]

Rather than the long dovetail bar, I have started using the small green dovetail, which my camera ballhead can connect directly to. I polar align, slot in the ball head and adapter and swing my camera around.

It was taking me a while to get my targets framed up, so I bought a celestron style red dot finder for about £12 and got an adapter so it could fit on the camera hotshoe.

I have to make sure I don’t knock the tripod and make sure everything is nice and lose before I turn it.

[wormix]

40 minutes ago, DaveHKent said:

It was taking me a while to get my targets framed up, so I bought a celestron style red dot finder for about £12 and got an adapter so it could fit on the camera hotshoe.

 

My god - that’s genius!  Why didn’t I think of that. 
 

Just found this for anyone with a printer - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2588330/comments

[dozmodo]

I am just getting back into astronomy after 17 years of hiatus. The Star Adventurer was the first thing I purchased. I am not sure you have it set up. Something seems to be missing.  You are polar aligning your tripod and your star adventurer with Polaris. Your camera you can unlock the clutch and move it any direction you need to. Just don't more the tracker or the tripod. If you use a ball head you can simply unlock the knobs on it. But if you have it attached to the decimation plate then you would need to unlock the clutch and the other knobs to move it to find your object. As long as your tracker is polar aligned you're fine.  The stars will move around Polaris, hence your tracker will move your camera also.  It works. Maybe over thinking it a tad? Easy to do. 
I highly recommend Peter Zelinka's videos or even a course. He explains everything incredibly easy to understand and leaves the guess work out. 

Good luck.

Shell

 

[Chefgage]

On 25/07/2020 at 10:32, wormix said:

My god - that’s genius!  Why didn’t I think of that. 
 

Just found this for anyone with a printer - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2588330/comments

No need for a 3d printer. This is the one I use.

https://www.365astronomy.com/Blitz-Hotshoe-dSLR-Camera-Adapter-and-Red-Dot-Finder-COMBO.html

[callisto]

I got a couple of these from ebay-  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Universal-Camera-DSLR-Hot-Shoe-to-Finder-Red-Dot-Shoe-Adapter/283165189806?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

[SteveNickolls]

1 hour ago, Chefgage said:

No need for a 3d printer. This is the one I use.

https://www.365astronomy.com/Blitz-Hotshoe-dSLR-Camera-Adapter-and-Red-Dot-Finder-COMBO.html

You might find it needs judicial amounts of tape to pack the metal adapter in place in the hot shoe. Hopefully you will get a better fit to your DSLR than I had with either my Canon 600D and 700D. Geoptik make an even more expensive adapter but that can be secured to the hot shoe by means of an Allen screw. 🙂

Cheers,

Steve

[Chefgage]

28 minutes ago, SteveNickolls said:

You might find it needs judicial amounts of tape to pack the metal adapter in place in the hot shoe. Hopefully you will get a better fit to your DSLR than I had with either my Canon 600D and 700D. Geoptik make an even more expensive adapter but that can be secured to the hot shoe by means of an Allen screw. 🙂

Cheers,

Steve

I can only comment on my canon 200d. It fits perfectly in that one. The one I linked to also uses an Allen screw to secure it.

Edited July 27, 2020 by Chefgage