Star tracker or GOTO?

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maceemiller
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Star tracker or GOTO?

#1

Post by maceemiller »


Hi all.

As the title suggests what should I invest in?
I will be predominantly using a DSLR with lens and occasionally a small 70mm refractor.

Interested in your opinions.

Thankyou
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JayTee United States of America
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Re: Star tracker or GOTO?

#2

Post by JayTee »


Knowing your budget would help?

JT
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Re: Star tracker or GOTO?

#3

Post by pakarinen »


I'm thinking about getting a mirror-less DSLR to try some astrophotography and will likely go with a tracker if I ever get that far. I have concerns about the reliability / robustness of (some) go-to mounts. Plus some trackers are mechanical and don't need a power supply.

I also have an short 80mm refractor, but it might be too heavy for the currently available trackers.
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maceemiller
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Re: Star tracker or GOTO?

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Post by maceemiller »


JayTee wrote: Mon Dec 28, 2020 11:36 am Knowing your budget would help?

JT
Good point! I'm looking at about £250
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OzEclipse Australia
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Re: Star tracker or GOTO?

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Post by OzEclipse »


maceemiller wrote: Mon Dec 28, 2020 6:38 pm
JayTee wrote: Mon Dec 28, 2020 11:36 am Knowing your budget would help?

JT
Good point! I'm looking at about £250
Macemiller,
I'm not familiar with local prices in UK but I don't think there are any GOTO EQ mounts that are astrophotography capable around that price point. You need an accurate drive system. The Sky Watcher Star Adventurer should be around that price and I've seen some owners get excellent results with them. Just remember that you need to be able to accurately polar align and then know your way around the sky to point the camera at your targets. In saying this, I'm not being flippant. I run a nightscape photography course over here and in my last class, four of the participants had bought Star Adventurer or Polarie trackers but found they could not polar align them accurately enough to use them. Unfortunately the course content was all about fixed tripod photography, no time to address this problem. We are going to tee up some sessions in the new year on polar alignment technique.

A mount for prime focus AP with an 80mm refractor needs to be both accurate and solid. Probably something like a HEQ5 or VX. But those are well above your price point. So you either need to increase your budget or scrap your plans to do AP with the refractor and look at trackers for DSLR.

Good luck

Joe
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maceemiller
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Re: Star tracker or GOTO?

#6

Post by maceemiller »


OzEclipse wrote: Mon Dec 28, 2020 9:02 pm
maceemiller wrote: Mon Dec 28, 2020 6:38 pm
JayTee wrote: Mon Dec 28, 2020 11:36 am Knowing your budget would help?

JT
Good point! I'm looking at about £250
Macemiller,
I'm not familiar with local prices in UK but I don't think there are any GOTO EQ mounts that are astrophotography capable around that price point. You need an accurate drive system. The Sky Watcher Star Adventurer should be around that price and I've seen some owners get excellent results with them. Just remember that you need to be able to accurately polar align and then know your way around the sky to point the camera at your targets. In saying this, I'm not being flippant. I run a nightscape photography course over here and in my last class, four of the participants had bought Star Adventurer or Polarie trackers but found they could not polar align them accurately enough to use them. Unfortunately the course content was all about fixed tripod photography, no time to address this problem. We are going to tee up some sessions in the new year on polar alignment technique.

A mount for prime focus AP with an 80mm refractor needs to be both accurate and solid. Probably something like a HEQ5 or VX. But those are well above your price point. So you either need to increase your budget or scrap your plans to do AP with the refractor and look at trackers for DSLR.

Good luck

Joe
Thankyou.

I'm going to take some time to think about where I'm going with AP as I know it can get expensive quick!

Just been looking at your website....I love it!
Bookmarked for certain revisiting :)

Carl
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