Skywatcher Star Adventurer

Paul,
As promised here are my findings with Star Adventurer
Friday night was a disaster, what I was thinking? First attempt with new hardware and software in the dark, everything went wrong. Saturday night was much better.
Equipment used, Star Adventure, an old photo tripod I had lying around but a sturdy one, ball head, Canon 1100d camera, 55mm- 250mm canon lens, Skywatcher 2” LP filter, Nexus 7 tablet and usb cable with a OTG cable to connect camera to Nexus, Polar finder App not free about €2 and Dslr Dashboard App (free on google play store)highly recommended .
Polar alignment was no problem but you have to be careful not to move the mount, as you have to polar align before you attach ball head and camera.
All images were taken between 100mm to 250mm and ranging from 30 sec to 5 mins so I didn’t see much point shooting anything less than that as I was quite surprised with the results I was getting.
I think a 55mm to 250mm lens is equal to something like 85mm to 400m when used with Canon Aps
crop sensor, correct me if I’m wrong.
The images below are not about anything other than star shapes and time exposures.
No calendar winners here.
There was almost a full moon out which washed out everything but for a few stars.
So Capella was the target.

Camera and tripod

Moon @250mm

30s crop

1 min @250mm


3 min crop

5 min @116mm

5 min crop

Am I happy with the results……yes way better than I expected. My backyard skies don’t allow for anything like five minutes subs, more like 90 seconds but under dark skies away from light pollution I really feel the sky’s the limit and yes pun intended.
Battery life is stated as 72 hours (4x AA type) for Star adventure.
Nexus 7 fully charged oh! I don’t know all-night?
Two Canon batteries and you’re good to go.
Just waiting for Stephen at Ktec Telescopes to take delivery of counterweight kit so I can stick an 80mm refractor on and see what happens.
Hope this helps Paul, and anyone else thinking about getting one.
Long post and maybe too many images but there you have it.
Cheers
Tony

I like that image of Capella. Its optical companion of magnitude 10 looks very well directly south of the primary star.

Perhaps at some time in the future, we could have photos of double stars on our website!

Aubrey.

Tracking looks good. Five minutes at 105mm is the best I can do with my crop frame camera on the Polarie and only after a good polar alignment. Look forward to seeing some images.
Get an intervalometer for your camera if you don't have one already for those multi -exposures. I am using a Hahnel wireless one and it work well. It can be programed while sitting well away from the camera and activated up to 50 metres away. It was only $100.

Hi Tony

Thanks for the report, the mount looks like it has a lot of potential, I was also thinking along the lines of an 80mm refractor.

I'm pushing more and more towards dropping an email to Stephen.

You mentioned a 2" LP filter, how did you use this?

Thanks again.

Paul

Aubrey,
As soon as I get more familiar with this set-up I will post some double stars images.

John, have one of those got it on the Bay, might look into a wireless one.

Paul, I use a step down adapter 58mm to 48mm check out E bay I think it cost about €4.
It’s a pity the images I posted are such poor quality, they looks so much better before I reduced them for the web. I think you would be very impressed if you could see the lack of star movement in the three and five minute photos especially the fainter stars around Capella.

Tony

That is great to hear, Tony. The only double star images I see on the internet are the website www.cloudynights.com

Perhaps you can check out those guys for any pearls of wisdom.

Aubrey.