Skywatcher Star Adventurer

BTW, what is the name of the device that allows you set up the camera and it takes timed images without you being there? I heard it mentioned last night and I can't remember what it is called.

Thanks

Paul

Hi Paul, that mount and set-up really looks the business.

The sky was real promising at first but as I was getting ready head out to Wicklow the cloud rolled in.

I think it's an intervalometer (remote control) that someone might have mentioned?

John

Thanks John, that's the lad, I had a rough idea what it was, but just couldn't grasp it.

Paul

I managed to get down to the Sugarloaf with some of the lads last evening to test out the Star Adventurer. Polar alignment was a simple matter, I downloaded an app that gives the precise position of Polaris from your location, once this wad done it was time to take a few test images.

Initially I had the ISO set too high at 1600, the sky was washed out, dropping the ISO down to 100 vastly improved the images taken, I tinkered around with different exposure times up to 180 seconds and I was pleased to note that there was no trailing.

The images were obtained at ISO 100 and f/2.8.

180 seconds:

www.flickr.com/photos/32880031@N03/15250376043/

30 seconds:

www.flickr.com/photos/32880031@N03/15844216956/

As you can see from the 180 sec. exposure the sky conditions cannot allow such a long exposure, being too close to Dublin, though the stars appear nicely round.

One other thing, when I took an image of M45 the stars looked very bloated, and strange, can anyone explain why this happened?

www.flickr.com/photos/32880031@N03/15868060651/

One last thing, how can I achieve the best focus in manual mode?

Thanks

Paul

Hi Paul, I find the best focus is achieved in manual mode by the following:

I use my live view:
1. set the focal length you are going to shoot at when composing your shot
2. move the camera to a star field with a moderate bright star and centre
3. zoom in on the bright star to max zoom and manually focus until best focus
4. move back the camera to the intended star field to be shot

Otherwise, set the manual focus ring to infinity and take a 30 second exposure, tweak it slightly left and right after reviewing each shot to achieve best focus

I hope that this helps,

Keith.

I was using live view on M45, Keith, your tip for a focus on either side of infinity sounds like a solid tip and I will certainly try that out the next time and see if that improves the stars of M45.

Paul