One can 'fix' (avoid) having to rebalance 'right ascension' after adjusting fore-aft balance by doing the fore-aft balancing first. It requires that you determine where your rig's (loaded with guide scope, etc) CG is. Easy peasy. Put 3" or longer round cylinder on the table, perhaps a pen body. Set your lens foot-rail on the cylinder (a pencil could do) and see if it tips forward or backward. Find the point where it is neither nose heavy nor nose light and mark that location on your camera's foot/rail. That's the point of contact with the cylinder. The balance point. When you mount the camera to the tracker, adjust the camera's balance point (I said to mark it) exactly centered on the tracker's Arca or Vixen mount. They will be centered exactly over the center of rotation about the declination axis. Finally, do your RA balance (slightly east heavy) and you are done. Point away. Or 'point and re-check balance', but when you do your job right, there won't be much to correct for. (BS ME)
LOL I did the "unscrew the wrong knob" on my setup just yesterday...thought i had the DEC knob but had the neewer arca swiss clamp knob. Loosened it and my whole camera+lens slid back instantly but THANK GOD for the little safety screw on bottom of my arca swiss plate....saved the whole thing from falling off. Almost had a heart attack! Lesson learned! You can also buy just a heavier counter weight by itself for the Star Adventurer...I have one (2.1kg) but haven't needed it yet for my current setup.
On the star adventurer, you dont have to completely remove the arca swiss bracket. Just remove the camera, loosen the dec clutch, and spin the arca bracket to the other side.. It'll save you from having to rethread it in the dark
For What it's worth: I have the star adventurer, and as mentioned maybe here or another of your vids, the counter weight isn't heavy enough for the bigger camera/Lens combos. I looked for another counter balance weight, but all I could find is the rod and weight combination for $30. So I bought a threaded rod off Amazon. M6-1.0 x 250mm. It will screw into the bottom of the counterbalance rod and 250mm is roughly 9 inches. I put a washer and wing nut on the bottom so it can't slide off. I also bought from ACE a longer screw with black knob to screw into the existing weight, so it would touch and hold on the threaded rod. Rod was $9. Black knob and screw was $5. All of this allows the same weight to slide farther and provide excellent balance.
What an awesome tutorial, Peter! I've been struggling intermittently with tracking for a while. I would randomly nights where I couldn't track longer than 30 seconds. On one rare occasion I could track as long as 2 or 3 mins, but I never knew how I achieved it. I had no idea that my declination imbalance was throwing me off. I "salvaged" the arca-swiss clamp from my ball mount and I am able to achieve perfect balance now. Thanks for your great content and for helping a newbie solve such a vexing riddle. Clear skies!
Great tips on balancing Peter. The right ascension AND declination balance is key to getting much better images and I've struggled a bit with this until seeing your video. Found a bracket in my toolbox and followed your instructions and got perfect balance in both axis. Cheers from Scotland.
Thanks for the video! I'm a new owner of a Star Adventurer and people online were telling me I'd never be able to balance anything larger than 200m regardless of the weight. After watching this video I was able to remove the ballhead, fabricate a counterweight extension, and now can properly balance a large lens!
Attaching DSLR to the SkyGuider Pro, I saw you holding your breath and maybe a droplet of sweat down your forehead. Glad you got your components back and functioning. I'm getting the SkyGuider Pro soon and this video will help greatly with my DSLR setup. Thank You, Peter.
Super video Peter. I have the Star Adventurer. Your fix of attaching a ballhead to the Dec bracket is ingenious! I don’t want to pay $30+ for another entire counterweight rod/weight just to get the counterweight. I’ll try this fix next time. Thanks!
Wow Peter great timing!... I just started using the Star Adventurer last night. This tutorial has excellent information that I'll be putting into use right now. Thank you so much!
This was SOOOOO helpful, thank you so much. I just got a Radian 61 telescope last week and I had, mostly anyhow, gotten it mounted to my tracker correctly, but being used to using just a camera and lens before I only adjusted my aim with a ball head and I was totally stumped as to how to adjust my aim to different targets. Now I just have to wait patiently for that seemingly rare combo of clear skies and no moon to occur and take this out for it's first test drive. You've been my main source of information and help since I first began attempting astrophotography maybe 18 months ago and your knowledge and wisdom have helped me greatly in getting decent results with limited equipment and budget. I can't wait to see how the new telescope and your great instruction will improve my results.
Thanks for the tip(s). I'm new to the Star Adventurer and have watched several of your other videos such as "Setting Up the Star Adventurer". Today I tried to set it up for deep sky and found all sorts of problems with balancing everything. This video, however, explains how I can do this and am going to try it out tonight. I'll try some deep sky stuff tomorrow night. Again, thanks.
You‘re an absolute life saver! Love your videos, everytime after trying to shoot, questions and problems came up and then you instantly bring the solution, can‘t wait to try again with all your tips and tricks :-D thanks a lot for this tutorial 👍🏼
Thanks a lot for your videos, Peter. I recently purchased a skyguider Pro, and for mounting my telephoto lens, I also bought a rotating quick release plate (Leofoto RH-1L). This helps in two ways: just like the Neewer you recommended, it adds an arca swiss plate on the declination piece (mickey mouse accessory), but also allows rotating my telephoto in an stable axis. Absolutely helpful for reposition my telephoto in a quick and accurate way. It just adds 1.5 cm in height, which is not a problem in balancing the equipment. Hope this trick helps someone. Thanks again for all your recommendations and videos.
Good videos peter, im from Chile and im starting in AP , thinking to buy a iOptron SGP and our tips and videos are very usefull, thanks 4 sharing your knowledge
Instead of a clamp with a knob, a clamp with a lever will work much better and reduce all that remove and put back on exercise. Similar price range but much less heartache.
