Decided between a tracking mount and a star tracker for my first deep sky shot

I had to pick between the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer and a used iOptron CEM26 for shooting the Orion Nebula from my backyard in Portland. I went with the Star Adventurer since it was cheaper and more portable, but the polar alignment took me over an hour to get right. Ended up with some decent 30-second exposures at 200mm, though I wonder if the CEM26 would have handled my heavier lens better. Has anyone else had trouble balancing a DSLR on a lightweight tracker?

2 comments

2 Comments

uma_baker8816d ago

Polar alignment took me over an hour" - ha, rookie numbers. I spent two hours one night before realizing I'd focused on a star that was just a dust mote on my lens.

oliver_anderson16d ago

Did you ever figure out what went wrong with your alignment process? I had a similar trouble where I kept chasing a bright spot for what felt like forever until I remembered to check my finderscope was properly zeroed in with the main telescope. What finally worked for me was using a polar alignment app on my phone that guides you through step by step. It cut my time down to about 15 minutes and saved me a lot of frustration.