Don't forget to double check the focus in live view and use a lens barrel warmer in cool weather to prevent lens element fogging. Excellent information as always!
Kamil you truly are the Star Adventurer guru... you should be holding Star Adventurer shooting group seminars. Thanks again for all the insight and help.
Your videos are absolute quality, mate! Tip #2 was my favorite. In a future video, I would love to see a post-processing tutorial of a DSO of your choice. There are a ton of them on UA-cam, but it's always useful to learn about new ways of processing them. Thanks again!
It’s gonna come to the channel eventually for sure but I’m waiting for dark nights to return (less than 2 weeks now) to snap some more photos. But yeah I’ll make a video like this for sure - thanks Sunil!
Fantastic video! I have one of these coming in the mail and I'm so excited to try it out. Do people typically take 1 long shot and just use that with trackers? Or is stacking still the way to go?
Thanks! You can totally use just one exposure for wide angle shots but typically it’s always worth to take a few exposures. There are many factors that can ruin a single exposure including things like wind blowing into the camera. And if all of them turn out good you can always stack and end up with even better quality!
I always try to concentrate masses as close as possible near the rotation axis during final balancing. Less leverage, less wear on mount and less battery drainage.
In theory if you balance it perfectly then it doesn’t matter how far the masses are apart. But because nothing is perfect, a slight imbalance is much more pronounced with masses far apart so it’s a good practice to keep them as close as possible 👍
@@kamilkp i often have a hard time finding dso looking through the camera. My actual (far from perfect) solution is a second tripod, equipped with my smartphone and a laser. Running Polarscope align pro I move my phone until the wanted dso is centered. Laser is detached with cable ties. (Don’t use cable ties. Don’t ask me how I know😝) and illuminates the direction. Now I switch to primary tripod and look for the laserbeam. It should point in the right direction. Unless you strapped it with cable ties, then it’s all over the place. ... did I mention one shouldn’t use cable ties?
I wish Canon made available the Ra firmware for us original R owners who would love to have the intervalometer, 30x live view zoom and other slight differences that make that camera a lot better for this. I have a pretty similar setup, with the 70-200 4L + Extender 2x.. from my backyard I don't have clear sight to South, so if you haven't talked about I would love a DARV explanation for your equipment! Thank you! Subscribed!!!
Thanks! Yeah 30x zoom is something I’d like to have very much but its’s not likely to happen :/ I’m planning to experiment with a Bahtinov mask to aid focusing - I’ll make a video about it to share my findings 😉
Thanks for what you do. Your tutorials are great. Keep it up. That said, I have to disagree with your claim that it is preferable to shoot an underexposed image and brighten it in post production than the other way around. This is a very common and intuitive idea because we all know that higher ISO adds electronic noise. But it is signal to noise ratio that matters and you will get better results turning up the ISO and getting your histogram to the right. I was skeptical of this myself but you can test it to prove it to yourself which is what I did. Take a properly exposed image at 3200 ISO. Now, without changing anything other than ISO, take the same shot at very low ISO and another at very high ISO. Now, bring all three photos in your editor and match the low ISO and high ISO image to the exposure value of your neutral shot, taken at 3200 ISO and compare the noise. You might expect the highest ISO image to be the noisiest but you will find that it is the low ISO image that is much noisier than the others. If you are interested in understanding why this is, you have to realize that there are other sources of noise and underexposed images have a lot what is called shot noise, which is different from electronic noise. So when you are trying to avoid the electronic noise introduced with high ISO you can introduce shot noise, which is worse. The bottom line, don't shoot underexposed images. It is better to dial up the ISO if you have to. There are plenty of articles explaining this. I like this one: www.lonelyspeck.com/how-to-find-the-best-iso-for-astrophotography-dynamic-range-and-noise/
Great video, love all your tips. I'm just getting into this (astro) and having done several sessions with no tracker, I'm considering this tracker. Can you recommend what type of tripod you really need for ultimate stability. I have a carbon fibre Benro for general photography/travel but it seems so light to hold this, camera and lens? is heavier stainless steel better?
