48 replies to this topic

[leveye]

That looks like a great setup.  Where is the polar scope located, I dont see it in you picture?

Post # 20 you'll see a black cap in the back of the main unit. You remove that and also the mounting bracket with the entire camera and ball head. There is then a small plastic cap under that which reveals the scope.

Edited by leveye, 26 February 2018 - 12:05 PM.

[dciobota]

My guess is that the trees did not blur that much because I was pointed North with the camera. They are slightly blurred when you look close at them though. Your looking good over there best of luck. I still think with a basic polar alignment you'll be fine at 300mm for at least 2 minutes even with the polar scope as it is.

Ahh, that makes sense, I hadn't thought of that.  Thanks my man, yeah, I think I'm overthinking my issue, 90% of the time I shoot at shorter fl anyways, and don't use exposures longer than 4-5 min.

 

Btw, I went outside today and took a couple of pics with my smartphone.  My rig is still setup like last night, since it might be clear enough tonight to do more testing.  Here they are, resized.  The wire tangles look like a mess and they are, I'm waiting for some shorter wires to come in.  You can also see the wireless router and pc velcroed to the sides of the mount.  All I use is a tablet to remote login and control the guiding.  I wish I could do the camera that way too, but alas, the M5 does not talk like its mirrored brethren.  I have a remote trigger I attach to the hot shoe for it (not pictured).  I also use a wedge instead of a ball head.  I tried a ball head like yours and it's not very easy to use with the long lens.  But it worked fine with the shorter ones.

 

A little more complicated than your setup, but still very portable I think.

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[dciobota]

Oops, didn't let me upload both files at once.  Here is the second one.

 

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[leveye]

Nice setup. How much weight overall do you have there? 

[dciobota]

I actually did a breakdown of all the pieces, so I would know what weight I have to carry based on the different arrangements.  Here's what I have:

 

Tripod:                                                                             4.3lb

Wedge+panhead mounted on the tripod:                        1.6lb

Skyguider mount:                                                             3.0lb

iOptron wedge (to attach to the front):                             1.0lb

30mm guider and camera:                                               0.6lb

Support electronics (handbox, pc, access point, wires):  0.8lb

Canon 70-200 f2.8 lens:                                                   3.6lb

EOS M5:                                                                           1.6lb

 

Some other weights, for different setups (not pictured):

asi1600mc-c with canon adaptor                                     1.6lb

Rokinon 135 f2 lens:                                                        2.6lb

Rokinon 16mm f2 lens (close to the lens you have):       2.0lb

Canon 10-22 lens:                                                           1.4lb

AT65EDQ:                                                                        6.6lb  note: to use the at66edq you will have to use the dec bar and 2 counterweights.  Heavy.

 

In addition, I have two kinds of batteries.  One large one in case I use the asi camera and/or dew heaters.  A small one I use to power the rig if I use the PC and/or want to power the camera externally.  The camera has a very small battery, barely lasts two hours in continuous long exposure use.

 

The large one is a 400Wh lithium, weighs 12.5lb.  The small one is a 96Wh lithium, weighs about 2lb.  As you can tell, dew heaters and camera cooling add a lot of weight just by the sheer energy they use and the subsequent battery requirement.  I only use those setups when I am parked nearby.  For longer walks I use the small battery with the Canon camera (and pray for no dew lol).

 

Hope this helps.

 

So I totally forgot to answer your question!  As pictured the setup weighs about 17lbs, plus the battery.  In this case I'm powering from an outside receptacle (you can see the power supply laying on the chair).

Edited by dciobota, 26 February 2018 - 01:21 PM.

[leveye]

Just on the mount head I mean. Camera,lens, guidescope ect ect. 

[dciobota]

That looks like a great setup.  Where is the polar scope located, I dont see it in you picture?

Btw, I found this video on youtube that does a nice review of the mount:

https://www.youtube....h?v=YpmtIpqKCPo

 

It is a bit long (there is also a part 2) but if you look at the video in the link at about the 4:40 mark, he talks about the polar scope.  I used that as an information reference before I bought my mount, a lot of good info in there.

[bmhjr]

 

That looks like a great setup.  Where is the polar scope located, I dont see it in you picture?

