Tried that $70 star tracker and it let me down hard

I was out in the desert near Tucson last Friday night trying to get a clean shot of the Orion Nebula. The tracker kept losing alignment after 3 minutes and every frame came out streaky. Anyone else had a budget star tracker just fail on them like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_linda3d ago

and honestly, that $70 price point is a dead giveaway it's not going to hold up for serious astrophotography. I've been bit by that same trap more than once. Those cheap trackers just don't have the precision gears or the steady motor control you need for anything past about a 50mm lens. You're fighting the backlash in the worm gear and the software can't compensate for it. For the Orion Nebula you really need something with a periodic error correction and a solid tripod base. Save up for a used iOptron SkyGuider Pro or a Star Adventurer if you can find one on Cloudy Nights. It hurts the wallet but the difference is night and day when you get a full 2 minute sub without any trailing.

hannah4003d ago

I get it but my $70 tracker actually does fine with my 135mm lens.

grays132d ago

the_linda said that $70 price point is a dead giveaway and honestly they're not wrong. I remember one time I bought a cheap tracker off Amazon and tried to shoot the milky way from my backyard. Set it up all excited, watched it drift off target after like 4 minutes and just gave up. Ended up using a fixed tripod and stacking a bunch of 15 second shots instead which actually looked way better. That plastic gear noise it made was something else too, sounded like a dying toy. It's a trap we all fall into once, thinking we found a shortcut but really you just wanna chuck it into the nearest trash can.

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