Easiest tracker to set up/use for wide field

I do just wide field nightscape stuff right now, typically with the milky way.

I have an iOptron Skytracker (non-pro version) that works OK in a pinch, but there are some things that bother me a bit with it.

The main one of these is that since I'm doing nightscape stuff with it (which includes much of the landscape) the unit itself often gets in the way and blocks my camera from doing the composition I want. It is fine pointed up at the sky, but including a lot of foreground is often not possible.

Also I find it a bit of a pain to polar align, and none of the knobs really tighten down that tight so any time I recompose or touch the camera at all I often lose my polar alignment.

Are the Skytracker Pro or Skywatcher Star adventurer any better in these respects? Basically I'm just looking for something quick and easy to use if possible. I'm not really concerned with how they perform with big heavy lenses (I'm shooting with Sony mirrorless FF).

I have the Skywatcher Star Adventurer and it works like a gem. Easy to use, especially with wide-angle lenses. It's basically point and shoot like in: Adjust your latitude to the appropriate value, then you can roughly align to Polaris (or south-pole) and fire away.

It will give you about 3-5min exposure without star trails for a 14mm wide-angle lens.

When you go more tele- you will need a more proper polar alignment and therefore you need to get the dovetail-plate which has a hole in the middle so you can both keep your equipment on your SA and watch the position of Polaris closely to garantee proper alignment.

I can go up to 1min exposure with a 300mm f/4 lens without trailing stars. Even up to 5min when guiding de SA over one axis via the ST4 autoguider port.

Vcize said:

I do just wide field nightscape stuff right now, typically with the milky way.

Click to expand...

Keep up the good work!

Vcize said:

I have an iOptron Skytracker (non-pro version) that works OK in a pinch, but there are some things that bother me a bit with it.

The main one of these is that since I'm doing nightscape stuff with it (which includes much of the landscape) the unit itself often gets in the way and blocks my camera from doing the composition I want. It is fine pointed up at the sky, but including a lot of foreground is often not possible.

Click to expand...

What about another ball head - getting some added space?

Why lots of foreground? Usually the sky is the main point of interest...

Vcize said:

Also I find it a bit of a pain to polar align, and none of the knobs really tighten down that tight so any time I recompose or touch the camera at all I often lose my polar alignment.

Click to expand...

I use the Vixen Polarie with the original Vixen wedge - more sturdy but more expensive and not easier to use. We all have different priorites - mine is beeing willing to pay a bit more to get what will serve me better for years - but that's me...

Vcize said:

Are the Skytracker Pro or Skywatcher Star adventurer any better in these respects? Basically I'm just looking for something quick and easy to use if possible. I'm not really concerned with how they perform with big heavy lenses (I'm shooting with Sony mirrorless FF).

Click to expand...

Guess all those star trackers are very much the same - made to sell to the mass market for a lower price than the better star trackers (nothing wrong with that, but if wanting better build quality and tracking there are other trackers around - so it is).

My main tracker for heavier loads is the Astrotrack. Impressive load capacity and a measly 5 arc sec tracking error. Not the cheapest one around, but a great tracker - with quirks of its own like every tracker available...

Would probably stay with the tracker at hand until getting a good idea about what to go for when ready for the next level...

Trollmannx said:

Vcize said:

I do just wide field nightscape stuff right now, typically with the milky way.

Click to expand...

Keep up the good work!

Tristimulus said:

I have an iOptron Skytracker (non-pro version) that works OK in a pinch, but there are some things that bother me a bit with it.

The main one of these is that since I'm doing nightscape stuff with it (which includes much of the landscape) the unit itself often gets in the way and blocks my camera from doing the composition I want. It is fine pointed up at the sky, but including a lot of foreground is often not possible.

Click to expand...

What about another ball head - getting some added space?

Why lots of foreground? Usually the sky is the main point of interest...

Tristimulus said:

Also I find it a bit of a pain to polar align, and none of the knobs really tighten down that tight so any time I recompose or touch the camera at all I often lose my polar alignment.

Click to expand...

I use the Vixen Polarie with the original Vixen wedge - more sturdy but more expensive and not easier to use. We all have different priorites - mine is beeing willing to pay a bit more to get what will serve me better for years - but that's me...

Tristimulus said:

Are the Skytracker Pro or Skywatcher Star adventurer any better in these respects? Basically I'm just looking for something quick and easy to use if possible. I'm not really concerned with how they perform with big heavy lenses (I'm shooting with Sony mirrorless FF).

Click to expand...

Guess all those star trackers are very much the same - made to sell to the mass market for a lower price than the better star trackers (nothing wrong with that, but if wanting better build quality and tracking there are other trackers around - so it is).

My main tracker for heavier loads is the Astrotrack. Impressive load capacity and a measly 5 arc sec tracking error. Not the cheapest one around, but a great tracker - with quirks of its own like every tracker available...

Would probably stay with the tracker at hand until getting a good idea about what to go for when ready for the next level...

Click to expand...

I think this advice is spot on. I also have the Polarie and the Astrotrac, and an EQ6. As with any tracker, or even lower end equatorial mount - it's often the mechanics of polar aligning and getting on to target that make or break these devices for the consumer experience. I have had to modify or purchase additions for all my devices. I use a Manfrotto geared head to align my composition at higher focal lengths. It's not cheap, and while the portability of these devices is attractive - frankly, getting on to a target or aligning a composition is simply way easier with a relatively light equatorial mount with slow motion controls or goto capability - even when wide-field. Is weight and portability the biggest concern? Because, financially speaking, a lot of german equatorial mounts make better sense. It's portability and weight versus capability already built in.

