Astrophotograpy and Star Trackers

Moab Man

Senior Member
Forever broadening my photography skills... I have decided to up my game in the area of astrophotography and have a Star Tracker on it's way. Is there anyone using a star tracker on here. Want to pick your brain, I'm sure it will hurt a little.
 

Hobbit

Senior Member
i dont use a star tracker per say , i use a goto telescope :)
80mm F5 telescope with camera attached, was exceptionally hazy so focus was off :(
 

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TwistedThrottle

Senior Member
Just recently got a Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer, so not much I can help with but I am having fun with it! Which one did you get [MENTION=11881]Moab Man[/MENTION]? So far, I have only used wide angle lenses with it. I couldnt see and the illuminator thing wasnt cooperating in pitch black, so I generally pointed the tracker at Polaris and was good to go with wide angle lenses up to and including 3 minute exposures. I plan on practicing with longer lenses this weekend.
 

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
Was just researching these today. I won a photo contest that effectively netted me $200 in fun money so it will go toward one of these. I've not shot a lot of night sky stuff but it's something I'd like to give a shot, if only to fill up some wall space.

No surprise, they are sold out in several places thanks to Neowise.
 

Moab Man

Senior Member
Just recently got a Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer, so not much I can help with but I am having fun with it! Which one did you get @Moab Man? So far, I have only used wide angle lenses with it. I couldnt see and the illuminator thing wasnt cooperating in pitch black, so I generally pointed the tracker at Polaris and was good to go with wide angle lenses up to and including 3 minute exposures. I plan on practicing with longer lenses this weekend.

So irritated. Typed this big long bit to help you out and the forum dumped it... Grrrrr

This is what I use. The iPolar is an upgrade to the basic system. It allows for accuracy that you can't get without it. iPolar is a camera that you use with your computer and a free program to align off Polaris. The drawback is that with the iPolar you always need a computer. If you don't have it, long lens photograph just doesn't work that well. I'm typically shooting at 300-500mm for 2 minute exposures.

https://www.ioptron.com/product-p/3550a.htm

Upside, long exposure without the stars trailing and you can collect data for color that is lost at higher ISO's and shorter exposures.

Downside, you need to have a computer with you.

From bottom to top: M8 Lagoon Nebula, M20 Trifid Nebula, and M21 Open Star Cluster (up and left of Trifid). The image could have been a bit sharper, but I had pretty serious wind buffeting.

W_D85_8975_Lagoon and Trifid.jpg
 

TwistedThrottle

Senior Member
Ya, I'm not too sure about carting around a laptop with me anytime I wanna shoot stars, I kinda like how portable everything is without a computer. If needed down the road, I can always snag the ZWO ASI WiFi adapter so I can run the polar aligner program through the phone app. Until then, I am just going to be shooting wide angle to get the hang of things.

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BF Hammer

Senior Member
I bought a SkyWatcher AZ-GTi last December and updated it with the alternate firmware to work in Equitorial mode. With the additional Sky-Adventurer hardware required to mount a camera and angle it right I've been pleasantly surprised by how well it tracks. I don't push the exposures past 1 minute because polar aligning is not that precise. But getting those 40-45 second exposures makes a difference even when you stack.

wGY1agN.jpge2g2bb7.jpg

EtJdASt.jpgPf6qz3s.jpg

For comparison, here is my best attempt at Orion Nebula 11 months prior to that last photo above. Taken with D7000 + 150-600mm on a normal tripod. Very short exposure.
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Moab Man

Senior Member
I bought a SkyWatcher AZ-GTi last December and updated it with the alternate firmware to work in Equitorial mode. With the additional Sky-Adventurer hardware required to mount a camera and angle it right I've been pleasantly surprised by how well it tracks. I don't push the exposures past 1 minute because polar aligning is not that precise. But getting those 40-45 second exposures makes a difference even when you stack.





For comparison, here is my best attempt at Orion Nebula 11 months prior to that last photo above. Taken with D7000 + 150-600mm on a normal tripod. Very short exposure.

A tracker really makes a difference. What brought you to this particular tracker? For me, it was the 11 pound load of the Skyguider Pro.
 

BF Hammer

Senior Member
Moab Man, the AZ-GTi hit a spot for me with price, payload, and versatility. I spent a good deal of 2019 researching and set a goal to buy in December. I liked the Omegon LX-3 idea, but not enough payload for my Sigma 150-600mm C lens. I was debating the Sky Adventurer and some of the similar electric motor mounts. They had just barely enough payload. But it was watching an amateur shoot video from the AZ-GTi on Youtube that got me to look at it. I kept researching it and it moved to the top of the list since it was only $60 more.
 