19:15 - begin of Star Adventurer part Thank you for this well made video. On the Star Adventurer, the Arca Swiss clamp is not necessary and should also be avoided. The L-bracket's round plate is rubber covered and also much bigger than the Arca Swiss clamp, thus the camera can easily be attached to the plate directly - 1 screw only to fix instead of 2. ObviousIy in this video, the Arca Swiss clamp can imply handling problems without need. I believe every avoidable part should be avoided in a small setup: Fix the camera body (or tele lens mount ring) directly on the rubber covered plane with the srew followed by the declination clutch as needed. For easy readjustments just loosen the declination clutch a bit and and turn the camera body (lens mount ring) at will - without the risk of a camera / lens fall. A have a couple of Arca Swiss clamps - but I simply remove it and don't use it in this specific case.
I've look at this video several times and found it to be a great help. I've just ordered a Star Adventurer Astro kit and it does not come with the counter weight kit. I've ordered the counter weight kit also, but no one has them in stock, so it is back ordered and will take some time. The way you attached the ball head to the declination bracket may very well work for me. Also, it would appear that I could possible attach something to the end of the declination bracket where the counter weight bar screws in assuming the thread size is 3/8 or 1/4.. I think this may actually allow me to use the tracker when I get it.
Hi Peter, thanks for your helpful video tutorial on how to balance the Starwatcher Adventure , i have a SA that i'm taking to the island of Barbados in December while visiting my family there. I planned to do Astrophotography while on the island, it will a challenge as the star polaris is at 13 degrees latitude , thanks again. Corin Lewis, London , UK
3 года назад
Another really useful video Peter, thanks for all all the work you have been putting in making these
Thanks again Peter, for the comprehensive tutorial. I had already adopted the arca Swiss mount on my skywatcher it made life so easy. Keep up the great work and clear skies.👍
what i have been doing is using a rack focuser slide for macro-photography to balance declination. Its has a geared knob to move the slider back a forth. works well for dslr and lens. not sure how well it works for a heavier telescope though.
I can tell you’re traumatized from breaking your camera & lens 😂 I have the same Tamron 150-600mm lens for my Canon that I use for wildlife and the same tracker. I’ve been trying to figure out how I could use my Tamron for astrophotography and your tutorials have been so helpful. Thanks!!
it`s very important tohave tthe counterweight also close to the center of rotation, not just the camera setup. The balancing procedure might work his way, but if you want to achieve longer exposure times, this is not the way. invest the money and get a heavier counterweight. 2,5kg was 30€ for me.
I'm curious why this would be? Is there an issue with the counterweight on the longer arm causing some sort of vibration affecting the shot? Or would it be having the greater mass would stabilize the platform better? Does this also apply to using a telescope, or not, due to visual sighting isn't as "demanding" as a long-exposure photograph? Please expound on this for us beginners (or at least I am!) :)
@@paca_bill4863 I'm curious as well, as my solution was to simply make and add an extension for the counterweight provided in the SA kit. The main drawback is that the longer arm can be a bit more in the way and bumped accidentally.
Good luck in using the Star Adv or Sky guider at 400 or 600mm with all this gear mounted on it, without Auto guiding! You will be lucky to get 10 to 20 second exposures without star trails!
Hi Could you please explain about DIY trackers(design,errors ,limitations and applicability).As a beginner I don't want to spend too much money on tracking setup to test my skills.
Peter, have you ever had to adjust the set screw under the front of the Star Adventurer to adjust clutch. My SA out of the box had a full 1mm of "clutch wobble" when tightened. Support said to use this set screw. The set screw fixes the wobble, but locks the clutch which is useless! SO I thought I'd ask. Great videos, i hope someday to buy your mastercourse.
Great info ! Thanks 👍 I have an 8 lb (roughly less) setup (for my wildlife photo) with a Nikon D810 & 200-500mm lens ... will the Star Adventurer be OK ?
You can not extend the counterweight rod on the Star Adventurer by buying another counterweight kit. The Star Adventurer has different thread diameter from where it mounts to det the declination bracket and the safety screw. The safety screw is much thinner than the end you screw into to det declination bracket. Thus you can not buy another counterweigh kit to solve the problem with the counterweigh being to light. They simply will not fit into eachother. Also, an easier way to change "direction" of the Arca Swiss clamp is to just loosen the cluthc and spin it 180 degrees. No need to take it off and reattach
Also, have you ever used/would you recommend this set up to attach the Skywatcher Star Adventurer 2i to the tripod base. I wanted to buy a tripod with this system, but they went out of business. Now I find it in Manfrotto. It seems sturdy and convenient, but would it add too much height? Manfrotto MOVE Quick Release Catcher System with Additional Quick Release Plate
Thank you for the video. I have two a questions to the pay load for example the Star Adventurer has a payload of 11lbs/5kg. Is that additional weight to all the accessories (counter weight, rod, etc.)?. I want to buy the Sigma 60-600mm and it starts 5.95lbs/2.7kg. All this puts me shy over the payload. Does doing this counterweight help with maxing out the payload?
Why didn’t you use your space cat on the star adventure? I would love to see that to. I’m gonna get me a star adventure 2i . My gear for now is Nikon D5600 with a 18-400mm lens. But I wanna get me the redcat 51 to. Will that work with the star adventure 2i? Thanks in advance and kind regards
You never pointed your camera south. There’s where I am having trouble balancing. I don’t have a tripod lens clamp to slide in. Using a 75-250mm lens. Can’t find a clamp
I am unable to balance my lens with the counterbalance kit that comes with iOptron. Should I get an additional counterweight shaft and a weight or just one of these? How do I know if I need both or just one?
