This is by far the most detailed tutorial I have ever seen, also the way you explain is really easy to understand, I forwarded this tutorial to someone who has never worked with any tracker before and after watching it few times, she was able to set everything up in few minutes in the field. Great stuffs, thanks.
Thanks for the info, I just ordered my MSM, and can't wait to go out to the desert east of San Diego, CA where there is hardly any light pollution at all. I'll be using a Nikon DF with some AF-D primes. Cheers! I also ordered you complete series, have lots to learn :)
Your video is very clear and simple; straight to the point. By the way, you captured 2 ufo's starting in minute 6:10. I wish I could attach the photograms processed with AI here to demonstrate it to you. Thanks for your great advice son.
Great example. However, I would add only one recommendation. I would put all my camera gear on the MSM tracker before polar alignment. Once you've aligned and then try to add a heavy camera and ball head (for the camera) you increase the chance you'll move the mount and knock it out of alignment.
Great video Peter, still undecided between getting the iOptron SkyTracker Pro and this one because in the future I think I will be getting a Samyang 135mm to go along with my APS-C sensor camera so that's a lot of magnification for a rough alignment
Great video!! When you make consecutive photos into to eventually stack and using tracker do you have to reset camera back to original position you started for each photo you take? Thanks Adam
Very nice tutorial, i wish i had this when i got my msm tracker... but there is one small flaw if u wante to shoot longer lenses. don't forget to adjust your polar scope because mine was highly inaccurate!!! now i can shoot long exposures on long lenses whitout any problemes. (only tested on 135mm so far) cheers
Peter, tx very! Just got aMSM and love it. One question though. I am putting it on top of a wedge, so plane of the 'box' is 39 degrees with surface where I put my ball head facing towards N star. Camera ends up facing south -west for milky way shots. With ball head position, camera body and back of lens pretty much sit directly above rotator. Using 24mm. With 3 -4 second exposure, I can achieve sharp stars ok. But when I go to 3-4 min exposures to get iso down, I am noticing that I get s slight star trail. Shorter than say a 6sec exposure, but noticable. Trees etc are suitably blured for land objects. So question is, if this is a bad wt balance problem for the roter, or am I positioning the box wrong? My mom did not come the an arc swiss plate. But I would have thought one was not needed with the wedge. Any thoughts? Tx very. Love your tutorials. Best of bunch!
Thank you for the helpful videos! I'm totally new to astro, having trouble deciding on my first MSM kit. Ball head + laser pointer, OR wedge + scope? Leaning towards the former - my only hesitation is if I'm setting up around other photographers - will the laser pointer screw up others' shots? In which case - I'd need the scope(?) OR... Skyguider Pro?
I recently bought a Benro tripod and it happens to have the exact ball head you used in this video, however I can see how much easier and less frustrating the pan & tilt head would be. One major annoyance I have with the ball head is that it has two knobs that can be used to secure the ball which caused some confusion while making adjustments in the dark. I'll be much better prepared next time.
I will have a lot of practice to do when I buy the MSM, never was good at finding constellations but ALWAYS loved astrophotography. Hope I can find polaris with as much ease! With the way the MSM is tilted tho, is the camera facing the opposite way from polaris? sorry if it's a dumb question. 😬😬
9:31 Upside and reversed - yes, it's painful as is to try and align the reticle with some random object in the daytime due to its orientation. At night, I don't feel confident enough to be able to do the polar alignment this way on my Sky-watcher Star Adventurer, so I just don't bother doing this extra step after I line it up with north and set the right latitude in the base, which works alright for focal lengths < 24mm, really. I am starting to experiment with slightly longer focal lengths, so I would really like nail the polar alignment. Would PoleMaster ease this process even a tiny bit, if at all? Speaking of PoleMaster (or iPolar, which I take works similarly), if you happen to get your hands on one of them, please do a tutorial as well if you could. Thanks, mate - your full Star Adventurer course was super-useful!
I thought I had to allign the laser/scope exactly on polaris, good to know it depends and where you are and that there is an app for this. With 14mm my shots were fine but with 135 there was still a lot of star trailing. Thanks!