It is a clutch. Just like in a manual transmission car. You press the pedal which detaches the gears from the engine, then you let it go to connect them. Similar concept is implemented in the tracker: loosening the clutch detaches the rotatable platform from the step motor inside and tightening it connects them. It is impossible to rotate the stuff by hand when the clutch is tightened because of the inner mechanics (ratio between the gears is enormous)
It would be nice to see how your ISO/Exposure table works in real, make a picture of the nebula for each combination and see how 800/2min beats? 25k/4 using basic Lightroom adjustment and what is tradeoff :)
thank you very much for your great youtube channel and your explanations so precise and so clear. Do you have any tips for piloting with the star adventurer connected directly to a pc (without additional external guidance). What software should I use and how to configure it?
I don’t have any experience with that yet. But I think that the only reason for connecting it to a pc is to be able to use an autoguider so I’m not sure what you are trying to achieve
@@kamilkp Thank you for your reply. I will try to find a solution as I would love to use it without a guide scope since it has a built-in guide. (I will see with the PHD2 or perhaps stellarium). But no one on the net is talking about it. it's hard to search for me as i'm just starting out in astro photography. but nothing stops me; O)
Great channel, learning a lot, thank you! Quick question. My SWSA got some play on the clutch. I tried to screw it in and it works, no more play but unfortunately the motor stalls, and both RA arrows start blinking. Back to a softer position on the screw, the clutch's play comes back. Any advice will be very much appreciated. Clear skies!
Hey great videos. I stumbled across your channel from r/askastrophotography. Your video content and production are very high quality. I'm excited to see where this channel will go in the future, I think it will take off after you get some more expsoure. Do you have any plans on doing a beginner's guide to processing a deep sky image in photoshop? I recently took my skyguider pro and redcat 51 out to a darker rural area and shot the North America Nebula. I tried to follow some tutorials off youtube (no photoshop experience) but the way you explain things and point things out in your tutorials that other youtubers gloss over, I think you could create a great video. Cheers from Canada
Thank you! I’m glad you like my videos and I will absolutely make a processing tutorial for DSO photography. However I’m waiting for dark nights to return at my latitude (less than 2 weeks now) to have some more material to work with and finess my process. I’m also gonna do a vlog where I show how I do every single step of it out in the field in the dark so there will be no room for glossing over stuff. Thanks again and stay tuned for future videos!
I would choose a sligntly darker image ESPECIALLY if the camera is ISO invariant. With ISO invariance you get the exact same quality if you shoot e.g. ISO 3200 and bump +1 exposure in Lightroom vs shooting at ISO 6400 in camera.
Great video thank you very much for sharing. I would like to ask you: is the foot of the lens enough to keep it stable? Mine is 100-400mm and I was considering 3D printing a part with two rings to make it firmer, more stable, do you think it is necessary? Thank you very much!
question around balancing ISO & shutter speed. Are you typically trying to stay at say ISO 800 for your camera, even if that would mean a shutter speed of 30sec for example? Like with comet neowise is it better to use ISO 800 and 15sec vs 400 for less noise and 1 min exposure? Just putting in exposure times as an example.
Usually it’s always best to shoot at as low ISO as possible. If you are using an astro tracker then the only thing that limits you is the accuracy of polar alignment and the tracker itself (different copies might have slightly different accuracy). So it’s best to prolong the shutter and take test shots and see when do you start to see some star trailing. Two days ago I was shooting the Milky Way at ISO 400 and shutter 4 mins and the result was beautiful!
You mean the modes on the dial? I can break that down in a separate video but for taking photos of the stars just stick with sidereal tracking which is the star icon ⭐️
Thanks for the great information in your videos. I have tried two different Star Adventurers and can't get sharp stars at even two minutes with the same lens you are using at either 200m or 300mm. They are either trailed or show irregularities like double stars or stars with bumps coming out the side. I balance carefully and check polar alignment before exposure. I use a very heavy tripod and there is no wind. Are you just lucky or am I doing something wrong? Any suggestions would be appreciated.
You may just have a faulty unit of the Adventurer. I heard some unlucky people need to send them back to be replaced because of some manufacturing issue. I don’t think it’s luck on my part, because I’ve done it too many times already with great results for it to be luck every time. I don’t know, maybe the ground you are on is somehow trembling? Hard to say :/
Just got one of these a while ago first time was allright just a struggle to polar align in the southern hemisphere. The polar scope illuminator doesn't seem bright enough for me to even see the polar map on the lens any suggestions?