I am looking for just the center piece and the counter weight for this setup. I already have the iOptron polar mount and the tripod. Anyone know what that is called and where I can find it?
Hey peter! I’ve watched quite a few of your videos. I recently got a 360mm scope for my SkyGuider pro setup. I haven’t had the chance to play with it due to clouds. I know you use a 600mm lens with that tracker. some say they can shoot 2+ minutes with a 360mm scope and a full frame. Would it be safe to say I can get 1 minute exposures with sharp stars using a crop sensor and a 360mm scope using the SkyGuider?
Thank you for freeing me from "my" ball head. The WO VIXEN STYLE BASE MOUNT comes in two flavors: High and Low Latitude. Low from 7 to 34degs and High from 34 to 59 degs. The Lat scale shows full 10~60 degs range. Can you please confirm that you cannot look at anything below 34 dgs on your version?
@@oryanastrophotography3450 I was not clear. I was talking about Polar Alignment. I meant as if he were at a Lat 27 he could not see Polaris for PA. Would he need a Low Lat (7-34d) version? Original Star Adv mount does not have Low and High Lat versions. I can point to Polaris regardless whether I am in Naples, Fl or Ottawa, Ca.
@@januszabr I believe there is a little stopper that you can change of you were to travel to a lower latitude so your not limited to only 34-59 degrees
Hi Just got the star adventurer and found your video so good explaining counter balancing. can I ask at what size lens would you change to using a counterweight?
Question for you Peter, when you start your session everything will be properly balanced (in RA and Dec) but after a fews hours of tracking and capturing yours photos, the RA will change, what about the center of gravity? Your DEC distribution weight will fall off the chart, no! So you need to readjust the distribution of weight every now and then?
That's a good point! The balance may shift slightly over the course of a few hours. However, I normally don't shoot more than 3 hours a night, and haven't really worried about it. If you did try to rebalance in the middle of the night, you'd also lose your composition and would have to re-find the object, which would be a pain. In other words, as long as the Dec axis isn't way off-balance to begin with, you should be fine.
Can anyone give me the name of the 'Mickey Mouse looking thing' in the video? I've searched on Amazon but using generic terms doesn't give me the right results.
I'm wondering what's the difference between moving the archivist plate backward or forward and moving the conterweight to reblance the equilibrium when zoom from 150mm to 600mm?
Hello Peter. When placing the telescope on the declination bracket. Do you place it arbitrary or you have the scope center of gravity dead on at the declination bracket? Also same goes for camera/lens? system ?
What about a polar alignment AFTER balancing and finding your object to shoot? Heavy equipment can ruin all alignment. I always finding a north celestial pole not super-precisely, next doing balancing, finding an object and then doing preciseful polar alignment. Is this wrong way? And if yes - why?
You have a lot of weight on the dec bracket. Adjusting alt with all that weight can be quite difficult, particularly with the iOptron Alt/Az base. If the tripod is firmly seated and one of the legs is pointing North, you may not need to readjust polar alignment. I would agree that one should recheck alignment after balancing. Hopefully no adjustment would be needed if tripod properly stabilized and initial alignment precise.
A problem I have encountered is that in order to get the polar scope reticle to be illuminated the camera would have to be upside down, and then you would need to move it to your framing position. I assume this is ok and should not interfere with the PA? Thnx
Intead of moving the camera forward and backwards on the dovetail plate could I just adjust the counterweight on the rod to the point where the camera is standing still?
I had the battery grip issue. So maybe a dumb question, for milky way photos is it better to use a ball head and mount the camera in the center of the bracket on the Star adventurer bracket rather than the top, as the photos I have taken, the landscape is obviously not horizontal mounting on the top at an angle. And do people ever have issues with a camera auto changing from landscape to portrait when the tracker moves?
I normally just use the small ballhead mounting adapter to connect my DSLR and wide angle lens to the Star Adventurer for Milky Way. I don't bother bringing along the dec bracket and counterweights anymore for Milky Way, it's too much hassle. That will happen occasionally, but it's not a big deal. You can always rotate the photos in post
In reality how critical is the declination balance? I don't have a dovetail plate and in some instances I do get wonky balance. I can get it just right with the counterweight but only for a small-ish section of movement. Is this bad?
I have one for my grab and go and use it with a 90mm mak and an 80mm ED. Biggest advantage over the trackers is dual axis guiding and goto capability. Payload capability, unguided tracking accuracy otherwise feel fairly similar, barring quality control between units. I haven't taken any unguided subs beyond 20-30 seconds and it handles them well. Overall package costs slightly more than the SA though it does include a tripod (a bit on the weaker side but very usable for light setups). Drawback is that because it has no native polar alignment scope you will need to bring more equipment into the field or its performance will likely suffer compared to the star adventurer. I use plate solving for my polar alignment which means I have along a separate laptop. Something like a polemaster is a good alternative to a guide scope + camera as well. Also keep in mind that SW offers very little support for the AZ-GTI-EQ as they deem it experimental and you have to be willing to tinker a bit if problems show up. The bottom line is that Star Adventurer will function very well on its own and off the shelf but what you see is what you get. It's hassle free but limited in capability. Off the shelf AZ-GTI is annoying to accurately polar align and that will hamper its performance. It will allow you to add additional equipment to it to expand its capabilities though and really outshine the trackers. The question is whether you want to tolerate the time, money, and effort involved to get it there for the type of imaging you do.
No it's not a go-to mount. The tracker that is mounted on the tripod, once polar aligned will keep the object you focused on tracked, but you have to manually find your object first to track it.
Great Video, I just ordered my Star Adventurer pro pack, I have a question I only have a wide angle and a few prime lenses how will the wide angle work with the star adventurer or am I wasting my money?
