Total nb help for astrophotography with Nikon Z7

[bluesky_london]

Hello everybody 🫡

Apologies in advance, I presume this question been asked countless times over the years in different ways. 

I have the following setup 

. Nikon Z7

. 24-200 lens

. A sturdy tripod  (https://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B0784CW9BT/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1)

I am looking to use the Nikon Z7 for astrophotography, no telescopes yet.

I understand I need a tracking mount, to compensate for earth movements, am I right? 

If yes, what would this wise crowd recommend, considering I have a 200 usd/euros budget. I am based in France. 

Thanks a lot!
Dan

[ONIKKINEN]

Hello and welcome to SGL,

At 200€ you'd probably need to find a second hand tracker of some kind, like a Star adventurer which is 300€+ new (for the mount head only, but you have a tripod so no problem).

But no reason you couldn't do untracked astrophotography at first, with no extra expense, if you set your lens to the shortest focal length and take short enough exposures that trailing is not an issue. There is a simple approximation to how long you can expose for before trailing becomes obvious, which is the 500 rule. Divide 500 by your focal length to get the maximum exposure time, which at 24mm would be just under 21 seconds which is not too bad.

[Tony Acorn]

4 hours ago, ONIKKINEN said:

But no reason you couldn't do untracked astrophotography at first, with no extra expense, if you set your lens to the shortest focal length and take short enough exposures that trailing is not an issue. There is a simple approximation to how long you can expose for before trailing becomes obvious, which is the 500 rule. Divide 500 by your focal length to get the maximum exposure time, which at 24mm would be just under 21 seconds which is not too bad.

Hi Dan and welcome.
I have a Nikon Z6ii and a Samyang (Rokinon) 14mm f/2.8 manual focus lens which I use successfully without a tracker for wide angle astro photography such as The Milky Way. It is mounted on a Manfrotto 052 tripod which is pretty sturdy. I tend to limit exposures to 13 seconds and at ISO 640 or 800. Beyond 13s, some trailing becomes apparent. A key part of my rig is an Aodelan WTR-2 wireless Intervalometer / trigger that allows me to set various exposure and sequence combinations without touching the camera.
If you go down the route of a pre-owned tracker, be sure to consider the weight of your camera and lens when deciding which one to settle on. I have a Star Adventurer 2i wifi Pro but its true limit is under 5Kg and it isn't easy to balance in RA and Dec modes - vital to avoid overloading your tracker's drive motor and to get smooth tracking. I'm aware that there can be flexing between the tripod and the mount so an improved equilateral wedge might be advisable.

Good luck and clear skies!

Tony

[bluesky_london]

@ONIKKINEN and @Tony Acorn thanks for the thorough replies, I appreciate a lot, I only now did log. You both seems to indicate the Star Adventurer so I will give it a go!

Thank you folks

Dan