Nice tutorial. The scope I got with the MSM unit shows an image that is upside-down/reversed, as you told us. Do I still align the 0 at the physical top (upwards), or at the bottom (downwards) to match the rotated image? This is important to know when I go to align the north star as per the application, I could be off as much as 180 degrees. Tx!
I believe I answered my own question... so I'll leave it here for others in case they have the same... those applications take that reversed image into account and you must position the '0' at the top even with the view upside down and place the north star as indicated.
Hi Peter. I find this video tutorial very informative. Thank you so much. Although I want to ask, will you be making a version for South Hemisphere? I am from Australia. Do you have any recommendation or quick tips how to quickly align in South? Thank you in advance.
I would like to create a lot of content for southern hemisphere photographers, but until the global situation calms down, I can't do too much unfortunately.
Hi, a question concerning the pan tilt base, they are also selling a "Wedge for precise polar alignment" what is a little more expensive, but they claim it is batter for more precise alignment. Do you have any experience with that? Does it worth the extra price?
Great video… my laser pointer beam seems to disappear in the middle.. maybe thin clouds in the middle ? …also I bought the eye piece w the scope… getting the stars in focus ..gets the radicle out of focus … what am I doing wrong ?
Hello my friend. I think we need a better star alignment to take Milky Way photos with lenses such as 50mm, 85mm. Do laser or binoculars give us the best alignment when working in these focal ranges? Which gives better results in long focal ranges?
in other models of trackers, the head does not go to tighten directly on the rotor, but on a floating piece, which is then tightened on the rotor ... skytracker, skyguider, staradventurer, etc., all these trackers have this system .. on the msm the head must be tightened on the rotor, forcing the mechanics inside the rotor: how do you adjust? what procedure do you use to avoid straining the mechanics and at the same time tightly screw the head - or the v-z plate?
Hello, Thanks for the great and informative videos on YOUTube. I wonder where to get the equipment holder that you attach to the stand legs as an equipment carrier cloth. It is pictured in your video here.
I like to do polar alignment when my scope is already installed to the mount. Because I'm pretty sure the whole mounting the scope and accessories step will throw off your polar alignment significantly, and that's bad if you're doing a longer focal length.
Hi there Peter. I didn't get when you said at 09:20 The north star is at 6 o'clock While on the app reticle it shows at 10:22. Is that a mistake our there is something i missed. Thanks in advance
I just have a dimmed red bicycle light covered with layers of white paper that will eliminate the the polar scope. Just mount it ( figure out a method for your mount ) so it shines across the opening Can use it at night and is just great.
Oh no, I chose the laser pointer option only but I don’t have anything wide than 24mm. Is the scope really necessary at 24mm? Could you approximate true polar north with the laser pointer and the app? Another question I’ve had is what if you’re in a forest looking out over water or backed up against a cliff where polaris isn’t visible, are there any tricks to being able to still use the tracker?
Please excuse my ignorance, I know little to nothing about astro photography and am just trying to understand it. I've just bought a MSM and their site led me to your video, I was OK following your video until I got to the part about using the Polar Clock Utility to line up the SMS on the tripod. Your demonstration shows red clock showing the grey dot at 10.22 and this position of Polaris is confirmed in text just above the red clock, I'm all fine with that and it makes sense to my feeble brain. **BANG** All of a sudden a big blue dot appears and you say Polaris is positioned at 6 o'clock (position 9 minutes 20 seconds on the video), sorry! but everything I thought I'd understood upto that point just went straight out of the window, If the big blue dot is the North Star/Polaris then what is the little grey dot at 10.22.
A better trick is to use the laser pointer with the polar scope to rough align to Polaris. Simply point the laser pointer to the eye piece of the polar scope and do the alignment. Remove the laser pointer and look through the polar scope for more precise adjustment.
@@PeterZelinka maybe worth checking out. Here in Germany it's pretty common among some landscape astrophotographers but since you also know other trackers, would be nice to know how it stands against the SkyGuider and Star adventurer. Maybe you can get one and test it.