The star adventurer will allow you to take more then 30 seconds shots even with a wide angle. You could get nice sharp pictures of the Milky Way. What prime lenses do you have?
FR3EKGaming a 50mm 24mm I’ve shot some really basic shots of Saturn this month with my 50mm and have done some thunder storms with it over Lake Michigan. I’m a newb and have been drawn to Astro a lot lately.
NMI_Dryfly J.P the 50mm will get some very wide field shots of the night sky and the 24 will work well for UltraWide Milky Way stuff. 50mm is good for a lot. I used a 105mm kit lense on a full frame canon and I was able to resolve some details of Andromeda. What camera do you use.
FR3EKGaming I currently have a cannon T5I I bought years ago, I’m going to upgrade to a cannon T8 or a full frame in the next few months. I just haven’t decided what price point I’m comfortable with yet.
NMI_Dryfly J.P if your lenses are Not made for crop sensor you will have to factor in the 1.6 times crop factor. Take your 50mm and times it by 1.6 and 80mm will be your new focal length.
23:42 Lens, camera, counter weight and bracket is about 10 or 11 pounds, which is the maximum weight. I am using Canon 5D III with Sigma 150-600mm lens and total weight is 10 pounds with counter weight and bracket.
I believe there is a better way to balance these devices, but I have no equipment to test it on. I offer the challenge of 'proving' me right or wrong. Short Version: Put the CG of the camera (with attachments, at desired zoom) directly on the line coaxial with shaft around which these pivot. In this way, the camera can be rotated to any position (about its one axis, not a ball head) and its balance will be maintained. Long Version: Required: Camera, camera attachments (guide scope, etc), short dowel/cylinder and your dining room table. We will be balancing 'fore and aft' as it were. Place the camera's Arca base on the dowel such that the axis of the dowel is at right angles to the barrel of the lens. Make some mark, perhaps with tape, to identify the line of balance (somewhere along a line running fore to aft). Next mount the camera to the tracker, sliding the camera to place the pivot axis we just found (tape mark, perhaps) directly over the centerline of the extended counterweight-bearing shaft. This achieves balance (I contend) along the declination axis. You should be able to lock the RA clutch with the counter-balance bar horizontal and then loosen the RA clutch (I think) to verify that the camera is neither nose heavy nor tail heavy in this configuration. (Not having this gear in hand, I may not have described this operation accurately.) This approach does not account for any left-to-right asymmetries on the camera, such as a tracking scope hanging from one side. It should be a small extra effect, but it, too, could be compensated for. (Deeper subject.) The benefit for having taken this effort to balance, is that one can then reposition the camera for another target, and theoretically not lose balance. It makes re-aiming easier, I should think.
When you're turning the plate around at 22:50 -ish, is there any reason you couldn't just loosen the dec clutch and rotate that whole part 180°, instead of taking off the plate and re-attaching it? (I have SkyGuider myself, so I'm not sure whether that would work on Star Adventurer.)
When you lower the green bracket down to lower the Center of Gravity for the Star Adventurer the polar alignment is a pain as you can't mount the polar illuminator :(
@Lihkin For lighter gear you don't need to move the CenterOfGravity that low so in that case the PA works great with the illuminator in the right spot. Only for heavy gear you need to move the CoG. You can't go wrong with either of the trackers. Both have their issues.
One can 'fix' (avoid) having to rebalance 'right ascension' after adjusting fore-aft balance by doing the fore-aft balancing first. It requires that you determine where your rig's (loaded with guide scope, etc) CG is. Easy peasy.
Put 3" or longer round cylinder on the table, perhaps a pen body. Set your lens foot-rail on the cylinder (a pencil could do) and see if it tips forward or backward. Find the point where it is neither nose heavy nor nose light and mark that location on your camera's foot/rail. That's the point of contact with the cylinder. The balance point.
When you mount the camera to the tracker, adjust the camera's balance point (I said to mark it) exactly centered on the tracker's Arca or Vixen mount. They will be centered exactly over the center of rotation about the declination axis.
Finally, do your RA balance (slightly east heavy) and you are done. Point away. Or 'point and re-check balance', but when you do your job right, there won't be much to correct for. (BS ME)
LOL I did the "unscrew the wrong knob" on my setup just yesterday...thought i had the DEC knob but had the neewer arca swiss clamp knob. Loosened it and my whole camera+lens slid back instantly but THANK GOD for the little safety screw on bottom of my arca swiss plate....saved the whole thing from falling off. Almost had a heart attack! Lesson learned!
You can also buy just a heavier counter weight by itself for the Star Adventurer...I have one (2.1kg) but haven't needed it yet for my current setup.
On the star adventurer, you dont have to completely remove the arca swiss bracket. Just remove the camera, loosen the dec clutch, and spin the arca bracket to the other side.. It'll save you from having to rethread it in the dark
For What it's worth: I have the star adventurer, and as mentioned maybe here or another of your vids, the counter weight isn't heavy enough for the bigger camera/Lens combos. I looked for another counter balance weight, but all I could find is the rod and weight combination for $30. So I bought a threaded rod off Amazon. M6-1.0 x 250mm. It will screw into the bottom of the counterbalance rod and 250mm is roughly 9 inches. I put a washer and wing nut on the bottom so it can't slide off. I also bought from ACE a longer screw with black knob to screw into the existing weight, so it would touch and hold on the threaded rod. Rod was $9. Black knob and screw was $5. All of this allows the same weight to slide farther and provide excellent balance.
What an awesome tutorial, Peter! I've been struggling intermittently with tracking for a while. I would randomly nights where I couldn't track longer than 30 seconds. On one rare occasion I could track as long as 2 or 3 mins, but I never knew how I achieved it. I had no idea that my declination imbalance was throwing me off. I "salvaged" the arca-swiss clamp from my ball mount and I am able to achieve perfect balance now. Thanks for your great content and for helping a newbie solve such a vexing riddle. Clear skies!