Guide scope will work on this mount perfectly as far as I’ve read because you can mount it to the dec bracket directly and not on top of the camera’s hot shoe so it’s better for the overall distribution of mass around Ra axis. I was doing 3min exposures without autoguiding on 300mm full frame - no problem. Didn’t try longer exposures even honestly
Love your videos a lot. If you have problems to balance like I, where equipment is close to maximum weight and still need space for the polar light, then there is a very cheap solution. I bought for 7 Euro a " Handlaufträgerstütze Ø 12 mm und Länge 125 mm mit Innengewinde beidseitig M6 Edelstahl V2A" sorry its
Yeah it would seem so right? But instead of seeing the nebula you will see a swathe of stars many many many more than you see with your naked eye and it might be difficult to figure out if you got what you need. Check out this video: ua-cam.com/video/tNPIMKOB9k4/v-deo.html
Outstanding! I have watched it a few times and learn something new each time. Thanks
Perfect video bro, that helpt me a lot 🙂
Very helpful, thanks and Clear Skies Be with you!
Don't forget to double check the focus in live view and use a lens barrel warmer in cool weather to prevent lens element fogging. Excellent information as always!
Yep! Lens warmers video is actually something I’m working on currently 😉
Kamil you truly are the Star Adventurer guru... you should be holding Star Adventurer shooting group seminars. Thanks again for all the insight and help.
Thank you, that means a lot indeed 😃
Your videos are great.THANKS!
Your videos have come out just in time man!
Very useful suggestions! I did all of these mistakes, number 4 was terrible 😓
Your videos are absolute quality, mate! Tip #2 was my favorite.
In a future video, I would love to see a post-processing tutorial of a DSO of your choice. There are a ton of them on UA-cam, but it's always useful to learn about new ways of processing them. Thanks again!
It’s gonna come to the channel eventually for sure but I’m waiting for dark nights to return (less than 2 weeks now) to snap some more photos. But yeah I’ll make a video like this for sure - thanks Sunil!
For working out exposure settings you can use photopills app exposure mode to see what your high Iso test shots translate into lower Iso
Fantastic video! I have one of these coming in the mail and I'm so excited to try it out. Do people typically take 1 long shot and just use that with trackers? Or is stacking still the way to go?
Thanks! You can totally use just one exposure for wide angle shots but typically it’s always worth to take a few exposures. There are many factors that can ruin a single exposure including things like wind blowing into the camera. And if all of them turn out good you can always stack and end up with even better quality!
What tripod do you use? Great videos. Great style and content.
Thanks! It’s a Camrock TS53 - polish local brand - probably hard to get outside of Poland
Thanks! It’s a Camrock TS53 - polish local brand - probably hard to get outside of Poland
@@kamilkp thank you. Do you have a background in physics?
Math and physics
@@kamilkp nice. I have a Masters in Physics and noticed the language.
Great informations ! Thanks !
I always try to concentrate masses as close as possible near the rotation axis during final balancing. Less leverage, less wear on mount and less battery drainage.
In theory if you balance it perfectly then it doesn’t matter how far the masses are apart. But because nothing is perfect, a slight imbalance is much more pronounced with masses far apart so it’s a good practice to keep them as close as possible 👍
@@kamilkp i often have a hard time finding dso looking through the camera.
My actual (far from perfect) solution is a second tripod, equipped with my smartphone and a laser. Running Polarscope align pro I move my phone until the wanted dso is centered. Laser is detached with cable ties. (Don’t use cable ties. Don’t ask me how I know😝) and illuminates the direction.
Now I switch to primary tripod and look for the laserbeam. It should point in the right direction.
Unless you strapped it with cable ties, then it’s all over the place.
... did I mention one shouldn’t use cable ties?
I wish Canon made available the Ra firmware for us original R owners who would love to have the intervalometer, 30x live view zoom and other slight differences that make that camera a lot better for this.
I have a pretty similar setup, with the 70-200 4L + Extender 2x.. from my backyard I don't have clear sight to South, so if you haven't talked about I would love a DARV explanation for your equipment!
Thank you! Subscribed!!!
Thanks! Yeah 30x zoom is something I’d like to have very much but its’s not likely to happen :/ I’m planning to experiment with a Bahtinov mask to aid focusing - I’ll make a video about it to share my findings 😉
Can you still do the checking of the 1st shot in the LR app? I see your using a web based version it looks like.
