Astrophotography with the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer | DSLR Astrophotography
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- Опубликовано: 17 окт 2024
- In this video I demonstrate my process of doing astrophotography with the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer using a DSLR. The Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer is a great portable mount for astrophotography and as it's at the lower end of the price bracket, it's a great way to first get introduced in to deep space astrophotography.
Buy your Sky-Watcher Star Adventurere HERE! bit.ly/2QvQZ2f
*The equipment I use*
Sky-Watcher Evostar 72ED: bit.ly/3gBOKVO
HEQ5 Mount: bit.ly/31zmW08
Field flattener for 72ED: bit.ly/32wiP48
Canon camera adapter: bit.ly/3joCh9P
Dew strap & controller: bit.ly/2QwHuAb
US based viewers. Buy your gear at OPT here: bit.ly/3gAcee8
*Subscribe here* www.youtube.com...
Full review of the Star Adventurer on my website: astroexploring...
Manfrotto tripod: amzn.to/32dYGPM
Music: Ambiment - The Ambient by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (creativecommon...)
Source: incompetech.com...
Artist: incompetech.com/
Perfect editing tutorial, not complex at all... gives me a warm feeling knowing I don’t have to perform open heart surgery on photoshop to get a descent final result
Thank you!
Very nice info. Thank you.
I’m new to astrophotography but not photoshop, you’re doing fine with photoshop. For me, I got really comfortable in photoshop when I learned the hot keys (shortcut keys) but speed isn’t essential.
Found your video because I’m looking at the new gti mount and also making the leap to a baadar mod, so your imaging session was perfect info for me
Very nicely done, especially for me, a newbie. I managed to get my hands on the new Star Adventurer 2i and I have tried out my Canon 6D w/ 24-105L and a 75-300 III (Bortle 6-7 zone) and learned that both these lens are great at NOT astrophotography (target: Orion nebula). Was looking into the 72ED and was wondering if it would work on the Star Adventurer in regards to weight. This video clears that up. Thanks! Now off to convince the wife and find one in-stock in Canada. Wish me luck and clear skies to all!
did you get rid of your star adventurer? I'm having some issues with balancing and upgraded to a medium dove tail bar but i don't think it will fit.
Thank you very much for that video. Im currently upgrading my gear to pretty much the same combination you have shown in this video and was a tad bit frustrated to see nothing over the internet on what this combination actually can achieve :) this video was balm to my anxious nerves while my cam is at the shop to get modded and my gear is on its way to my home.
What i ordered:
600D is being modified
Sharpstar 61 EDPH II
StarAdventurer 2i
Astronomik UHC clip in
(plus a bunch of small assistances like bahtinov, dewheater, red dot for targetting and so on)
subscribed :)
clear skies!
Great video! Especially the editing at the end was perfect for an amateur like me. I wish I found this channel sooner. Thanks for posting.
You’re welcome! Glad you found it useful 😃🔭
Wow.That was cool,short editing with nice result.I also want to buy me a Skywatcher 72 ED APO refractor,already have a Canon 250D with remote intervalometer.I saw that the "F" was 00 on your Canon.Why?Is it because it's attached to the telescope and the camera doesn't know what lens is?How did you fixed that?Also when you use the intervalometer how do you set up you camera?You put it in BULB?Sorry for these questions,but I'm a beginner in this field and I'm trying to learn from the more experimented guys like you.Thanks.
The F stop is controlled by the telescope, as far as the camera is concerned it isn’t aware of what’s connected to it so it defaults to F00, this isn’t a problem. Setting the camera to bulb allows the remote shutter release to specify the length of the exposure, allowing to go over the camera’s built in limit of 30 seconds. Hope that helps
Question:
I have the identical setup that you used in this video; 72ed and mount. That said...I had quite a bit of trouble getting advice on a field flattener that is M42 or M48 ( I had both T-ring adapters). I settled on one that is M42 as I struggled to find one that was M48. Have I limited my light gathering ability or my setup in any way?
Thank you for the advice!
Do you see any color fringing with the glass from this scope?
What a brilliant channel you have, I watch all the main guys like astro backyard etc. but I can see yours being up there with the best of them. Believe it or not but i found the photo shop exellent as well. I think keeping thing basic will help so many people in this hobby.
Wow thanks so much for those kind words, especially comparing me with the legend that is Trevor!
I'm blown away by the quality of this video. And man was i surprised when i saw you only had 144 subs ! +1 and keep up the great work !