Great tips on balancing Peter. The right ascension AND declination balance is key to getting much better images and I've struggled a bit with this until seeing your video. Found a bracket in my toolbox and followed your instructions and got perfect balance in both axis. Cheers from Scotland.
Thanks for the video! I'm a new owner of a Star Adventurer and people online were telling me I'd never be able to balance anything larger than 200m regardless of the weight. After watching this video I was able to remove the ballhead, fabricate a counterweight extension, and now can properly balance a large lens!
Attaching DSLR to the SkyGuider Pro, I saw you holding your breath and maybe a droplet of sweat down your
forehead. Glad you got your components back and functioning.
I'm getting the SkyGuider Pro soon and this video will help greatly with my DSLR setup.
Thank You, Peter.
Super video Peter. I have the Star Adventurer. Your fix of attaching a ballhead to the Dec bracket is ingenious! I don’t want to pay $30+ for another entire counterweight rod/weight just to get the counterweight. I’ll try this fix next time. Thanks!
Your video came out right when I’m starting to have balance issues, thank you!
Perfect Timing, I was the person on instagram last night asking about the 11 pound limit. This will help out a lot! Thanks Peter.
same here. lol :D
FR3EKGaming So what is the weight limit question?
What was your question ? Got an answer ?
Wow Peter great timing!... I just started using the Star Adventurer last night.
This tutorial has excellent information that I'll be putting into use right now.
Thank you so much!
Bro thank you I was struggling 30 minutes straight with balancing but then I saw your video I subscribed
I have been following you for awhile now. But this has been one of your best tutorials for any beginner. Thank you.
Man you just solved my biggest problem. Thank you so much❤
This was SOOOOO helpful, thank you so much. I just got a Radian 61 telescope last week and I had, mostly anyhow, gotten it mounted to my tracker correctly, but being used to using just a camera and lens before I only adjusted my aim with a ball head and I was totally stumped as to how to adjust my aim to different targets. Now I just have to wait patiently for that seemingly rare combo of clear skies and no moon to occur and take this out for it's first test drive. You've been my main source of information and help since I first began attempting astrophotography maybe 18 months ago and your knowledge and wisdom have helped me greatly in getting decent results with limited equipment and budget. I can't wait to see how the new telescope and your great instruction will improve my results.
Thanks for the tip(s). I'm new to the Star Adventurer and have watched several of your other videos such as "Setting Up the Star Adventurer". Today I tried to set it up for deep sky and found all sorts of problems with balancing everything. This video, however, explains how I can do this and am going to try it out tonight. I'll try some deep sky stuff tomorrow night. Again, thanks.
Thanks for the info I just brought skyguider pro. Your tutorials have been very helpful thanks a lot
You‘re an absolute life saver! Love your videos, everytime after trying to shoot, questions and problems came up and then you instantly bring the solution, can‘t wait to try again with all your tips and tricks :-D thanks a lot for this tutorial 👍🏼
Thanks a lot for your videos, Peter. I recently purchased a skyguider Pro, and for mounting my telephoto lens, I also bought a rotating quick release plate (Leofoto RH-1L). This helps in two ways: just like the Neewer you recommended, it adds an arca swiss plate on the declination piece (mickey mouse accessory), but also allows rotating my telephoto in an stable axis. Absolutely helpful for reposition my telephoto in a quick and accurate way.
It just adds 1.5 cm in height, which is not a problem in balancing the equipment.
Hope this trick helps someone.
Thanks again for all your recommendations and videos.
Good videos peter, im from Chile and im starting in AP , thinking to buy a iOptron SGP and our tips and videos are very usefull, thanks 4 sharing your knowledge
Instead of a clamp with a knob, a clamp with a lever will work much better and reduce all that remove and put back on exercise. Similar price range but much less heartache.
19:15 - begin of Star Adventurer part
Thank you for this well made video. On the Star Adventurer, the Arca Swiss clamp is not necessary and should also be avoided. The L-bracket's round plate is rubber covered and also much bigger than the Arca Swiss clamp, thus the camera can easily be attached to the plate directly - 1 screw only to fix instead of 2.
ObviousIy in this video, the Arca Swiss clamp can imply handling problems without need. I believe every avoidable part should be avoided in a small setup: Fix the camera body (or tele lens mount ring) directly on the rubber covered plane with the srew followed by the declination clutch as needed. For easy readjustments just loosen the declination clutch a bit and and turn the camera body (lens mount ring) at will - without the risk of a camera / lens fall.
A have a couple of Arca Swiss clamps - but I simply remove it and don't use it in this specific case.
I've look at this video several times and found it to be a great help. I've just ordered a Star Adventurer Astro kit and it does not come with the counter weight kit. I've ordered the counter weight kit also, but no one has them in stock, so it is back ordered and will take some time. The way you attached the ball head to the declination bracket may very well work for me. Also, it would appear that I could possible attach something to the end of the declination bracket where the counter weight bar screws in assuming the thread size is 3/8 or 1/4.. I think this may actually allow me to use the tracker when I get it.
Hi Peter, thanks for your helpful video tutorial on how to balance the Starwatcher Adventure , i have a SA that i'm taking to the island of Barbados in December while visiting my family there. I planned to do Astrophotography while on the island, it will a challenge as the star polaris is at 13 degrees latitude , thanks again. Corin Lewis, London , UK
Another really useful video Peter, thanks for all all the work you have been putting in making these
Thanks again Peter, for the comprehensive tutorial. I had already adopted the arca Swiss mount on my skywatcher it made life so easy.
