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Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer question!

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Rutgerbus

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There must be people on this forum which also bought and use the Star Adventurer. So I thought I'll ask a question about polar alignment.

I'll try to make things a bit clearer for those who don't have the tracker with the (quick) drawing below.

First of all, I believe that the Star Adventurer's polarscope is both horizontally- and vertically mirrored. This means that North = South and West = East (correct me when I'm wrong)

When using a normal (non-mirrored) polarscope and the "Kochab's Clock" rule this means that, when a line (the red line in the drawing) is drawn from Polaris to Kochab the true North Pole (marked with a red X) is at ~5 O'clock in the reticle of your polarscope.

So, does this mean, with the double mirrored view of the Star Adventurers polarscope, that I have to put Polaris at the position of ther Green X or the Purple X???? Or do I just have to place it at ~7 O'clock next to the blue X.

So basically, where do I put Polaris on the reticle of the Star Adventures Polar Scope when the Little Dipper is positioned in the sky as depicted below.

Your help would be tremendously appriciated.



cc618e5baa2645e4a39c72a45997d8fa.jpg



I allready got some nice results with Star Adventurer at 420mm and 100sec exposure meaning that I'm doing something right, but just to be sure I'll ask "the experts" here on this forum.



bcea41eae8c6496a9e93f9b05e412fc0.jpg







--
www.rutgerbus.nl
Photographic Moments
A photon only stops "existing" when it is captured by your sensor.
 
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Your camera tripod has very small diameter legs and three segments. Spreading out the legs will help some, as will adding weight. But ultimately that shaky little tripod will always be inferior and marginal for AP. My Celestron tripod has 2" diameter legs and weighs close to 40 pounds. That is quite substantial considering that camera tripods probably weigh less than 3 pounds and have 1/2" to 3/4" diameter legs that easily vibrate.

BTW, I've got the DEC bracket and it is good, but I still had too much vibration and movement on my camera tripod. It isn't the weight on the mount as much as the multitude of fairly loose connections and shaky tripod. Even with my full frame camera and 400mm telephoto I'm putting less than half the load limit on my Star Adventurer, yet it vibrates like crazy. Your tripod has a connection point to the wedge mount, which has a connection point to the Star Adventurer tracking mount, which has a connection to the DEC bracket, which has a connection to the ball mount, which has a connection to the camera, which has a connection to the lens. That is six connections. Some of those can be tightened down pretty well. Some cannot. The camera mount for the lens is probably fairly loose and sloppy for example. I've also noticed a lot of play in any quick attach/detach plates, so if you use a ball mount with same that will be pretty loosy goosy too! With all those connection points any movement will get passed along and sometimes multiplied. As I said before, shorter FL is easier to cover up movement because of the wider field of view. So just be aware that you probably won't get consistently stable images at 200mm and greater. You will get some, but they will be few a very far in between.
 
question i just got this tool and trying it not sure if aliged right still getting little bit of a trail on 30 sec exp other question s if I want to shoot say the Milky way or something in direction other the north star do i do the alingment and the just point camera the way i wish and it will still track correctly?

could really use some help

THanks
 
A Noble said:
question i just got this tool and trying it not sure if aliged right still getting little bit of a trail on 30 sec exp other question s if I want to shoot say the Milky way or something in direction other the north star do i do the alingment and the just point camera the way i wish and it will still track correctly?

could really use some help

THanks
Click to expand...
Yes, the tracker should be aligned on the Polaris if you are on the Northern hemisphere. It can be a bit tricky to align the Star Adventurer since it can only be aligned when your equipment is not on the rig. So when you think you have done proper alignment on Polaris and you then place your equipment on the tracker (camera and lens that is) it might happen that your alignment is off again due to the weight of the camera+lens....If You have the rail with counterweight which is also available for the tracker, then, you might be able to align at polaris with the equipment already in place, since the rail has a slot in it where you can look through.

And yes, when you are aligned with polaris, you can point your camera in any direction and it will track the stars smoothly.

Good luck with your tracker.
 
I align my Star Adventurer with the equipment already mounted on the tracking mount. This works a lot better than attaching it after aligning. I set up the mount and position it close to where it needs to point and also position the camera close to where I will be pointing it. I use the dec bracket though, and it allows me to see Polaris with my equipment mounted.

A Noble, if you use and app to predict wher Ploaris should be in the alignment scope, be sure that app has been set to rotate the view 180° else the alignment will be off.