Me too 👌
Wow thanks so much, both of you! I haven’t been doing videos long so I really appreciate the support
@@AstroExploring we are here to support our fellow astronomers 👌
Just received my one yesterday :) Complete and utter noob so your videos are going to be super helpful 😊 Just starting off with my old Canon 500d, but ultimately have my eye on the 72 Ed too 😉
@@zafiracamper you will get the hang of it pretty soon, just keep at it when you get your DSLR camera ☺
Great channel! Keep up the good work! I like all the details of set-up. A couple ideas on this windy situation...if you can find a small bit of faux fur, and secure it over the camera mic, it will dramatically reduce the wind noise. Also, a 5kg or so sand bag or weight pulling down on the tripod will minimize the vibration. Cheers!
Thank you! Still pretty new to the RUclips thing so thanks for the tip!
I just found your channel and think it's great what you're doing. I'm just getting my first star tracker, after a year or so of owning a DSLR and trying out some different kinds of photography styles if you will. I really love astro really since a kid always been interested in the night sky like so many, but always thought it was going to be like super expensive to get started, but looking at it strictly from a monetary perspective it's actually cheaper than trying to get some good wildlife lenses going. I got a full time job and have kids, so I totally relate to being cramped for time. Just now we had the first 4 super clear nights in weeks, there was a new moon and no wind. Unfortunately I came down with a fever and sore throat, so I did go out the other night anyway because the weather was so good but couldn't do more than an hour before heading home. But I don't think the sky is falling down anytime soon so I'll just have a go when I'm not sick. :)
I'm also trying to muster the energy to record my journey because that's absolutely something that I enjoy watching from other people on RUclips, so maybe one day I'll post my first just like you did a few months back. All the best, cheers from a cold but uncommonly un-snowy Sweden. BTW my polar align is basically straight above my head, that's how far up I am. :D
Very interesting location, you must get some nice auroras up there! Glad to hear you’re wanting to get involved in this hobby, it really is a remarkable way to pass the time!
Another great video!
Im so desperate to get out and try out my new gear but the UK weather has been the longest running bad joke in history!
Thanks! Yeah you’re not wrong about the weather, it’s been awful!
love the content i have been looking at getting a HEQ5 and seen these star adventurer i use 400mm and a 500mm camera lens witch one would you say as you have both should i go for first i use a 10inch dob as well and after 15 years i want to start astrophotography ..all the best ..
As I’m sure you’re aware the mount is absolutely king for astrophotography. The HEQ5 will be the more stable mount and allow you to scale your gear in terms of buying telescopes etc. The Star Adventurer is great and will work well with your lenses as long as it has a sturdy tripod beneath it. There is obviously a huge difference in cost unless you can pick up an HEQ5 second hand. If you have the budget then I would go for HEQ5 as that will future proof you when you want bigger gear
Fantastic Video thanks. I've just received my star adventurer pro pack. Do you need to tighten the clutch fully before switching on the mount?
It doesn’t matter if the clutch isn’t tightened when you turn it on. It’s to allow the movement of your equipment in RA and then you tighten it up to hold the gear in place for tracking
Really nice upload and capture ☺👌🔭
Do you find wind a problem when using the counter weight bar and long lens ? I am finding it an issue myself.
It can be an issue yes. A sturdier tripod should sort that problem though. I have no issues with my bigger mount
@@AstroExploring Ok That is interesting as I have a very sturdy manfrotto 055 xprob steel tripod and a rather hefty benro tripod that I use and also a ioptron skytracker as well as the new version of the skywatcher star adventurer, the ioptron does not have a counter weight bar on that and with the same set up it seems much more stable than the sky watcher adventurer. it was pretty windy i have to say but the best out of the 2 was the ioptron without the counter weight bar, the skywatcher had no usable images as it was buffered around too much with the bar on, however i did get great images from the ioptron. I am aware there are more factors than stability like critical focus and atmospherics but i have those 2 set ups to make the most from the clear skies and clearly there is an issue with wind buffering the counter weight bar, I just thought some else might have the same issues and have resolved them.
@@ironian24 I haven't used the iOptron so can't comment on that but I'm glad you're getting good results with it. I imagine the counterweight acts as a bit of a sail on the SA during windy nights. It's a great bit of kit but being so small, adding the counterweight bar will certainly cause issues during those windier nights
Keep up the good work mate! Clear skies ;)
Thank you, clear skies to you!
