What's your favorite travel setup? - Forums

Topic starter

Jan 20, 2023 · Edited: Jan 20, 2023

Having found my way into the astro photography rabbit hole, I start planning my family vacations to allow for ap.
But of course I can't get all my gear easily into a plane.

So my next project is to get ready for this years vacations :-)

So far I have the following topics and open questions
- tripod - could I use my DSLR Manfrotto?
- mount - iOptron Skyguider or Skywatcher Star Adventurer or something completely different?
- scope - can I get my 86mm APO onto an iOptron or can I rely on my Tamron 300mm zoom lense for the DSLR?
- cameras - I would think I could use my DSLR
- guiding - use my autoguider on a mini 300mm guidescope

What am I missing?
What are your best practices? Looking forward to your inspirations!

Engaging

andrea tasselli

Frequent contributor

Jan 20, 2023

- tripod - could I use my DSLR Manfrotto?

I use mine so you could too but it all depends on which Manfrotto tripod we're talking about. Mine is a heavy duty one and weighs quite a bit.

- mount - iOptron Skyguider or Skywatcher Star Adventurer or something completely different?

I plumped for Fornax LighTrack II. More expensive but much better than those ones above.

- scope - can I get my 86mm APO onto an iOptron?

I doubt it would make any sense going beyond 300mm of FL and even with that limit it is going to be tricky to get the framing and centering right. I'd probabaly stick to wide-field and up to 200mm, regardless of the weight capability of the tracker.

- cameras - I would think I could use my DSLR

If it is a good one, possibly astro-modded, yeah. I'd do the same myself.

- guiding - use my autoguider on a mini 300mm guidescope

No faffing around with computers and cables and guide-scopes, no sir. Besides, you'd be able only to correct in RA so it is going to be critical to have the right PA (for your longest focal length of choice). My mount allows me 300s of unguided tracking @ 3.3 px/arcsec and that is good enough for me.

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Arny

Topic starter

Jan 20, 2023

andrea tasselli:
- tripod - could I use my DSLR Manfrotto?

I use mine so you could too but it all depends on which Manfrotto tripod we're talking about. Mine is a heavy duty one and weighs quite a bit.

- mount - iOptron Skyguider or Skywatcher Star Adventurer or something completely different?

I plumped for Fornax LighTrack II. More expensive but much better than those ones above.

- scope - can I get my 86mm APO onto an iOptron?

I doubt it would make any sense going beyond 300mm of FL and even with that limit it is going to be tricky to get the framing and centering right. I'd probabaly stick to wide-field and up to 200mm, regardless of the weight capability of the tracker.

- cameras - I would think I could use my DSLR

If it is a good one, possibly astro-modded, yeah. I'd do the same myself.

- guiding - use my autoguider on a mini 300mm guidescope

No faffing around with computers and cables and guide-scopes, no sir. Besides, you'd be able only to correct in RA so it is going to be critical to have the right PA (for your longest focal length of choice). My mount allows me 300s of unguided tracking @ 3.3 px/arcsec and that is good enough for me.

really helpful, Andrea - and very clear that small focal length is recommended, and that I shpuld leave cable, computersand guide stuff behind :-)

Do you think its even worth trying a DLSR 100-300mm zoom lens?

Michael Ring

Jan 20, 2023

My 10 cents:
Forget about Star Adventurer/Skyguider and invest a little extra money to buy the new StarAdventurer GTI.
It is bigger but still fine for travel and it has major advantages, it has goto function and a proper working ASCOM/INDI driver, two things that will make your life a lot easier.
It is a major pain to find and frame the object that you are looking for without goto function for focallengths >=200mm, especially when you do not have previous astro experience.
You will also be able to use proper guiding in RA and DEC for longer focallengths, with a 200mm lens I can get away without guiding when my polar alignment is very good but you will still have to throw away 20-30% of your subs because of elongated stars, even with the GTI and 'only' exposing for 2 minutes.
But when you use guiding then under same conditions you can go to much longer exposures, longest I have used with guiding on the GTI is 10 minutes, but usually I go for 3 or 5 minute exposures.

For the other questions:
If the tripod is sturdy you can use it, the GTI can be attached to a camera tripod.
If possible use a fast lens with a focal length in the area of 100-150mm (will likely work well without autoguiding), you can use zoom lenses to start but when you have licked blood then you will not be satisfied with the stars you get because usually zoom lenses are not up to the task of delivering nice pinpoint stars.

When I started I used my 500mm F4 Nikon lens (on a bigger mount), a quite sharp and expensive prime lens, but in the end I threw away all the pics I did because a telescope for 1/6 of the price delivered much better stars.

For guiding a cheap 120mm focallength guidescope will be sufficient, those are small and easy to pack.

You will also have to think about if you want to bring your laptop or not, without laptop you will not be able to have guiding so using a 300mm lens will be impossible.

Michael

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