Will comment to save anyone else a massive headache. This tutorial is spot on. It encouraged me to go out and get guiding equipment for my star adventurer 2i wifi model. I can tell you all now, guiding will NOT work if connected to the mount via wifi. Only when the unit is in direct star tracking mode will guiding work.... Hope that helps people!
Peter, I realize that you have hyperlinks on your blog, but could you also include links to the gear that you discuss in your videos as well, please? It's really helpful for me to be able to look up the equipment that you reference while I'm watching your videos. That way I can check out the gear you're talking about as I follow along with the video. Thanks! & Keep up the great work.
You’re the best my friend. Your patience and dedication for us to understand is highly appreciated! Others claim to explain because they have a workflow and forget about us. That “other guy” is all about sponsors! You rock! Thank you.
Welcome back, thought you retired. Got a D750 and a Sigma art 20mm. First images of the milky way were a surprise. Very happy. You and another tuber helped alot.
Dear Peter I just looked at your gallery on your website. What can I say but amazing. I have never seen such wonderful compositions. My 10 year old daughter looked too and she is just beginning her love of astrophotography. Thank you . Paul
I am having fun. I have a setup pretty much like the one shown here. It makes polar alignment much more easier, with a much more accurate guiding system and longer exposures. I am glad I found this tutorial. Thanks!
i would recommend autoguiding for these small mounts too if you're getting into deep space. I have the Star Adventurer, and for guiding I have a Lacerta MGEN II, a standalone autoguider. It works wonderfully, and i don't need to bring a laptop and power supply around either. The Star Adventurer is great because of the declination bracket as well, because there's a spot for a second ball head which I use for the guide scope and camera. This lets me point the guide scope to the celestial equator resulting in more accurate guiding. If you have the money, I would recommend!
Darren Hill No worries. I shoot widefield, so the longest equivalent focal length i use is 540mm, but i've done tests up to 10 minutes without trails. I suppose you can think of it this way; the guide camera, guide scope, and mount are all it's own closed system, and the imaging rig is just hitching a ride on the same 'platform' as the guiding equipment. The MGEN is calibrated after my main rig is lined up to my target, I loosen the ball head and manually move the guide scope and camera around until I see some bright stars in the live view of the guide unit. The guider is going to work to make sure that it doesn't see any discrepancies between the motion of the guide scope and the motion of the stars, and since the guide scope and imaging scope are on the same bracket on the tracker, the imaging scope is going to be accurately following the stars too, regardless of if it's looking at the same part of sky as the guider. I just woke up I hope I communicated properly lol
Darren Hill I actually do, whenever I have line of sight with any area near the equator. The important thing is that I calibrate the guider *after* i've pointed it away from where i'm imaging. if the guider is calibrated to the mount and the guider is being moved the exact same as the imaging rig (i.e. only in right ascension), then it doesn't matter where the imaging rig is pointing. I feel like this only works if you're tracking and guiding on the RA axis only
Hi Peter, thank you for this informative video, I learned a lot. Two suggestions for an update one day: First - when PHD2 is looping before it starts guiding, the two buttons on the left side of the Star Adventurer (S and N direction) start blinking - it indicates, that PHD2 is working on a guiding routine. It should be mentioned in your video because if someone is only familiar with the standard manual of the Star Aventurer, it leads to confusion because blinking means, that the battery power is about to go down. Second suggestion: Each time one starts the system, in the menu, the declination needs to be turned off - it does not keep it turned off permanently. I needed some time to find this out (my fault) - so maybe you can remind people that every single new guiding start selection or anything after a stop command means that the declination auto setting needs to be set to off.... thanks a lot for your work! Sorry if my English is not perfect, my primary language is German... :-)
Thanks Georg, good point on the Star Adventurer blinking! As for turning off the Dec each time, that should not happen. Mine has stayed off since the first time. It sounds like you may be experiencing a bug with the software maybe
Outstanding! By FAR, the best instructional video I have found regarding autoguiding with a star tracker. Thanks for taking the time to produce this. Well done!