Thanks for what you do. Your tutorials are great. Keep it up. That said, I have to disagree with your claim that it is preferable to shoot an underexposed image and brighten it in post production than the other way around. This is a very common and intuitive idea because we all know that higher ISO adds electronic noise. But it is signal to noise ratio that matters and you will get better results turning up the ISO and getting your histogram to the right. I was skeptical of this myself but you can test it to prove it to yourself which is what I did. Take a properly exposed image at 3200 ISO. Now, without changing anything other than ISO, take the same shot at very low ISO and another at very high ISO. Now, bring all three photos in your editor and match the low ISO and high ISO image to the exposure value of your neutral shot, taken at 3200 ISO and compare the noise. You might expect the highest ISO image to be the noisiest but you will find that it is the low ISO image that is much noisier than the others. If you are interested in understanding why this is, you have to realize that there are other sources of noise and underexposed images have a lot what is called shot noise, which is different from electronic noise. So when you are trying to avoid the electronic noise introduced with high ISO you can introduce shot noise, which is worse. The bottom line, don't shoot underexposed images. It is better to dial up the ISO if you have to. There are plenty of articles explaining this. I like this one: www.lonelyspeck.com/how-to-find-the-best-iso-for-astrophotography-dynamic-range-and-noise/
Great video, love all your tips. I'm just getting into this (astro) and having done several sessions with no tracker, I'm considering this tracker. Can you recommend what type of tripod you really need for ultimate stability. I have a carbon fibre Benro for general photography/travel but it seems so light to hold this, camera and lens? is heavier stainless steel better?
Very nice video. I have a question , the clutch needs to be tightened or lossen for tracking with camera attached.
Tightened!
@@kamilkp silly question but if clutch is tightened how the motor will track. I am really getting confused.
It is a clutch. Just like in a manual transmission car. You press the pedal which detaches the gears from the engine, then you let it go to connect them. Similar concept is implemented in the tracker: loosening the clutch detaches the rotatable platform from the step motor inside and tightening it connects them. It is impossible to rotate the stuff by hand when the clutch is tightened because of the inner mechanics (ratio between the gears is enormous)
@@kamilkp wow thank you. You are a genious . Well explained.
It would be nice to see how your ISO/Exposure table works in real, make a picture of the nebula for each combination and see how 800/2min beats? 25k/4 using basic Lightroom adjustment and what is tradeoff :)
thank you very much for your great youtube channel and your explanations so precise and so clear. Do you have any tips for piloting with the star adventurer connected directly to a pc (without additional external guidance). What software should I use and how to configure it?
I don’t have any experience with that yet. But I think that the only reason for connecting it to a pc is to be able to use an autoguider so I’m not sure what you are trying to achieve
@@kamilkp Thank you for your reply. I will try to find a solution as I would love to use it without a guide scope since it has a built-in guide. (I will see with the PHD2 or perhaps stellarium). But no one on the net is talking about it. it's hard to search for me as i'm just starting out in astro photography. but nothing stops me; O)
Good luck then! And if I get into this myself and figure out I will make sure to make a video about it in the future :)
@@kamilkp hey thank you very much! if I find a solution I tell you like that you can make a video; O)
Great channel, learning a lot, thank you! Quick question. My SWSA got some play on the clutch. I tried to screw it in and it works, no more play but unfortunately the motor stalls, and both RA arrows start blinking. Back to a softer position on the screw, the clutch's play comes back. Any advice will be very much appreciated. Clear skies!
Thanks! But unfortunately I don’t think I can help you with this. Maybe there is some manufacturing issue - I would reach out to Sky-Watcher
Hey great videos. I stumbled across your channel from r/askastrophotography. Your video content and production are very high quality. I'm excited to see where this channel will go in the future, I think it will take off after you get some more expsoure. Do you have any plans on doing a beginner's guide to processing a deep sky image in photoshop? I recently took my skyguider pro and redcat 51 out to a darker rural area and shot the North America Nebula. I tried to follow some tutorials off youtube (no photoshop experience) but the way you explain things and point things out in your tutorials that other youtubers gloss over, I think you could create a great video. Cheers from Canada
Thank you! I’m glad you like my videos and I will absolutely make a processing tutorial for DSO photography. However I’m waiting for dark nights to return at my latitude (less than 2 weeks now) to have some more material to work with and finess my process. I’m also gonna do a vlog where I show how I do every single step of it out in the field in the dark so there will be no room for glossing over stuff. Thanks again and stay tuned for future videos!