Moab Man

Senior Member
Moab Man, the AZ-GTi hit a spot for me with price, payload, and versatility. I spent a good deal of 2019 researching and set a goal to buy in December. I liked the Omegon LX-3 idea, but not enough payload for my Sigma 150-600mm C lens. I was debating the Sky Adventurer and some of the similar electric motor mounts. They had just barely enough payload. But it was watching an amateur shoot video from the AZ-GTi on Youtube that got me to look at it. I kept researching it and it moved to the top of the list since it was only $60 more.

Your path to purchase is about the same as mine. I'm happy with my purchase, but I do need to get a heavier/beefier tripod.

Any regrets or challenges you ran into with your unit?
 

BF Hammer

Senior Member
I had a failure of my redneck engineering on my 2nd night of photographing NEOWISE. The Star Adventurer ball-head adapter on my rig is actually screwed into a quick-release Arca-Swiss compatible clamp. If Alt-Az mode, this setup is not such an issue, but in EQ mode and aimed low on the horizon to the northwest, the front-heavy lens makes the whole thing try to unscrew loose. And it did when I added a 150mm square light-pollution filter. I could not make it right in the dark at that location. I went to plan B which was shooting wide-field landscape on a tripod. I was going to do that anyways that night. I since modified the setup some more and this will not happen again. Unless it is critical that I take a photo in that position again. :D
 

Moab Man

Senior Member
Great photo, especially under the city lights condition. I also like the small galaxy you captured above Andromeda half way to the top of the image (probably M110).

Thank you. The editing is a whole new animal to learn. I reworked this image, after learning more editing, and its improved quite a bit. Can't wait to see what I can do with dark skies.

Andromeda_DSS.jpg
 

Moab Man

Senior Member
The more I learn, HUGE amount of learning, the better I'm getting. Using a tracker for the stars makes such an incredible difference. I can't wait to see what I can accomplish when I actually know what I'm doing.

This is a 1.5 hour exposure.

W_Lagoon Nebula.jpg
 

TwistedThrottle

Senior Member
[MENTION=11881]Moab Man[/MENTION]
Great shots! I tried to go out last night but was chased back inside by a nursery of trash pandas and a wandering skunk. I did get some shots of sky and practiced polar alignment, but without an autotracker, I really dont know the sky well enough to find what I want to shoot, even with Sky Guide and Stellarium on my phone showing me what I am supposed to see. Wide angles work great and easy to point and shoot, but once the telephoto goes on, its a best guess kind of thing. My best guess is its all about the practice and the patience.
What do you see out of the camera? is there an indication you got what you want or do you need to stack and process dozens of images before the Nebula and galaxies pop out? Do you take your shots in your yard or is there travel required? What kind of autotracker do you use? PHD2 for software? What about stacking and processing? How do you tote everything around if you do need to travel? Sorry for all the questions, thanks for sharing your shots.
 

BF Hammer

Senior Member
The more I learn, HUGE amount of learning, the better I'm getting. Using a tracker for the stars makes such an incredible difference. I can't wait to see what I can accomplish when I actually know what I'm doing.

This is a 1.5 hour exposure.

You are showing more patience than me in getting 1 to 1.5 hours of combined exposures for your photos. I've more or less have been limiting my sessions to 35 exposures per scene change, which translates to about 20 minutes of combined exposure time since I have the shutter normally open around 40-50 seconds max per exposure. I find for the deep sky stuff, I should look around for better stacking tools that what I am using.
 

Moab Man

Senior Member
You are showing more patience than me in getting 1 to 1.5 hours of combined exposures for your photos. I've more or less have been limiting my sessions to 35 exposures per scene change, which translates to about 20 minutes of combined exposure time since I have the shutter normally open around 40-50 seconds max per exposure. I find for the deep sky stuff, I should look around for better stacking tools that what I am using.

Part of what I am learning is that any quality deep space object requires a minimum of an hour of exposure - plus the darks, flats, flats darks, bias, and of course the frames you were shooting. Over the hour, the better it gets.

Heading out to shoot Andromeda at 800mm for three hours.
 

Moab Man

Senior Member
@Moab Man
Great shots! I tried to go out last night but was chased back inside by a nursery of trash pandas and a wandering skunk. I did get some shots of sky and practiced polar alignment, but without an autotracker, I really dont know the sky well enough to find what I want to shoot, even with Sky Guide and Stellarium on my phone showing me what I am supposed to see. Wide angles work great and easy to point and shoot, but once the telephoto goes on, its a best guess kind of thing. My best guess is its all about the practice and the patience.
What do you see out of the camera? is there an indication you got what you want or do you need to stack and process dozens of images before the Nebula and galaxies pop out? Do you take your shots in your yard or is there travel required? What kind of autotracker do you use? PHD2 for software? What about stacking and processing? How do you tote everything around if you do need to travel? Sorry for all the questions, thanks for sharing your shots.

Running out for a 3 hour shoot of Andromeda. I will come back to this and answer all your questions in detail. But, here is a raw image of what it looks like on the camera unedited.

W_500_8778_raw.jpg
 
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