I bought the Star Adventurer in February after watching your videos. I decided to strip it down and tweak the mechanical parts such as tightening and thread locking the rod against which the azimuth controls adjust. I packed all the threads with lithium grease and tightened up the latitude adjuster. I also calibrated the vertical alignment on the polar scope and scored on the side an alignment mark to guarantee it stays vertical when aiming it at Polaris. I have also learned to have the balance slightly counterweight heavy so that the driven gears are always loaded to remove/minimise sloppiness from backlash/hysteresis but purchased an extra counterweight since the weight of my Zeiss lenses attached to a Canon 5DSr and a Manfrotto ball head exceed the balance of just one. And the tripod has to remain close to the ground with all legs retracted and spread one notch to provide a flex free base. After a month of training myself I can now get a 30 minute exposure from a Zeiss 15mm f2.8 Distagon T* at f5.6 ISO 200 for wide field images of the Milky Way and up to 5 minutes with a Zeiss 135mm f2.0 Apo Sonar T* without star trails. It's been much harder than I thought but i ended up with some fabulous images after quite a few awful early results. I am now considering a tracking device after watching this latest video of yours to see if I can get a 30 min exposure with the 135mm lens or longer. Thanks for all your detailed help cos I wouldn't have succeeded otherwise!
I have the Star Adventurer, using a Canon 7D Mk II + 300mm F4. So far testing has allowed 2 minute subs with slight out of round stars, and decent at 3 minutes. Could be slight polar misalignment. It is also approaching the max weight, as I needed additional counter weight to balance. Stacking less frames sure speeds up the processing. I was stacking dozens and dozens of shots at 3.2 second exposure. The tracker is worth every penny, and I can see autoguiding as a next step. Faster, tighter polar alignment means more time shooting once you have the set up down. 5 minute subs will be a dream. Anyone considering a tracker should just grab one! Good info Peter, thanks.
Peter, really enjoyed this video. I had not found any info on auto-guiding my Star-Adventurer; in fact, several comments had been made that it was not needed or useful. To polar align, I acquired a 3-D printer mounting connector for a PoleMaster that fits in the polar scope hole; that's available from a guy in France. He does a number of 3-D printer connectors. However, using a PoleMaster is not as convenient as using SharpCap Pro, particularly if one has replacement components in both legs. I have a finder scope that uses the camera hot shoe; "finding" the target was always a problem using the camera lenses; too narrow a field. What I got was a very light weight device that works similar to a Telrad finder, complete with circle or cross hair red or green lines. There are a number of brackets that connect to the camera hot shoe that provide two or more mounting connectors; this would allow a finder scope and the auto-guiding components to both be attached. This arrangement might be problematic for flexure issues as the mount moves, which you mention on your arrangement. To keep things off the ground, I acquired a Lifetime 4428 48" x 24" folding table from Amazon, price about $40. It is sturdy enough to set my CGX mount on while setting up the telescope. Lots of room for laptops and cases. Great for star party use. For a chair I got a Mity-Lite from Home Depot; at the time, one could buy these in single quantities; now they are only sold in sets of four. Very comfortable conforming seat, strong and durable. Thanks for all the great info on this video!
I gave this video a thumbs up, because you saved me from spending hard earned money uselessly. Most of my night sky work requires hiking (sometimes miles). I don't need the extra weight and complication.
Nice tutorial! Another benefit of taking less photos per night is that it should theoretically increase the lifespan of the camera (in regards to shutter count)
One of the best channels about astro photography and sky guiding. Thanks for you effort and all that work! A question: at 9:00 that USB cable between guiding camera and laptop, to me that looks dangerously tense. Doesn't that cause any problems when the SkyGuider moves, does it? - Besides: I am non native English speaker, your talking speed and pronunciation as well as audio quality is so good, I can understand everything without any problems at first listening without the need of repetitions. 1000 thanks for that also.
Nice video and thank you Peter! I've got a question/comment though...It may be a dumb one but we'll see. I've got almost the identical setup-modified D5500,Tamron 150-600mm G2, SGP, ZWO 120mm-s along with ZWO 30F4 guide scope mounted on the hotshoe(very tight/no wobble). Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't this theoretically a poor way to polar align? Not the Sharp-Cap part but the guide scope vs. SGP main pivoting axis alignment. I say this since I'm getting better results using the built-in polar scope because it seems that it is very difficult to align the guide scope (left/right) perfectly with the SGP built-in scope/main pivoting axis in order to get an accurate polar alignment due to the round nature of DEC camera mounting block (the round piece that attaches the lens tripod foot to the declination bracket). Does that makes sense? I'm curious to hear others thoughts on this too.