Btw, I found this video on youtube that does a nice review of the mount:

https://www.youtube....h?v=YpmtIpqKCPo

 

It is a bit long (there is also a part 2) but if you look at the video in the link at about the 4:40 mark, he talks about the polar scope.  I used that as an information reference before I bought my mount, a lot of good info in there.

 

I really like the iOptron polar scope on my Skytracker and mount.  I had to align the one on my mount, similar to the procedure you followed, and it is dead on.

[leveye]

 

That looks like a great setup.  Where is the polar scope located, I dont see it in you picture?

Btw, I found this video on youtube that does a nice review of the mount:

https://www.youtube....h?v=YpmtIpqKCPo

 

It is a bit long (there is also a part 2) but if you look at the video in the link at about the 4:40 mark, he talks about the polar scope.  I used that as an information reference before I bought my mount, a lot of good info in there.

 

I watched that last year yes. The main thing that convinced me was the much much better build quality over the Skywatcher. I was pretty shocked at the difference. I expected more from them. The iOptron feels 100 times more solid when in your hands. I sent the SW back the Day after it arrived.

Edited by leveye, 26 February 2018 - 01:34 PM.

[dciobota]

Yeah, after taking it apart yesterday, I was impressed how well thought and generally how well it was put together.  Aside from the polar scope lol.  But like with everything else, things slip through qc every now and then.  I should have done the right thing and sent it to iOptron for the adjustment, but I couldn't resist tinkering.  I honestly didn't expect it to be belt driven and servo motored.  No wonder it's so accurate and the guiding is superb for such a little mount.

 

Btw, the 200 f2.8 lens just came in, and as usual, I weighed it.  It is 2.2 lbs, which is significantly lighter (and also shorter) than its zoom brother.  I was hoping for that, even though the zoom seemed to do fine on the mount anyway.

 

So the zoom is about to sent to get adjusted and then sold.  It has been a very good lens and served me very well, but I can't afford to keep both.

[dciobota]

 

 

That looks like a great setup.  Where is the polar scope located, I dont see it in you picture?

Btw, I found this video on youtube that does a nice review of the mount:

https://www.youtube....h?v=YpmtIpqKCPo

 

It is a bit long (there is also a part 2) but if you look at the video in the link at about the 4:40 mark, he talks about the polar scope.  I used that as an information reference before I bought my mount, a lot of good info in there.

 

I really like the iOptron polar scope on my Skytracker and mount.  I had to align the one on my mount, similar to the procedure you followed, and it is dead on.

 

I am so glad yours is my man.  Like I said, mine just slipped through QC.  I'll probably ask iOptron if I can just buy the polar scope from them, since I lost the ball bearings in mine.  Hopefully it won't be too much.  

[bmhjr]

 

 

 

That looks like a great setup.  Where is the polar scope located, I dont see it in you picture?

Btw, I found this video on youtube that does a nice review of the mount:

https://www.youtube....h?v=YpmtIpqKCPo

 

It is a bit long (there is also a part 2) but if you look at the video in the link at about the 4:40 mark, he talks about the polar scope.  I used that as an information reference before I bought my mount, a lot of good info in there.

 

I really like the iOptron polar scope on my Skytracker and mount.  I had to align the one on my mount, similar to the procedure you followed, and it is dead on.

 

I am so glad yours is my man.  Like I said, mine just slipped through QC.  I'll probably ask iOptron if I can just buy the polar scope from them, since I lost the ball bearings in mine.  Hopefully it won't be too much.  

 

Well is was cumbersome to get it out of my mount bore to adjust.  Luckily I did not need to take it completely apart like you did.  All said, it is a great polar scope.  Good luck.

[leveye]

I would say my first real test was successful. Ioptron Skyguider Pro - Tokina ATX 17mm f3.5 @ f4 ISO 2500 for 2 minutes.

 

[dciobota]

Absolutely beautiful Chris.  And even pointing south I don't see much blur in the trees.  Did you use 1x or 1/2x speed for this one?

[dciobota]

Btw, I don't know if you know about Sequator.  You can take several short tracked images and sequator will stack the starry part separate from the fixed part resulting in a very nice low noise result for both stars and ground.  Very easy to use too.

 

Oh also, what app did you use to identify the Polaris location?  The android polarscope app gives strange results sometimes.

Edited by dciobota, 06 March 2018 - 12:45 PM.

[leveye]

Absolutely beautiful Chris.  And even pointing south I don't see much blur in the trees.  Did you use 1x or 1/2x speed for this one?

