To date, I've been doing mostly wide angle Milky Way shooting (Tokina 11-16), plus some super telephoto Moon shots (Tamron 150-600) on my Nikon D7500. I'm interested in getting a star tracker for longer exposures, but I'm getting really lost and confused in the research, especially involving weights and tripod-ballhead combos.
- I'd welcome any input on a SkyGuider Pro Camera Mount Full Package vs. a Star Adventurer 2i Pro Pack for my needs.
- As a first step, am I needing to make sure my camera body with battery plus my biggest lens is below the payload of the trackers (w/ room to grow in case I upgrade to full frames)? Right now, I'm counting the camera+lens as roughly 6 lbs, and I have the max payloads of the SkyGuider and Star Adventurer as 11 lbs each.
- For the tripod-ballhead combo, am I needing to make sure that camera body with battery plus biggest lens, plus the entire tracker kit (including counterweight) is less than the payload of the tripod-ballhead combo (with room to grow)? Right now, I have the SkyGuider package as 3.2 lbs and counterweight at 2.97 lbs (6.1 lbs total) and the Star Adventurer package as 3.63 lbs and counterweight at 2.85(I think) lbs (6.4 lbs total). So, adding the 6 lbs of camera and max lens, the ballpark payload of the tripod-ballhead combo would then need to be absolute minimum 12 lbs--is that right?
- Given all that, any recommendations for a good tripod/ballhead combo that would support the above (w/ room to grow)? Ideally, I'd really like to be able to put this tripod in a standard suitcase, so that would make the folded height less than 24" (ideally maybe around 20"). I'd also like to use this as my primary non-astro tripod as well. Looking to spend $100-150, new or used, but I don't know if that's feasible. Could I get away with something travel-friendly like this Neewer (which lists a 33 lb load)?
Any advice and suggestions would be much appreciated!