Good morning AstroExploring,first of all I would like to congratulate you for this video tutorial very exhaustive,I have been doing atrophtography for more than a year, I have a canon eos 1100d fullspectrum and a canon lens 75/300, I also have the telescope skywatcher evostar and 72/420 apo,I have a normal astro-chasing track only suitable for dslr with lens not for telescopes, I would be in the process of buying the Skywatcher Star Adventurer to be able to use it with both my reflex and lens and the telescope. My question is this, the Skywatcher Star Adventurer with the Evostar 72ed telescope mounted on it, how many seconds can it chase without having the micromox? Thank you so much for your cooperation and good day
Hi just found your channel as a new owner of the same star tracker. Great shots what a difference the modification makes. Can I ask you mentioned Peter zelinka saying about not taking Dark frames, os this just with an astro modified dslr or with un modified? I've tried to trawl through his vids but can't seem to find it... do you have a link to it as I've had it drummed into me I have to do Dark frames. Taking a normal night to around 4-5 hrs out in a field rather chilly, never mind the extra counts on the shutter. Look forward to working my ways through your videos . Thanks
I can’t remember which video it is, sorry! What I would say though is to just try processing your images with and without dark frames and see what works best for you. For me, I found darks are often a waste of time with my DSLR but it very much depends on the camera
@@AstroExploring many thanks I found it , it was doing astro with dslr really intresting I did the test on my darks and lights like he where you crank up the shadows and exaposure . I have none of that banding that you can see, so just re done some data from the other night without the darks and bias and have to say I actually think it's come out cleaner and less patchy than it was .
@@AstroExploring do wish you could share images in the comments 🤣
I have a scope around the same weight using the SA pro, did you get anymore success with the tracking? I’m having trouble with tracking even though my PA and balance are both good
Yes my tracking works fine with my imaging setup. What tripod are you using? A sturdy tripod is essential
AstroExploring I have a normal manfrotto tripod, almost the same as yours I believe.
Hi Nick,
Great video. Can I ask what intervalometer do you use? Do you have a link for it?
Thanks
Hi Toby. I have this linked on my website, you can find it on this page under the shutter release cable section: astroexploring.com/sw-star-adventurer-pro it’s an affiliate link just FYI 🙂
Hi Nick, Interesting video as always, thank you. I'm a Raw beginner with Astrophotography, (started in January, I live in Hull, bortle 7) I've been around cameras for many years, but usually in daylight. This is a steep learning curve, but enjoyable so far. I'm using a Canon 600d modified, (by the same guy you went to) a Sigma 100 - 400 lens on a Skywatcher tracker. (The tracker is your fault by the way, well that's what I told my wife anyway). My images seem to be over exposed, the settings are 800 iso and 1min 30sec to 2min. The results are flat and washed out. Can you advise how many flats and how many bias frames for 70 lights. Is there a percentage ratio to go with?........Thanks Keith.
Haha thanks Keith, your wife is going to hate me as you buy more and more gear!
If you’re in a Bortle 7 zone then you’ll really need a light pollution filter to be able to image for 2 minutes. How good are you with post-processing? Adjusting the levels will make your image less washed out. If you want to send me a stacked TIFF I’d happily take a look. For light pollution filters it depends what you like to image. If it’s nebulae then consider going down the narrowband route like the Optolong L-eNhance or similar and buy the clip in version for your 600D. If it’s galaxies then something like the L-Pro will be good for blocking light pollution but will allow you to still image broadband targets. As for calibration frames, I take 30 flats and 50 bias. The bis frames I use for a few months at a time. I’ve never had any issues using those values.
@@AstroExploring Hi Nick, Thanks for the advice. With regards the filters, I wondered if that may be an issue. We have LED lights throughout the city, the skies always look a tad hazy. Will the filters you recommend help in blocking LED lights. I can get hold of a Skytech L-Pro max, a friend bought one for Milky Way pics but soon got bored with it. He's offered a long term loan on it......Do you go with 30 flats and 50 bias irrespective of the amount of lights? Keith
Great video! I noticed you're also from the UK so this will be hopefully easy question, but probably hard to answer in words, but I recently bought the same tracker you have there and I just received it today, assembled it, put it on my tripod, but I noticed a slight issue, I know it has to be polar aligned with Polaris, so North, but with the L bracket...you have to point the lens North, but Orion is roughly South, South West at the moment. The only way I can see to get it to point the other way is making it portrait rather than landscape on the padded camera mount, is that the only way? Do you have an instagram at all if sending images might help?
Hi Sam, I know what you mean but there is an answer. Feel free to get in touch on Instagram (AstroExploring) if that’s easier. Essentially you’ll release the clutch in the SA to turn the mount in right ascension and then turn the knob on the L bracket to move the camera declination, it’s easier than it sounds!