I am curious if this setup carries my z6+Sigma135 combined? Or at least gives me something sharp up to 10 seconds so I can stack. I am not into heavier and more expensive trackers
Yeah, you can use that combo no problem with this tracker. I'd recommend getting the polar scope+laser pointer so you can use the technique I show here for an accurate polar alignment. You should be able to get at least 60 second exposures, if you do your polar alignment good enough
What I have trouble understanding is once you have it polar aligned how do you recompose for he Milky Way or anther subject ? Is there any reference to this somewhere? Thanks for the video
Once you've attached your ballhead and camera onto the star tracker, you can point the camera wherever you want. Just make sure the star tracker stays angled up to Polaris, you don't want the star tracker to move after the polar alignment.
Well, I purchased a kit from MSM. It's been a few weeks now and I cannot get MSM to respond to me. My question is this. My laser is no good. Was shipped defective. Does anyone know where I can get a replacement? Does not have to be from them. Is there a replacement that will fit into their bracket? I really want to get out and shoot but this is definitely holding me back. Thanks!
Question I live in Oregon, I quite didn’t understand if I fase north polar star but the Milky Way is south east or south west, can a move it to face it And not the polar start? Regards
Great video Peter. Move shoot move is most affordable sky tracker right now, so this video will be very handy for everyone who wants to get into skytracking night skies. By the way why did you mounted tripod ball head quick realize plate on the side of tracker, there is two options to mount it, why did you choose to put this way? does it make any different? p.s. i own this tracker too.. ;)
Check out the apinex website, they have *real* 5mw lasers that are apparently visible during night time. I've read good reviews about them and some people regret buying the 5mw version bc it's apparently too powerful so it should work for you
So this really makes no sense to me....if you use the laser and point it at the star then your tracker is set up....but if you use the polar scope AFTER you use the laser and have to move the tracker to get the star onto the grid/clock then you are moving the tracker from the original point of where you lined up with the laser....how are you supposed to line up the star with the polar phone app and have to move the tracker to how the phone is telling you and not mess up the laser alignment???
Polar alignment is straightforward. Unfortunately you don't show the tricky bit: pointing your camera, once aligned, where you want. The camera-tracker ball head only allows limited movement around its central position - less than 90 degrees in any direction. This means most of the sky is inaccessible. It seems you could only point your camera anywhere if you were at the equator!
For all you people in the Northern Hemisphere, the North Star works well. How do we do something similar in the Southern hemisphere. We don'e have a South Star.
I don't know how well that works but they (MoveShootMove) also selling a "Phone Mount for Polar Alignment". You can attach it to the tracker and using an app on your phone should help you. Again, i have now idea how well it works. In theory it should help on the Southern hemisphere. They claim: "If you are in the Southern Hemisphere, this phone mount is a must-have."
You won't be able to use an auto-guider with the MSM tracker, it does not have any auto-guiding capabilities. The SkyGuider Pro and Star Adventurer do though. If you had either of those star trackers and an auto-guider, you would still want to do a good polar alignment first.
The tripod does not have to be level. It's got no relevance to tracking. Once you are polar aligned, the tracker will track perfectly regardless of the tripod being level. Wish you guys would stop spreading these myths.
If you would really understand what you are doing you would understand that your tripod not need to be level. I don't know why every beginner astrophotographer always says that the tripod has to be level. That's not true at all. You can screw your tripod on a wall if you want, as long as your rightascension axis is aligned with the pole, everything is all right. So the only thing you need to know is that your ra-axis has to be aligned with the pole. Another myth is that your telescope has to be balanced. You always need a slight unbalance to the east side, so your backslash error will be minimized. And your guiding will be far better. Every more experienced astrophotographer knows this two little "rules".
It's more of a safety thing for me. I've had too many close calls where the tripod was at some weird angle and I didn't realize it at first. If you've got a heavy load, with counterweights and everything, that can end in disaster. I always make sure the tripod is level at night, just to prevent any unnecessary complications or accidents. That's why I also stress pushing down on the tripod to make sure all the leg locks are tight too. As for the balance, sure. But it's good to at least get it perfectly balanced to start. Then you can worry about adjusting things to be slightly east heavy. But this tracker doesn't even have a counterweight system so that's irrelevant to this video.
So in Germany this thing is way to powerless!!!! Do not buy it. With my canon eos rp and my tokina does not work a single time i tried. The motor is waaaaaaay to weak Dont waste your money on this shit. I had high hopes on this thing but it was a catastrophic disappointment. -Just a Warning to not ruin your Iinterest in shooting with startrackers!!!-