Kamil, I was curious would you still choose the slightly darker image's ISO if your camera is ISO invariant?
I would choose a sligntly darker image ESPECIALLY if the camera is ISO invariant. With ISO invariance you get the exact same quality if you shoot e.g. ISO 3200 and bump +1 exposure in Lightroom vs shooting at ISO 6400 in camera.
Kamil Pekala Thank you so much for your explanation
Great video thank you very much for sharing. I would like to ask you: is the foot of the lens enough to keep it stable? Mine is 100-400mm and I was considering 3D printing a part with two rings to make it firmer, more stable, do you think it is necessary? Thank you very much!
The foot should be enough. I don’t think you need to 3d print anything ;)
@@kamilkp Thanks Bro!
question around balancing ISO & shutter speed. Are you typically trying to stay at say ISO 800 for your camera, even if that would mean a shutter speed of 30sec for example? Like with comet neowise is it better to use ISO 800 and 15sec vs 400 for less noise and 1 min exposure? Just putting in exposure times as an example.
Usually it’s always best to shoot at as low ISO as possible. If you are using an astro tracker then the only thing that limits you is the accuracy of polar alignment and the tracker itself (different copies might have slightly different accuracy). So it’s best to prolong the shutter and take test shots and see when do you start to see some star trailing. Two days ago I was shooting the Milky Way at ISO 400 and shutter 4 mins and the result was beautiful!
Kamil Pekala thanks that really helps!
What do all the speed modes mean and when do you use them
You mean the modes on the dial? I can break that down in a separate video but for taking photos of the stars just stick with sidereal tracking which is the star icon ⭐️
Thanks for the great information in your videos. I have tried two different Star Adventurers and can't get sharp stars at even two minutes with the same lens you are using at either 200m or 300mm. They are either trailed or show irregularities like double stars or stars with bumps coming out the side. I balance carefully and check polar alignment before exposure. I use a very heavy tripod and there is no wind. Are you just lucky or am I doing something wrong? Any suggestions would be appreciated.
You may just have a faulty unit of the Adventurer. I heard some unlucky people need to send them back to be replaced because of some manufacturing issue. I don’t think it’s luck on my part, because I’ve done it too many times already with great results for it to be luck every time. I don’t know, maybe the ground you are on is somehow trembling? Hard to say :/
@@kamilkp I think you are right about the manufacturing issues. Maybe I will try another one in a few months. Thanks for your quick reply.
Just got one of these a while ago first time was allright just a struggle to polar align in the southern hemisphere.
The polar scope illuminator doesn't seem bright enough for me to even see the polar map on the lens any suggestions?
Hmm that’s odd. Do you see it glowing in red when you look from the front of the scope?
Balancing slightly east-heavy avoids movement in the play of the mechanics! It is better than a perfect balancing!
Mate how is the guiding with this without a guide scope ? Have you ever don't 300s exposures? Can a guide scope work on this mount mate ?
Guide scope will work on this mount perfectly as far as I’ve read because you can mount it to the dec bracket directly and not on top of the camera’s hot shoe so it’s better for the overall distribution of mass around Ra axis. I was doing 3min exposures without autoguiding on 300mm full frame - no problem. Didn’t try longer exposures even honestly
@@kamilkp nice one mate
Love your videos a lot. If you have problems to balance like I, where equipment is close to maximum weight and still need space for the polar light, then there is a very cheap solution. I bought for 7 Euro a " Handlaufträgerstütze Ø 12 mm und Länge 125 mm mit Innengewinde beidseitig M6 Edelstahl V2A" sorry its
Isn’t that the 100-300? I have the 100-400 and haven’t tried it on the same stat tracker yet.
For tip 4 wont you see what youve shot after a long exposure to see if its what youre wanting? always thanks for your time and experience
Yeah it would seem so right? But instead of seeing the nebula you will see a swathe of stars many many many more than you see with your naked eye and it might be difficult to figure out if you got what you need. Check out this video: ua-cam.com/video/tNPIMKOB9k4/v-deo.html
for a test exposure, what about using a higher iso?
Yep, absolutely!
Nr 5, its expensive.