Hi Peter. Did you get all the pictures of nebulaes shown at the end of the video with this set up? Wow! Quite impressive. One year ago I bought the I optron skytracker. It's about the same price as the SkyGuider Pro Star Adventurer in terms of prices however the SkyGuider Pro Star Adventurer outperforms by far the ioptron skytracker in terms of possibilities. I think I will have to consider buying one. In all cases excellent video. Thank you very much.
Yep! Yeah, I started off with the SkyTracker Pro too. It did a good job for Milky Way photography, but not deep space. Either the Star Adventurer or SkyGuider Pro will be a nice upgrade if you want to do more deep space work
Peter I'm very confused according to Bojay Stellar / Dylan O'Donnell, they say you cant use the ST-4 cable from your guide camera to your tracker, they say both cables need to go to the laptop using USB 3.0. I have looked on eBay for a ST-4 to USB 3.0 and they don't exist. I'm using a Star Adventure Pro 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔 I'm now stuck, as to what to do. Richard from the south coast of England.
This is great.. I was using a very awkward dove tail bar to do this in a side by side configuration. I never thought of this. I did find a hot-shoe adapter on Amazon with two adjustment screws so everything is tight. I just need the skies to clear up. Thanks Peter.
ASCOM is definitely better, but unfortunately neither the SkyGuider Pro or Star Adventurer can use ASCOM. Both star trackers are pretty "dumb". If you had a Go-To mount though, it should have ASCOM functionality.
Golf pro shops have lead tape for club heads readily available. It’s sticky on one side - like tape. I use that on my weight. Works great and it’s not magnetic.
I really appreciate how well you explain things. Ive been watching kit of other videos but good thing about your videos are that you focus on all those small things like this one
Do you have to continuously connect your laptop to the guidescope in the field? or can you plug out once you find the deep sky obeject you wish to find?
Peter - I just purchased your class and am loving it so far. One quick question - do you still recommend buying a guider for someone who owns the SkyGuider as opposed to the SkyTracker? And also the ZWO camera (even though I shoot with a Sony A7RII)? I'm a bit confused on that side...
Thank you! The SkyTracker Pro doesn't have the ability to use an auto-guider. The SkyGuider Pro and Star Adventurer can use an auto-guider. How long can you shoot right now, before you notice star trails? If you can easily shoot 1 or even 2+ minutes, an auto-guider might not be worth the hassle. The ZWO camera is exclusively for guiding, your Sony camera is still used for your astrophotography. Although, you could use the auto-guider to take some photos through a telescope, if you wanted to experiment. Ultimately, I only recommend buying an auto-guider if you are using a large telephoto lens with your SkyGuider Pro or Star Adventurer, and you are having problems shooting longer than ~45 seconds. In that case, an auto-guider will really help! If things have been working fine, or if you are only shooting wide angle photos, an auto-guider isn't necessary.
Liking these video's a lot. Talks like a friend with lots of clear and logical information based on good and bad experiences. I have a heavy duty power pack which I hang from the tripod hook for additional stability. Keeps it out of the way as well :) Well done and subscribed.
Peter what are you using for your image acquisition application? I am thinking of APT. I set the shutter to bulb and exposure to 180 seconds (3 minutes) and count to 60. That would give me 3 hours of data. BTW, knowing what I know now I was able to balance the Tamron telephoto even when fully extended at 600 mm.
Excellent video! If I’m not mistaken, the DEC bracket and Counter weight is not from the ‘SkyWatcher Star Adventure” but, from the ‘iOptron SkyGuider Pro’. He’s got them mixed-up! I thought ‘SkyWatcher’ had an up-grade! This looks a lot better than mine so, - on my bucket-list!
Great video but you never touched on the dslr. How is the camera being activated? Intervalometer? I'm confused. The stars on your laptop screen are from the guide camera correct? How does the dslr cone into play?