--
Jack Swinden
W5JCK, amateur radio operator
An astrophotography hobbyist and amateur radio instructor and examiner. Sony a7 and Sony a6000. https://www.flickr.com/photos/jackswinden/albums
 
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Thanks hope to get it out this weekend and give it a try do you shoot with the cable and 60 sec exp or do you do something different? sorry fr all the questions just want to try and learn asap before heading out west to arches to try some night shooting
 
W5JCK said:
A Noble, if you use and app to predict wher Ploaris should be in the alignment scope, be sure that app has been set to rotate the view 180° else the alignment will be off.
Click to expand...
There is one visual that will remove all uncertainty about 180 deg rotation. Simply point your static camera at Polaris and shoot some star trails :) In this case, it was a 200 mm lens so it's a tight field of view. Shot taken approx 10 pm and it's pretty clear that Polaris is at the 5 o'clock position. Both my Polar Align app and my polar scope had Polaris in the 11 pm position. Dave



d2fd49d4030444e894337a60fa47e2c4.jpg
 
A Noble said:
Thanks hope to get it out this weekend and give it a try do you shoot with the cable and 60 sec exp or do you do something different? sorry fr all the questions just want to try and learn asap before heading out west to arches to try some night shooting
Click to expand...
I shoot with Sony a7 and a6000, so no SA cables available. I think they have only Canon and Nikon cables. So I use an intervalometer. As far as time for shutter that depends on my lens. A 400mm telephoto seems to do well up to about 3 minutes. I suspect a WA or UWA could go longer without hiccups. The SA can be finicky with big, long, heavy lenses. I have more keepers the shorter the FL.
 
Well as a complete newbie to star gazing and especially trackers I found this really great, first ever test using my Nikon D5300 with 18-140mm lens at 140mm(210mm eq) f/5.6 and ISO 200 allowed me to get nicely round stars on a 4 minute exposure, very impressive, especially as I've never set up a scope or done Polar alignment before

Without a tracker the max exposure time woul be 2.4 seconds and that would still show trailing if I zoomed to 100% on the image, the 4 minute pic show no trails at all though I do need to improve my method a bit as I may have jogged it a tiny bit whilst holding the remote release

Lots of light pollution from the moon and mistyness but I am very impressed

4fdc206de7d94b7ab00f11f8423f0697.jpg



I used the Android app "Polar Finder", set the app to the Sky Watcher Adventurer so there was no flipping or flopping to be done, just align in the finder exactly as you see it on the app screen

Can't wait to get out and some some proper pics. last night was a full moon and it was from my back garden and misty clouds started drifting in so not idea, very very pleased



Oh yes just to add that I did go through the scope alignment method during the day before the first test, the results certainly seem worth the effort

Next test will be (just for a giggle) my 810mm(eq) 5.6 lens on my J5 but I need my newly ordered ball head to arrive first
 
the only app I can find on my phone is called polarisView.
 
W5JCK said:
Your camera tripod has very small diameter legs and three segments. Spreading out the legs will help some, as will adding weight. But ultimately that shaky little tripod will always be inferior and marginal for AP. My Celestron tripod has 2" diameter legs and weighs close to 40 pounds. That is quite substantial considering that camera tripods probably weigh less than 3 pounds and have 1/2" to 3/4" diameter legs that easily vibrate.
Click to expand...
Hi Jack

I have been looking around the Internet and found your reply here! I am looking for a solution to this same problem too.

I have a Celestron Heavy Duty tripod for the 9.25" Evo, and it's the one that has 2" diameter legs, probably the same as yours - but how does one find a mount adapter that has a 3/8 bolt at the center so I can attach the Star Adventurer?

best regards

Kian
 
terrybrooks said:
Well as a complete newbie to star gazing and especially trackers I found this really great, first ever test using my Nikon D5300 with 18-140mm lens at 140mm(210mm eq) f/5.6 and ISO 200 allowed me to get nicely round stars on a 4 minute exposure, very impressive, especially as I've never set up a scope or done Polar alignment before

Without a tracker the max exposure time woul be 2.4 seconds and that would still show trailing if I zoomed to 100% on the image, the 4 minute pic show no trails at all though I do need to improve my method a bit as I may have jogged it a tiny bit whilst holding the remote release

Lots of light pollution from the moon and mistyness but I am very impressed

4fdc206de7d94b7ab00f11f8423f0697.jpg

I used the Android app "Polar Finder", set the app to the Sky Watcher Adventurer so there was no flipping or flopping to be done, just align in the finder exactly as you see it on the app screen

Can't wait to get out and some some proper pics. last night was a full moon and it was from my back garden and misty clouds started drifting in so not idea, very very pleased

Oh yes just to add that I did go through the scope alignment method during the day before the first test, the results certainly seem worth the effort

Next test will be (just for a giggle) my 810mm(eq) 5.6 lens on my J5 but I need my newly ordered ball head to arrive first
Click to expand...
I have the same App installed on my celphone...Did you let the counterweight shaft point down to the North??? Or did you aplied Cochabs clock rule first (align the counterweight shaft in such a way it is in line with Polaris and Kochab) before putting polaris at the marked position in the App. (no matter where 0-3-6-9 position is)

--
www.rutgerbus.nl
Photographic Moments
A photon only stops "existing" when it is captured by your sensor.
 
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