Vcize said:

Also I find it a bit of a pain to polar align, and none of the knobs really tighten down that tight so any time I recompose or touch the camera at all I often lose my polar alignment.

Click to expand...

I agree about the knobs, Absolutely not possible to get them tight enough. I fixed the knob problem by going to the hardware store and and finding alternate screws that screw in and added wing nuts to the end so I could tighten them up easily. The knob problem is now solved. No more slipping.

Vcize said:

I do just wide field nightscape stuff right now, typically with the milky way.

I have an iOptron Skytracker (non-pro version) that works OK in a pinch, but there are some things that bother me a bit with it.

Click to expand...

Have the same tracker.

Vcize said:

The main one of these is that since I'm doing nightscape stuff with it (which includes much of the landscape) the unit itself often gets in the way and blocks my camera from doing the composition I want. It is fine pointed up at the sky, but including a lot of foreground is often not possible.

Click to expand...

This is common for many mounts especially the further south you are. Of course the solution is some kind of bracket or head that gets the camera up & allows it to be pointed down. Problem is there aren't many options that are reasonably priced & low enough weight. I made this little aluminum wedge that solved this for me but I was a machinist. Made it because I too delight in getting close foreground in my images w/ starry sky.




DIY 45º aluminum wedge

You could have something similar fabricated at a local shop for under $150 but..... My ball heads are smallish & maybe a tall big one like the Sirui K-40 would do the trick. There are also low cost Z plates but they obviously add some flex: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Aluminum-Fo...525738?hash=item4d449b896a:g:B5UAAOSwG-1WzkuR

Vcize said:

Also I find it a bit of a pain to polar align, and none of the knobs really tighten down that tight so any time I recompose or touch the camera at all I often lose my polar alignment.

Click to expand...

Yup, I'm always worried something is going to fall off.

Vcize said:

Are the Skytracker Pro or Skywatcher Star adventurer any better in these respects? Basically I'm just looking for something quick and easy to use if possible. I'm not really concerned with how they perform with big heavy lenses (I'm shooting with Sony mirrorless FF).

Click to expand...

Also have the SA for use on the eclipse & you can find a thread where I reported some lesser but similar problems w/ it. These units are difficult to lock down & discussions here say all the new small mounts still suffer some of these problems but the low cost early designs are probably the worst. So you can get a different mount or find ways to live with the old one. My experience w/ the original iOptron has always delivered very usable images. Its just a bit disconcerting to use.

Vcize said:

I do just wide field nightscape stuff right now, typically with the milky way.

I have an iOptron Skytracker (non-pro version) that works OK in a pinch, but there are some things that bother me a bit with it.

The main one of these is that since I'm doing nightscape stuff with it (which includes much of the landscape) the unit itself often gets in the way and blocks my camera from doing the composition I want. It is fine pointed up at the sky, but including a lot of foreground is often not possible.

Also I find it a bit of a pain to polar align, and none of the knobs really tighten down that tight so any time I recompose or touch the camera at all I often lose my polar alignment.

Are the Skytracker Pro or Skywatcher Star adventurer any better in these respects? Basically I'm just looking for something quick and easy to use if possible. I'm not really concerned with how they perform with big heavy lenses (I'm shooting with Sony mirrorless FF).

Click to expand...

The SkyTracker/ Polarie are still the easiest , lightest, most portable mounts out there for "Astroscapes", using a wide angle lens.


Going up the ladder in mounts is only going to make things worse.


I'd try a different, taller, ballhead.

Trollmannx said:

Vcize said:

I do just wide field nightscape stuff right now, typically with the milky way.

Click to expand...

Keep up the good work!

Tristimulus said:

I have an iOptron Skytracker (non-pro version) that works OK in a pinch, but there are some things that bother me a bit with it.

The main one of these is that since I'm doing nightscape stuff with it (which includes much of the landscape) the unit itself often gets in the way and blocks my camera from doing the composition I want. It is fine pointed up at the sky, but including a lot of foreground is often not possible.

Click to expand...

What about another ball head - getting some added space?

Why lots of foreground? Usually the sky is the main point of interest...

Click to expand...

In my opinion, a great nightscape has a great foreground as well as great sky. Same with a landscape: great foreground and great sky.

I do nightscapes with both an iOptron Skytracker and an Astrotrac. In the iOptron: change the thumb screws (metric) to Allen heads, then tighten them down easily with an Allen wrench.

Use a decent ball head that lets you get low. Example:

gallery page with more info:





Palouse Falls, aurora and the Milky Way

If you have ever been to Palouse falls, would would know that the bank of the pond at the bottom of the image is at a very steep angle, probably about 70 degrees down from horizontal. This is a mosaic made with a 35 mm lens, so I had to point the camera pointing far below the horizontal.

Roger

I firstly bought Vixen Polarie, and then added Skywatcher Adventure and iOptron to my Equipment list. The fastest, easiset and most portable of them all is Vixen Polarie.

/stefan

The wedge that ships with the SkyTracker Pro is much improved over the older SkyTracker, and is in fact almost identical to the Star Adventurer wedge. it's much easier to use, and the new version of the iOptron polar scope is fantastic. I also really enjoy the convenience factor of the big rechargeable battery.

a taller ball head would seem to be the answer to your other question.