@@AstroExploring thank you, will give that a go later, I did how ever take the circular mount off the L bracket and replaced it with my manfrotto 3 axis head which sits much better because I didn't like the fact the camera was portrait and not landscape on the other mount. Will practise polar alignment today hopefully! Thanks again!
I have a Nikon d5500 camera. Which lens and telescope should I go for Astrography. And what should be my settings?
If you’re after a telescope then a wide field refractor would be a great place to start. If you’re using the Star Adventurer then something like the Sky-Watcher 72ED or WO Z61 would be excellent choices. Also check out the WO SpaceCat which has more of a lens than telescope feel to it. If you’re getting a lens then you want fast optics. A lot of people have plenty of success with the Samyang 135mm f2 lens.
Nice setup my friend ☺
Thank you! I think I’ll use my HEQ5 next time it’s that windy though!
Hi, when you said your camera been modified , what do they do to the camera ? where did you sent to be modified ? I have my old Canon EOS 600D, could it be modified ? ; I am enjoin your videos on Astrophotography very much , thank you for your help
The IR cut filter is removed to allow more red light to hit the sensor, which is great for Hydrogen alpha rich targets like the Orion Nebula. I sent mine to cheapastrophotography.com. I have a 650D, lots of people have their 600D modified so that won’t be a problem 👍🏻
Another awesome video dude!
Thank you!
I also have the 72ED Pro and Star Adventurer Pro, I would highly recommend getting yourself an ASIair and the asi 120mc-s guide cam and a mini guide scope, I can do 3-5min subs with a 90%+ keep rate now, before I was getting about a 50% keep rate with 2-3min subs.
I’ve had my eye on the ASIair and some guiding equipment for a while, sadly I’m suffering from a lack of funds for astrophotography at the moment! 😔
Take note: the new ASIair pro only works with usb3 camera's ;)...Ordered one and waiting for delivery (i use a D5300+star adv pro+Spacecat 51)
Bas Zonneveld great tip!
Can you share where you posted your camera for modification please :)
I got mine done at cheapastrophotography.com
Could you paste a link to Peter Zelinka's video about Dark being useless on DSLR?
Not sure which is it.
ruclips.net/video/KMsW9slSwzc/видео.html I think it’s this one but I can’t fully remember
Looking good mate. Will be interested to see what you think of the modified camera in the long run
Thanks mate 👍🏻
Why is shooting darks on a dslr pointless??? if you have long exposure NR off, the camera does not automatically apply a dark frame on the light to my knowledge. do you have a link to this guy, love to watch his explanation
Sorry I don’t have a link, the video is over a year old so I can’t remember which one it was! It is Peter Zelinka’s channel though. The idea is that you can’t match the temperature between your lights and darks even if taken at the same time and so you can end up adding more noise. In my experience taking darks didn’t add any benefit to my final image. The best thing you can do with a DSLR is start auto guiding so that you can either between frames, then you don’t need darks at all with a DSLR for sure
@@AstroExploring thanks for the answer... guess I must have overlooked that with Peter. I watched most of his videos.. His older videos tend to disregard dark and flat frames, but in his newer tutorials he does take them. Autoguiding is luckily possible as it does not involve the DSLR directly. Unfortunately for dithering I will have to buy another camera, as it is a pesky sony camera. Good camera, bad connectivity ;) I digress, it's another story
@@AstroExploring btw, subscribed, your content is very good and what i am looking for
Thank you!
Nice work. why is Running man not showing better?
Thanks! It’s because I only have 1 hour of integration time and only did 1 minute exposures. Need to expose for longer and have more integration time for it to show more. Plus I’m not the best at Photoshop 🙂
Wait a sec, why are darks pointless for dslrs?
Peter Zelinka has a great video on his channel explaining this. I tested it out for my setup and I found that using darks actually added more noise to my final image. Dithering is much better for a DSLR instead of darks. Give it a go and see what you think
@@AstroExploring sounds interesting, I'll try to find his video and try it out myself. Dithering is a bit tricky as I don't use a guide cam yet so can't automate it. Wonder if just moving the frame a tiny bit manually between shots would work.
Yeah I’m in the same boat as you at the minute as I don’t guide either. I think if you’ve already got some good images, try reprocessing them but without the darks and see how they turn out
Too much wind noise interfering with the very soft voice of the host ! Otherwise, great vid.
Apologies! I had hoped the wind noise wouldn’t come through so much! Glad you liked the vid though 🔭