Thank you for the kind words. This one was 1/2 speed

Btw, I don't know if you know about Sequator.  You can take several short tracked images and sequator will stack the starry part separate from the fixed part resulting in a very nice low noise result for both stars and ground.  Very easy to use too.

 

Oh also, what app did you use to identify the Polaris location?  The android polarscope app gives strange results sometimes.

Thank you I'll give it a look for sure. I plan on stacking the backgrounds in the future.  Here's the great news. All I did was give the mount a basic point using a compass using my true North. The latitude was already set from the last session I polar aligned so set up in my home location now is a real snap. Only takes a few minutes especially when using wide angle lenses. I was able to do well over 3 minutes with no streaking. Should work in at least an 80 mile distance up and down the coast were I image the most. Very happy with that.

Edited by leveye, 07 March 2018 - 06:26 AM.

[dciobota]

Oh excellent Chris, thanks for the info.  Looking forward to try that when I visit the coast this summer.

[leveye]

Just used a ball head and camera with lens. No hefty ra bracket and counterweight to lug around. I very happy about this. We should start a new thread when your up an imaging.

[dciobota]

Yeah, I've been thinking about starting a skyguider pro thread with all the info posted on here and to encourage folks to post pics as well.  The title of this one is not really all that relevant anymore.

 

I'm usually shy about posting pics, I am very critical of my work.  And also let's face it, I'm not that good at it.  ;-)

 

But I'll post something when I get the chance to really use the kit.

 

Not sure where to put the new topic though, I'm guessing mounts?

[dciobota]

I forgot to mention in here that I did start a new topic for the skyguider pro in general:

https://www.cloudyni...e-it/?p=8441071

 

Chris, I didn't include your pics of your setup nor the images you took with it, I didn't want to do anything like that without your permission.  Feel free to post them in there as well.

 

And also anyone else in here that wants to post there as well.  I'm kinda hoping that will be the main thread on this mount from now on.

[niccoc1603]

Hi all,

 

I recently purchased the Skyguider, when I look inside the polar scope and rotate the mount, I see the effect that you can check in this video

I recorded the video with my smartphone, I was keeping the smartphone in front of the polar scope eyepiece and did not rotate the phone at all. I see the same effecteffect when I look through the polar scope with my eyes.

 

I wrote to iOptron and this is their reply:

The dial is rotating, but the view is not. You can focus on antenna branches to see that the view is not really moving.

As the unit is very light, when you turn the unit by hand, you are also moving the mount a little. Finally, the polar scope does allow you to look through it at a small range of angles. The angle you position your eye relative to the light cone through the polar scope will affect what you see on the peripheries of the scope.

You only need to make sure that the center of the polar scope is pointing to the right target.

I believe the mount should work normally based on the video. Of course, the only true test is to set it up and use it

 

Today I did my first test and with accurate alignment (which takes a bit to find) I can take good shots with my 300mm lens up to 2.30min with no evident star trails (I didn't push longer than that as some starts were starting to be not perfect circles, but maybe it's also some come effect with such long exposure))

 

According to your experience, is that is the mount working as supposed?

 

thanks

[dciobota]

Hi niccoc,

 

I can't view the video from work, but if you manage 2.5 min at 300mm (I'm assuming a dslr) then you are pretty accurately aligned, so the polarscope is working well for you.

 

As the iOptron rep remarked, if the dial circles rotate but the center stays in the same spot, you are good.  I think I posted instructions at the beginning of this topic on how to align the polarscope if the view at the center moves, but given your alignment accuracy I would say not to touch it.

 

If your entire view moves around yet the center stays on the same object in view, then you have my issue, which I believe is an optical shift of the front lens element in the polarscope.  For a long time I thought that affected my polar alignment, and I'm still thinking it might, but I got the same answer you did from iOptron, which is basically that if the center stays on the same object as you rotate, that image shifting around should not affect alignment. 

 

So I guess I'll go with what they say, seems to make sense.

 

Hope this helps.

[dciobota]

Btw, for those interested, I posted some links to a pic and video I took in my other SGP topic:

https://www.cloudyni...e-it/?p=8803061

[niccoc1603]

thank you for your reply. I saw the procedure but honestly I don't think I am going to take the whole thing apart.  I'll stick with this since iOptron is saying it's ok