Keep up the great work and clear skies.👍
what i have been doing is using a rack focuser slide for macro-photography to balance declination. Its has a geared knob to move the slider back a forth. works well for dslr and lens. not sure how well it works for a heavier telescope though.
Thanks for the tips! That ball head one was clever. I'll be using that
Thank you!! Subscribed instantly!
Great tutorial, good advices. Thanks
I can tell you’re traumatized from breaking your camera & lens 😂
I have the same Tamron 150-600mm lens for my Canon that I use for wildlife and the same tracker. I’ve been trying to figure out how I could use my Tamron for astrophotography and your tutorials have been so helpful. Thanks!!
Really interesting video, Peter! Thanks so much! Never gave dec balance any importance.
Love your videos, so much to take in with all of them!
it`s very important tohave tthe counterweight also close to the center of rotation, not just the camera setup. The balancing procedure might work his way, but if you want to achieve longer exposure times, this is not the way. invest the money and get a heavier counterweight. 2,5kg was 30€ for me.
I'm curious why this would be? Is there an issue with the counterweight on the longer arm causing some sort of vibration affecting the shot? Or would it be having the greater mass would stabilize the platform better? Does this also apply to using a telescope, or not, due to visual sighting isn't as "demanding" as a long-exposure photograph? Please expound on this for us beginners (or at least I am!) :)
@@paca_bill4863 I'm curious as well, as my solution was to simply make and add an extension for the counterweight provided in the SA kit. The main drawback is that the longer arm can be a bit more in the way and bumped accidentally.
Thank you so much for your wonderful videos and helpful teaching! Quick question: What type and length is your dove tail/arca swiss plate?
Thanks Peter, excellent video.
Brilliant tutorial, thanks Peter this helped a lot!
Good luck in using the Star Adv or Sky guider at 400 or 600mm with all this gear mounted on it, without Auto guiding! You will be lucky to get 10 to 20 second exposures without star trails!
Useful tips. Thank you peter
great video Peter! thanks lots of great tips.
Nice guide!
Please. Please make a review of the Skywatcher Alt Az GTI
Thank you, very helpful!
perfect video just what ive been looking for
Excellent explanation.
Thank you very much.
Hi Could you please explain about DIY trackers(design,errors ,limitations and applicability).As a beginner I don't want to spend too much money on tracking setup to test my skills.
Peter, have you ever had to adjust the set screw under the front of the Star Adventurer to adjust clutch. My SA out of the box had a full 1mm of "clutch wobble" when tightened. Support said to use this set screw. The set screw fixes the wobble, but locks the clutch which is useless! SO I thought I'd ask. Great videos, i hope someday to buy your mastercourse.
Very good video
Great info ! Thanks 👍
I have an 8 lb (roughly less) setup (for my wildlife photo) with a Nikon D810 & 200-500mm lens ... will the Star Adventurer be OK ?
Great and informativ video as always!
Thank you for an awesome video!
You can not extend the counterweight rod on the Star Adventurer by buying another counterweight kit.
The Star Adventurer has different thread diameter from where it mounts to det the declination bracket and the safety screw. The safety screw is much thinner than the end you screw into to det declination bracket. Thus you can not buy another counterweigh kit to solve the problem with the counterweigh being to light. They simply will not fit into eachother.
Also, an easier way to change "direction" of the Arca Swiss clamp is to just loosen the cluthc and spin it 180 degrees. No need to take it off and reattach
True.
I use an M6 hexHead bolt with a bunch of M6 nuts on it, threaded into the end of the ctwt rod. Gives me an extra 2 1/2"
Wouldn't you just put both counterweights on the original rod and discard the second rod?
Also, have you ever used/would you recommend this set up to attach the Skywatcher Star Adventurer 2i to the tripod base. I wanted to buy a tripod with this system, but they went out of business. Now I find it in Manfrotto. It seems sturdy and convenient, but would it add too much height? Manfrotto MOVE Quick Release Catcher System with Additional Quick Release Plate
Thanks!
Can you please show me what the long dove are is called for the telescope? My WO Z61 has a small one and I want to get the longer one.
Thank you very helpful video. Well done.
Thank you for the video. I have two a questions to the pay load for example the Star Adventurer has a payload of 11lbs/5kg. Is that additional weight to all the accessories (counter weight, rod, etc.)?. I want to buy the Sigma 60-600mm and it starts 5.95lbs/2.7kg. All this puts me shy over the payload. Does doing this counterweight help with maxing out the payload?
Why didn’t you use your space cat on the star adventure? I would love to see that to. I’m gonna get me a star adventure 2i
. My gear for now is Nikon D5600 with a 18-400mm lens. But I wanna get me the redcat 51 to. Will that work with the star adventure 2i? Thanks in advance and kind regards
Peter, thank you very much for the tutorial. I have a question: in the southern hemisphere is west heavy what we should do, right?
Greetings!
Hey Peter, could I please get a link to the ‘micky mouse base’ and the arcs Swiss plate? I almost have the exact setup as yours; minus the clamps
You never pointed your camera south. There’s where I am having trouble balancing. I don’t have a tripod lens clamp to slide in. Using a 75-250mm lens. Can’t find a clamp
Thank you very comprehensive and useful. Just forgive my ignorance......once aligned and balanced all clutches need to be re-tightened. Correct?
Yup
I am unable to balance my lens with the counterbalance kit that comes with iOptron. Should I get an additional counterweight shaft and a weight or just one of these? How do I know if I need both or just one?
I am looking for just the center piece and the counter weight for this setup. I already have the iOptron polar mount and the tripod. Anyone know what that is called and where I can find it?
Hi, I noticed you installed the equipment using the shorter arm. Did you rotate the polar finder so is not upside down? Thanks.