I didnt know that i could do polar alignment through my polar scope, i thought i would have to buy the ipolar camera. I absolutely hate polar alignment through the polar scope, especially because i have to turn the thing 180° , so that my telescope side is 100% exactly at the bottom (thats crazy unprecise and takes too much time). Your guide was incredibly helpful for me and made astro more fun!
Hi Peter. I have one more question please. What do you do if you go to a place with latitude higher than 60, northern Alaska for example? The bases I see can't go more than 60 degrees. Do you just attach the tracker directly to a ballhead?
The SkyWatcher latitude base goes all the way to 90 degrees, I'd recommend buying that one! If you are on the iOptron base, you're kinda out of luck. You could use a ballhead instead, but that wouldn't be ideal
What kind of a tripod would you recommend. I currently have a Nikon D50 and a 50mm F/1.8 lens, but would want to upgrade to a newer Canon t3i or similar camera with a 100-600mm telephoto lens in the next few months. I live in India and would like to know the exact model of the tripod.
Hi Peter, I’m a Professional Photographer, but a newbie to Astrophotography. You stated that you would go with the ASI120MM-S camera if u could do it again. Would you still? I see the ASI120MM is 36mm in diameter and 61mm in length, while the ADSI120MM-S is 62mm diameter and 28mm in length. I see the specs are better for the ASI120MM-S, but will it still fit the ZWO 30mm f/4 Mini Guide Scope as is, or do I need some sort of extension or adapter?
The 120MC will still fit inside the ZWO guide scope without a problem. However, I am no longer so critical of the ASI 120MM Mini, it's done a fine job over the past year.
THX Peter for this tutorial. I will start with my Nikon D850 and a Sky Guider Pro. First i will use a 50mm f1.8 Nikon Lense with Rollei Light Pollution Filter. Sky Guiding with a ZWO Cam is my next Update. Later i will try a Sigma 150-600mm Sport Lense for Pictures. This tutorial helps me to unterstand and Setup the Sky Guiding. But my Problem is i use complete Apple Hardware, i look around for a sharpcap alternative.
20:10 This solved my issue thank you! First time auto guiding, I kept getting the backlash error. This makes sense why it was occuring. Because the software is attempting to use both RA and DEC, theres no slew or movement for dec just ra on the skyguider
I would 100% endorse your comments about the ZWO 2.0 compatibility issues! My MC version will not work with my new Dell Windows 10 laptop (using as a planetary camera). Screen keeps freezing with Sharcap and other software. Either I have to replace the camera or use an old Windows 7 set up - such a shame. Thanks for confirming that the problem is not the user!
This is a VERY helpful video...especially with PHD2! What is the best way to focus on an object that you can not actually see, so you know that you're pointing in the proper direction?
Peter...thanks for the great video. I'm about the pull the trigger on an auto-guider, and I see ZWO has an ASIAIR and ASI120mm Mini combo. I understand your concern with the ASI120mm Mini as a standalone, but if this combo worked seamlessly as advertised, would you still recommend the ASI120MM-S over the ASI120mm Mini? My current setup is a D750, Sigma 150-600/Tamron 15-30 and iOptron SkyGuider Pro for astrophotography. Looking to bump thing up a level. Thanks in advance!
Thanks for all the information you put together. I haven't found anyone who actually explained how the autoguider works and what equipment to use, especially when it comes to the SGP! Awesome. Your videos helped me a lot with astrophotography! Keep up Peter!
You mentioned you would have bought the ZWO ASI 120 MM S. Is there any reason to go with that versus the color version, the ZWO ASI 120 MC S ? Would one work better than the other picking up the stars to help with guiding?
General knowledge info. Most cameras allow a MAX exposure of 30 sec. to get these longer shoots you need to be in BULB mode. You can manually control the shutter with an external release. (I started with a cheapo from Amazon, even it had locking) then I got DSLR CONTROLLER app for my tablet. Very useful for larger magnified focus, and can set long exposure, interval and basic overall camera control. For canon shooters you should have the EOS utility. It allows control in live view, but the interval function won't allow an exposure longer than the interval, so you have to sit and start and stop the exposures. You will need a laptop to run it. If you just got a tracker even 30 subs are way better than the max static shots you can do with no tracker. At 300mm I found 3 sec subs my max, at wide angle I could go 8sec.
