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Skytracker questions.
May 23, 2018 14:46:30   #
wmurnahan Loc: Bloomington IN
 
Just got a Skytracker pro, waiting on the counterbalance. My first question is how to you site the tracker for solar shots since the polar star is not visible? I've taken some milkyway shots using the 500 rule for the exposure on a stationary tripod, what kind of settings do I use for landscape speed as opposed to celestial?

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May 24, 2018 12:45:42   #
bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada
 
wmurnahan wrote:
Just got a Skytracker pro, waiting on the counterbalance. My first question is how to you site the tracker for solar shots since the polar star is not visible? I've taken some milkyway shots using the 500 rule for the exposure on a stationary tripod, what kind of settings do I use for landscape speed as opposed to celestial?

As for polar alignment during the day, eye ball it based on what you had set up for night.

Not sure what you mean by "landscape speed"? If you have a good polar alignment, you can use almost any exposure for celestial. I have friends that use 2-3 minutes with a 400mm lens.

bwa

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May 24, 2018 19:21:37   #
wmurnahan Loc: Bloomington IN
 
bwana wrote:
As for polar alignment during the day, eye ball it based on what you had set up for night.

Not sure what you mean by "landscape speed"? If you have a good polar alignment, you can use almost any exposure for celestial. I have friends that use 2-3 minutes with a 400mm lens.

bwa


The skytracker has a setting 1/2x that the manual says to get an image of both the starry sky and land objects, says use 1x for celestial. Then it has solar and lunar speed. Understand what to do with them all except the 1/2x.

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May 24, 2018 19:57:21   #
bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada
 
wmurnahan wrote:
The skytracker has a setting 1/2x that the manual says to get an image of both the starry sky and land objects, says use 1x for celestial. Then it has solar and lunar speed. Understand what to do with them all except the 1/2x.

A person on Cloudy Nights states:
"The 1/2 Celestial speed is for people shooting skyscapes -- wide-field images including the horizon. The idea is that you split the difference between blurring the stars and blurring the horizon. On a fixed tripod, the horizon is sharp and the stars are trailed. At 1 Cel, the stars are sharp and the horizon is blurred. At 1/2 Cel, up to a point, you can't detect blurring in either one."

Sounds reasonable to me...

bwa

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