3 replies to this topic

[UnguardedPeach]

Hey everyone! So I'm pretty new to the astrophotography scene and I got a Star Adventurer for my birthday. I've had a few changes to use it and the first few times everything was working great and I was excited to continue this hobby. Now, a couple of weeks later, I was trying to get 90sec subs of the Orion Nebula and I noticed a bit of shakiness but I thought it was due to me adjusting the focus/zoom while getting everything framed up.

 

However, when I set my remote up for 40 shots, I came back when it was done only to see that all pictures had star trails the DSO had shifted from the center of the frame to the left side of the frame. I try and polar align as well as I can by using the Polar Finder app and I feel like it was where the app was telling me to place Polaris so I'm not sure what happened exactly.

 

Has anyone else had issues like this before? Thanks in advance!

Album: Orion Shift

2 images

0 comments

 

[bobzeq25]

We _all_ have had tracking issues. 

 

That much trailing in 90 seconds is unlikely to be polar alignment unless you're very far off.

 

More information is always better when you ask questions here.  90 second subs.  What camera and what lens?  How are you triggering the shutter?  A picture of the setup would be good.  You need a small jpg, so save it as something like 800X600.

[SteveInNZ]

Your drift is in Declination which indicates a polar alignment error.

I'm not too familiar with the region around Polaris but a common mistake is to pick the wrong star and align on that. They all look the same through a polar scope.

Because Orion is near the celestial equator, it's more sensitive to PA error than a region closer to the pole.

Also, 90 seconds is quite a long exposure for a star tracker. You can see the ripples in your trails which is the periodic error in the RA direction. You'll get a better yield by sticking to 30 second subs.

 

Steve.

[UnguardedPeach]

I'm not sure if there's a way for me to respond to a specific reply so I'll just make one for both replies!

 

@bobzeq25 - Sorry, I should have clarified that the two images I attached were the first and last of my session, so about an hour apart. Each image out of the 40 drifted a bit. As far as my equipment, I'm using a Canon 1200D with a Sigma 150-600mm. I was at 300mm for these shots. My tripod is a Vanguard Alta Pro 263AP and is pretty stable. Vello ShutterBoss V2. I currently don't have my gear set up so I can't send a picture, unfortunately. Hopefully this information helps.

 

@SteveInNZ - I was wondering about my alignment after the fact because when I saw the pictures, I took another look through the polar scope and didn't see the star there at all. So I was thinking it was a calibration issue but that doesn't seem to be the issue, either. I probably, stupidly, aligned to the wrong star. Usually, though, the only star I can see in the North is Polaris since I'm in a Bortle 8 zone. I've done 90 sec subs before and they seemed to be ok, I just struggled with the focus on those shots

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