So, can you use any zwo camera for autoguiding? Zwo now has a ASI290mm cmos guide camera. The camera you have and the one you suggested are listed as planetary cameras.
It's me again, Peter. I actually got the QHYCCD 5II C camera to function in Sharpcap and in PHD2. I got a number of stars and tried to set up PHD2 as you prescribed in your video. I am even using the same length lens on my Star Adventurer as you have on your setup. What I witnessed was that on my Star Adventurer, the position buttons, which are led lights, were flashing. I looked that up and it said that this could be from overweight. However, I have used this setup before without any problems with the button leds. Could I be having issues with PHD2 in it trying to find the calibration and it is getting lost? I will try this same setup, but without the camera and lens and see if it has problems. I am just wanting to know if you have had any issues like I am describing. RFB
Does anyone know about using the 30F4 as a finderscope. Online I have seen the description say that it can be used in this manner, but only looking directly down the axis of the scope - no right angle viewing. I can't find any information about whether or not the aiming of the scope can be adjusted. It doesn't appear so in pictures; it just looks like a solid vixen mount with no little guide ring adjusters. The two thumb screws appear to just hold the camera in the 1.25" hole. Thanks for any insight anyone can provide!
I like your videos and the way you speak and explain very much! May I ask you how you focus the guiding set up? In some videos they kind of rotate and screw the mini guide scope (my Asi mini guide scope seems not to have any moveable parts), in some other videos they only move the 120mini back and for within the cylindrical tube? Thanx a lot, cheers Nico🙏
Peter, I have used the Sky Guider, it’s a bit beefy for its size but the dec bracket is a huge pain. That plus the additional cost of adding a guider to it put the cost at $800 to $900. For that you could get a AVX EQ mount. While I understand the weight would be a lot less wouldn’t the possibility of expanding to small telescopes if you later wanted to get into Astro photography more? Just trying to understand if maybe I am missing something as I weigh these two opportunities. Thanks a lot and great job you do on all your videos.
If you got the SkyGuider and auto-guider setup I linked to, you'd be looking at around $700. The main reason I'd recommend investing it this way, rather than an AVX mount, is the size and weight. I personally spend 6+ months of the year, traveling and living out of my car. I'd have no way to carry around a mount that size. Of course, for the normal person it wouldn't be a big deal. Also, this video is framed as "you already have a SkyGuider Pro, is it worth spending another ~$250 for an auto-guider?" I would say yes, if you plan to do more deep space astro. It really does make the SkyGuider much more accurate, without needing to spend another $800+ on a whole new tracker. (Which will also need an auto-guider). A high-end mount, with both Dec and RA control and Go-To functionality would be great! I'm planning to upgrade at some point, but I need to settle down first. For other people, I suppose it just depends on their budget and how advanced they want to get. The larger trackers may work better, but they are also more complicated and time consuming to setup.
Gotcha, yea wondering if there was anything aside from your main point which can’t be understated sometimes. Size and weight. Well makes the case to have both a EQ Mount and a portable Alt/Az tracker eh?!!! Great vids
Great video! I'm in the process of trying out that guider setup you have ASI + guider, and I'm wondering... Using Sharpcap with it, like in the same position where you have the camera(on top of the nikon), can I use the polar alignment, or the camera(asi) should be closer to the center of the Star Adventurer?
Great video. The only thing I'll pick out is saying when you're doing 5 minute exposures you probably only need 20-30 exposures. While you may be able to get away with that depending on the target, more exposures improve the SNR greatly so I encourage people to get as many exposures as possible regardless of the sub exposure time.
Agreement on both.. clear and concise tutorial, and that there is some compromise with respect to exposure time and exposure/stack quantity re SNR. Also notable that most DSLR's build internal dark current on 'uncooled' chip with long exposures..'well depth' also an limiting factor for some DSLRs re long exposure/saturation. I use a Canon 6D that does well to 180s with equal number of dark frames.
I'm confused. The autoguider controls the only movable axis of the mount. The same rotation is supposed to be provided by this motorized mount. Does it mean the mount speed of rotation is so imprecise it needs to be micromanaged by an external camera ? The Earth rotates the same speed every night. How hard is it to get it right?