Hey peter! I’ve watched quite a few of your videos. I recently got a 360mm scope for my SkyGuider pro setup. I haven’t had the chance to play with it due to clouds. I know you use a 600mm lens with that tracker. some say they can shoot 2+ minutes with a 360mm scope and a full frame. Would it be safe to say I can get 1 minute exposures with sharp stars using a crop sensor and a 360mm scope using the SkyGuider?
Awesome video as usual, thanks!! PS, do you auto focus with Tamron 150-600 or focus manually? :D
Peter, you do an excellent job explaining things to this astrophotographer wannabe. I take it that, that mouse ear thing comes with the mount?
Where did you get that "mikey mouse ear piece" from? I can't seem to find it.
Thank you for freeing me from "my" ball head. The WO VIXEN STYLE BASE MOUNT comes in two flavors: High and Low Latitude. Low from 7 to 34degs and High from 34 to 59 degs. The Lat scale shows full 10~60 degs range. Can you please confirm that you cannot look at anything below 34 dgs on your version?
thats not how the latitude base works, thats just for allignment at your latitude, you can still look at any object in the sky
@@oryanastrophotography3450 I was not clear. I was talking about Polar Alignment. I meant as if he were at a Lat 27 he could not see Polaris for PA. Would he need a Low Lat (7-34d) version? Original Star Adv mount does not have Low and High Lat versions. I can point to Polaris regardless whether I am in Naples, Fl or Ottawa, Ca.
@@januszabr I believe there is a little stopper that you can change of you were to travel to a lower latitude so your not limited to only 34-59 degrees
@@oryanastrophotography3450 Thank you for your answers. Not sure then what the purpose of two versions would be.
Actually, I could understand if they used the whole quadrant for narrower range to achieve better accuracy...
Hi Just got the star adventurer and found your video so good explaining counter balancing. can I ask at what size lens would you change to using a counterweight?
Here's a quick question, could I mount my auto guider to a small ball head on the second position on the bracket?
Question for you Peter, when you start your session everything will be properly balanced (in RA and Dec) but after a fews hours of tracking and capturing yours photos, the RA will change, what about the center of gravity? Your DEC distribution weight will fall off the chart, no! So you need to readjust the distribution of weight every now and then?
That's a good point! The balance may shift slightly over the course of a few hours. However, I normally don't shoot more than 3 hours a night, and haven't really worried about it.
If you did try to rebalance in the middle of the night, you'd also lose your composition and would have to re-find the object, which would be a pain.
In other words, as long as the Dec axis isn't way off-balance to begin with, you should be fine.
When balancing how come no one will turn camera to the south?
Can anyone give me the name of the 'Mickey Mouse looking thing' in the video? I've searched on Amazon but using generic terms doesn't give me the right results.
I'm wondering what's the difference between moving the archivist plate backward or forward and moving the conterweight to reblance the equilibrium when zoom from 150mm to 600mm?
Hello Peter.
When placing the telescope on the declination bracket. Do you place it arbitrary or you have the scope center of gravity dead on at the declination bracket? Also same goes for camera/lens? system ?
What about a polar alignment AFTER balancing and finding your object to shoot? Heavy equipment can ruin all alignment. I always finding a north celestial pole not super-precisely, next doing balancing, finding an object and then doing preciseful polar alignment. Is this wrong way? And if yes - why?
Sounds about right to me. At least this is the way I do it.
Takes so little to mess ut the alignement when fiddeling with framing and balancing
You have a lot of weight on the dec bracket. Adjusting alt with all that weight can be quite difficult, particularly with the iOptron Alt/Az base. If the tripod is firmly seated and one of the legs is pointing North, you may not need to readjust polar alignment. I would agree that one should recheck alignment after balancing. Hopefully no adjustment would be needed if tripod properly stabilized and initial alignment precise.
A problem I have encountered is that in order to get the polar scope reticle to be illuminated the camera would have to be upside down, and then you would need to move it to your framing position. I assume this is ok and should not interfere with the PA? Thnx
Intead of moving the camera forward and backwards on the dovetail plate could I just adjust the counterweight on the rod to the point where the camera is standing still?
I had the battery grip issue. So maybe a dumb question, for milky way photos is it better to use a ball head and mount the camera in the center of the bracket on the Star adventurer bracket rather than the top, as the photos I have taken, the landscape is obviously not horizontal mounting on the top at an angle. And do people ever have issues with a camera auto changing from landscape to portrait when the tracker moves?
I normally just use the small ballhead mounting adapter to connect my DSLR and wide angle lens to the Star Adventurer for Milky Way. I don't bother bringing along the dec bracket and counterweights anymore for Milky Way, it's too much hassle.
That will happen occasionally, but it's not a big deal. You can always rotate the photos in post
Will two Cameras worked?
As a beginner, my question is for a dslr telephoto lens that is prime and might be front heavy do we need clamp or can we just thread lens to mount?
In reality how critical is the declination balance? I don't have a dovetail plate and in some instances I do get wonky balance. I can get it just right with the counterweight but only for a small-ish section of movement. Is this bad?
Hi. What do you think about AZGTi mount for astrophoto in Eq mode?
I have one for my grab and go and use it with a 90mm mak and an 80mm ED.
Biggest advantage over the trackers is dual axis guiding and goto capability. Payload capability, unguided tracking accuracy otherwise feel fairly similar, barring quality control between units. I haven't taken any unguided subs beyond 20-30 seconds and it handles them well.
Overall package costs slightly more than the SA though it does include a tripod (a bit on the weaker side but very usable for light setups).
