Pushing the Polarie

I went out with the Ice and Space forum members to the Pony Club an hour north of Sydney last night. I wanted to push my Vixen Polarie to see what it could do. I have a polar scope but polar alignment on the SCP is tricky. This is a single 5 minute frame (with noise reduction on) tracked on the Polarie using a 24-105L lens at full zoom. The effective focal length is 160mm on the crop frame sensor (7D)

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It sure beats carrying an equatorial mount around. Great for travelling and camping.

Here is a three minute wide field shot of the Orion region (this time taken from Wiruna). Some flaring from the brighter stars and Jupiter. I was amazed what a single shot can show of the nebulosity around Orion. Tokina 11-6mm lens at 16mm and F2.8 ISO 1600.
(I rotated the frame for the sake you northeners :laugh: )

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Really nice shots John. Since I sold my Astrotrac I've been looking for a small yet decent tracker for wide field work. How do you rate the Polarie? What's the longest you can run a shot for?

Frank_Ryan_jr wrote: Really nice shots John. Since I sold my Astrotrac I've been looking for a small yet decent tracker for wide field work. How do you rate the Polarie? What's the longest you can run a shot for?

Depending on the focal length of the lens. At 100mm (effectively 160mm on a crop frame sensor) easily 3 to 5 minutes if you polar align reasonably well. Its a nice and compact piece of kit.

Holy crap!!! They're some great images, soo many stars ! :bigshock:

Man I haven't posted here in ages - Years nearly.
Guess that's what having kids does to your hobby time.
I'm glad you approve of it John. I've been missing my astrotrack so I'm gonna buy this bit of kit.
I'll only want it for wide field shots. 12mm lens.
I'm assuming you should get a good 10 min of tracking going that wide with it?
What's the story with the "landscape" tracking setting?
is that for not blurring the foreground? is it useful or a gimmicky thing?

Hi Frank.

Welcome back to IFAS

I use an 11-16mm Tokina lens. Lining up with a simple compass will give me 3 minutes no bother. With a polar alignment scope you could go all night at these focal lengths. It tracks quite well. Polar scope is extra though so it does add up. Have a look at the iOptron version which has the scope included. I'll try and dig up some 5 minute subs. Rarely go beyond this due to noise and airglow.
I haven't used the landscape mode yet but I believe it works.