Even the high end mounts usually require an auto-guider for the best tracking results. I think it's due to the manufacturing process and motor. They aren't perfect, and when shooting at very high focal lengths any problems are instantly visible. The auto-guider is almost like a taskmaster, and keeps the motor running correctly at all times
@@PeterZelinka Thank you. Does it mean that with the auto-guider the rough polar alignment is sufficient and the rest will be taken care of RA and DEC motors ? I'm thinking of getting Az-Gti mount instead of Star Adventurer in that case.
@@Martinko_Pcik No, you always need to do an accurate polar alignment. If the polar alignment isn't good, guiding won't be of much use. However, even when I did a perfect polar alignment with my SkyGuider Pro, I couldn't shoot longer than 30 seconds with my 150-600mm lens, or I'd get star trails. Once I began using an auto-guider though, it kept that motor running properly and I could shoot 3+ minutes with sharp stars.
Great video! Thanks for posting! Could you provide a link for the special adapter for coupling the guidescope boot to the top of the camera, please? I have a canon t2i, though. I see like this metal slot that is very narrow, but it looks like you've managed to stuff a vixen boot into there. Please advise.
Hey Peter, love your videos. Question, what are your camera setting if your taking a 5 min. exposure. doesn't your photos get washed out taking that long of an exposure?
Hi Peter Great video Peter, but as far as the Star Adventurer it's my understanding that the Star Adventurer guiding port is not usable for guiding since any time you turn it on in any position tracking starts automatically. I think for polar alignment only the best choice would be a PoleMaster and possibly a little cheaper.
Love your videos. Very helps. I do need help in setting up the guide scope. In particular how to focus the thing? I look around to find some step bu step instructions and I don’t seem to be able to find any. Any suggestions? Perhaps a video by you could help. Thanks
I just tried looking on Amazon for the "Vixen Finder Dovetail for Cameras"' as you have shown, and I didn't find what you have. Do you have a better link to this for my search turned up empty on Amazon? Thanks.
How critical is it to secure the auto guide scope parallel to the camera lens? Does auto tracking get affected negatively if the guide scope is slightly askew? Thanks
Hi Peter, I have the same gear as you have in this video. The Camera works Nice but when I turn it to the nightsky it is very noisy. Now ens then it appears a clean shot on the sky where I can see the stars, next second its nois again and I cant see anything. Do you please have som tips? Arne
Hi Peter - newcommer so I am deeply greatfull for all of your videos. I'm also a mac man - so I have one question - can PHD do the same polar alignment as SharpCap? Thanx in advance - Lars Denmark...
Peter, I'm back! I just tested PHD2 on my Star Adventurer and it works!!!! Thank you for this video, it was very instructional. My only concern is aa problem with my Star Adventurer; it wobbles during tracking. Never had that issue before, but I do know how to fix it. Thanks again, Bill
Anyone looking for a compact alternative to a full laptop, I find that a Microsoft Surface works well as an inexpensive option. You will want to add a multi-port USB adapter to the package.
I beleive the issue with the 120 mini may have been a software or firmware issue. I bought the same autoguide camera and never had an issue with it and I have a brand new laptop (Lenovo). It's also possible, that I bought an upgraded version of it, maybe they corrected the problem and the newer-same model has no issues connecting.
Another great Video Peter! Well done! I´ve got this typ of tracker a couple of weeks but the weather in Germany isn´t really good at this time. I´ll try some shots with my new Tamron 600mm lens and my Skyguider next week with short exposure like 30-40 sec. and without guiding. Do you have some expirence with the ZWO ASIAIR and do you think this is an good option for guiding ?
Thanks for posting this. I think I might want to try auto-guiding with my Star Adventurer, and this helps. For me, the most difficult thing about all this is finding the target... I saw your Rosette nebula photo and immediately wondered, "How the heck did he manage to find something through a telephoto lens that's invisible to the naked eye?" Even to find the Orion nebula from my light-polluted backyard, I have to take a number of test shots... Any tips on how you acquire the object you are shooting would be much appreciated. Thanks again for your content.