Drawback is that because it has no native polar alignment scope you will need to bring more equipment into the field or its performance will likely suffer compared to the star adventurer. I use plate solving for my polar alignment which means I have along a separate laptop. Something like a polemaster is a good alternative to a guide scope + camera as well.
Also keep in mind that SW offers very little support for the AZ-GTI-EQ as they deem it experimental and you have to be willing to tinker a bit if problems show up.
The bottom line is that Star Adventurer will function very well on its own and off the shelf but what you see is what you get. It's hassle free but limited in capability.
Off the shelf AZ-GTI is annoying to accurately polar align and that will hamper its performance. It will allow you to add additional equipment to it to expand its capabilities though and really outshine the trackers. The question is whether you want to tolerate the time, money, and effort involved to get it there for the type of imaging you do.
Is it a go to mount? i mean how will i track and trace deep sky objects and go to them?
No it's not a go-to mount. The tracker that is mounted on the tripod, once polar aligned will keep the object you focused on tracked, but you have to manually find your object first to track it.
Have you ever used 300 f2.8 IF non-VR version for astrophotography? If so, what do you think of it in terms of sharpness and coma?
Great Video, I just ordered my Star Adventurer pro pack, I have a question I only have a wide angle and a few prime lenses how will the wide angle work with the star adventurer or am I wasting my money?
The star adventurer will allow you to take more then 30 seconds shots even with a wide angle. You could get nice sharp pictures of the Milky Way. What prime lenses do you have?
FR3EKGaming a 50mm 24mm I’ve shot some really basic shots of Saturn this month with my 50mm and have done some thunder storms with it over Lake Michigan. I’m a newb and have been drawn to Astro a lot lately.
NMI_Dryfly J.P the 50mm will get some very wide field shots of the night sky and the 24 will work well for UltraWide Milky Way stuff. 50mm is good for a lot. I used a 105mm kit lense on a full frame canon and I was able to resolve some details of Andromeda. What camera do you use.
FR3EKGaming I currently have a cannon T5I I bought years ago, I’m going to upgrade to a cannon T8 or a full frame in the next few months. I just haven’t decided what price point I’m comfortable with yet.
NMI_Dryfly J.P if your lenses are Not made for crop sensor you will have to factor in the 1.6 times crop factor. Take your 50mm and times it by 1.6 and 80mm will be your new focal length.
Hey Peter,
how much do your set ups on the video actually weigh?
23:42 Lens, camera, counter weight and bracket is about 10 or 11 pounds, which is the maximum weight. I am using Canon 5D III with Sigma 150-600mm lens and total weight is 10 pounds with counter weight and bracket.
I believe there is a better way to balance these devices, but I have no equipment to test it on. I offer the challenge of 'proving' me right or wrong.
Short Version: Put the CG of the camera (with attachments, at desired zoom) directly on the line coaxial with shaft around which these pivot. In this way, the camera can be rotated to any position (about its one axis, not a ball head) and its balance will be maintained.
Long Version: Required: Camera, camera attachments (guide scope, etc), short dowel/cylinder and your dining room table.
We will be balancing 'fore and aft' as it were. Place the camera's Arca base on the dowel such that the axis of the dowel is at right angles to the barrel of the lens. Make some mark, perhaps with tape, to identify the line of balance (somewhere along a line running fore to aft).
Next mount the camera to the tracker, sliding the camera to place the pivot axis we just found (tape mark, perhaps) directly over the centerline of the extended counterweight-bearing shaft. This achieves balance (I contend) along the declination axis. You should be able to lock the RA clutch with the counter-balance bar horizontal and then loosen the RA clutch (I think) to verify that the camera is neither nose heavy nor tail heavy in this configuration. (Not having this gear in hand, I may not have described this operation accurately.)
This approach does not account for any left-to-right asymmetries on the camera, such as a tracking scope hanging from one side. It should be a small extra effect, but it, too, could be compensated for. (Deeper subject.)
The benefit for having taken this effort to balance, is that one can then reposition the camera for another target, and theoretically not lose balance. It makes re-aiming easier, I should think.
These dovetails need a screw that protrudes through so as to create a stop.......so it cannot slide through.
Which tripod you using there?
Hey Peter, I was wondering what you thought about the Sky Watcher AZ-GTI and would you do a video tutorial on that mount
When you're turning the plate around at 22:50 -ish, is there any reason you couldn't just loosen the dec clutch and rotate that whole part 180°, instead of taking off the plate and re-attaching it? (I have SkyGuider myself, so I'm not sure whether that would work on Star Adventurer.)
That certainly is the easiest way. I do it on my Star Adventurer all the time
Can you make a video of polar alignment using the skyguider pro? I say in a very Low altitude country so I can see Polaris
ruclips.net/video/jssf2ffHYbc/видео.html
When you lower the green bracket down to lower the Center of Gravity for the Star Adventurer the polar alignment is a pain as you can't mount the polar illuminator :(
@Lihkin Yes they do but the illuminator no longer aligns with the scope hole as the top part of the green bracket blocks the illuminator
@Lihkin For lighter gear you don't need to move the CenterOfGravity that low so in that case the PA works great with the illuminator in the right spot. Only for heavy gear you need to move the CoG. You can't go wrong with either of the trackers. Both have their issues.
21:34 just brilliant... Didn't strike me
Peter can you use the William Optics counterweight extension to the Star Adventurer? Very good tutorial. Thank
No, you can not. Different diameter rods
@@T-Bear Thanks for the information. Very helpful.
I use an M6 hexHead bolt with a bunch of M6 nuts on it, threaded into the end of the ctwt rod. Gives me an extra 2 1/2"
@@januszabr Interesting and seams simple enough I will check it out. Thanks
@@michaelkrueger17 Nuts are needed so the ctwt set screw can be tightened. There might be other ways, though.