It can definitely be a pain! When I took my most recent Rosette Nebula photo, it probably took me 15 minutes to get it centered. I usually just put the ISO to 12,800 and take a 10 second exposure. I also look over the lens and try to aim it as close to the object as possible. It's ultimately a lot of trial and error! Some objects are much easier than others to find
I'm no expert but invested in a digital angle finder and a decent compass. So after getting the coordinates from Stellarium (time sensitive of course), I use the compass to point the camera at the correct azimuth and the digital angle finder to raise/lower the camera. A test shot at high ISO will confirm if its in the field of view.
awesome explanation! It seems pretty non-optimal to have to be using a laptop in the loop when all it's doing is trying to keep a guide star not moving by adjusting the rate of the tracker, that definitely feels like something that could be done by a teeny little microcontroller hmm
Just to aid my understanding of guided tracking... if we theoretically were able to achieve *perfect* polar alignment with zero play in our setup and with a perfect stepper motor keeping absolutely constant rpm, would this eliminate the need for a guidance system?
With an L-bracket on the camera body one could fashion a robust mounting for the guidescope, adapting from Arca-Swiss to finder dovetail. Anything less than a robust mounting defeats accurate and reliable guiding.
Could you please tell me if I have already invested in a Gitzo Gimbal Fluid Head GHFG1 for my Tamron 150-600mm for shooting the Moon and stars, if that Gimbal becomes useless when using the SkyGuider or I could somehow use my Gimbal?
I'm not really familiar with using gimbals with star trackers. I usually just attach the lens directly to the declination bracket. This works pretty well in most cases. You could theoretically attach the gimbal to the declination bracket, but it wouldn't work well (if at all). It's simply too large and heavy. We need to minimize the camera weight as much as possible. If you attach your lens directly to the dec bracket, you can easily reach any location in the night sky. No gimbal or ballhead required.
I believe the software that comes with the iPolar Electronic Polar Scope handles what you have SharpCap doing here, so perhaps I wouldn't need a guide camera. However, if I were to use APT or Backyard EOS (to control my Canon T3i DSPR), that would allow precision focusing and imaging sessions, I believe. Does that whole procedure sound about right?
I continually watch your amazing and informative videos. I sometimes come up with questions like these: Should we be concerned about vibration from the DSLR (non mirrorless) shutter activating even while using an intervalometer? Is that minute vibration enough to cause tracking issues with the Guide Camera and SkyGuider Pro mount?
Thanks for this brilliant tut... Just a quick ques: do i have to turn ON STAR ADVENTURER or leave it at OFF.... apologies for this stupid question. Just starting to learn
Thank Peter. Do you think an auto guiding is needed with a lower focal length mm lens. I just recv’d my SGP and am waiting on a WO Redcat 51, I think its 280 focal length. Just getting into a astrophotography. Your vids are helpful, considering your course.
I was able to shoot about 1 - 2 minutes at 200mm, without an auto-guider. Since my 70-200mm lens was at f/2.8, that was a good amount of light. However, an auto-guider would definitely help. More light is always better!
I am waiting for the redcat too. I also use a SGP. Trevor from astrobackyard said that he achieved 4 minute subs with this equipment without autoguiding.
I have done 3-minute exposure photos with my SkyGuider Pro (without auto guiding), and the stars are very sharp. But I have iPolar for electronic polar alignment, which makes my alignment much more accurate. With such accurate polar alignment, do you think I might still need auto guiding?
Probably not. I could never shoot longer than 30 seconds at 600mm without an autoguider to help with the polar alignment and guiding. If you're already getting 3 minute exposures, you should be fine without an auto-guider
@@PeterZelinka Thanks! Yeah, you're right, the 3-minute I took was around 35mm (can't remember exactly, but not more than 70mm). That's why probably. Also the 4-minute photos which were taken by Trevor, were 250mm.
@@PeterZelinka I have another question, with this 600mm lens, do you use any light pollution filters? I have Nikon 200-500mm, but couldn't find any proper filters, I had to get William Optics Z61 to be able to use some good quality filters.
I normally don't use any, but that's because I'm usually under a dark sky. I do have a light pollution filter video here on RU-vid though. A clip-in filter might work well for you.
thanks for the tutorial! i have the ioptron sky guider pro and wasn't aware it can improve that much by using a guider. i will take that into account maybe i will get one then.
nice and useful video Peter. I still do not know which star tracker to buy. I know the skywatcher and ioptron are both very good, but if you were me and given your experience with both which one would you choose? Thanks
