Great tips. Thank you! I had seen Kamil's video on printing the scale. One thing I would add to your instructions and his is to make sure it's prints the correct size. The instructions give some guidance, but there's room for error. The way I worked it out was, like you, first find the 90 degree points around the perimeter, and I marked and notched them with a utility knife. Then I wrapped blank paper around and marked on the paper. Then I measured those marks and rescaled the image into a Word document with the ruler guides, making sire the 0, 90 and 0 degree marks lined up where I calculated them to be. I particularly appreciated your tip about the polar scope illuminator. I have the tape, and I also bought a 3D printed glow in the dark insert, which works really well, but I'm anxious to try to fix the illuminator... if I didn't toss it. I liked your solution on modifying the mount on the dec bracket. I had done something similar by mounting a panning base with an Arca clamp, but it was a bit bulky. Yours is a lot more trim. I'd like to find something like that, but stick with my current overall solution - I attached a Leofoto quick change receiver, so I can still use a panning base, or I can install an additional ball head or two-way head if I want. It makes for a more modular design and I can easily poach from my other camera gear without having to screw and unscrew things. I've had the William Optics EQ base on my wish list for quite a while. The clutch on my Sky-Watcher base got stuck and I couldn't tighten it, so I switched to a heavy duty two-way tilt and pan head with 5 degree markings for tilt. However, I recently came across another video where one guy showed how to create and insert plastic shim washers into the Sky-Watcher base so that you don't get that movement you talked about, but it also solved my problem of the clutch being stuck, so I have use of it again. It always perplexed me why that clutch and its innards are plastic, while the rest of the base is all metal, except for the spirit level. Very odd design. Thanks again! Very informative.
Hi, thanks for the response. I’ve also since seen the video about the base washers which makes perfect sense. Having moved over to the William Optics base, I haven’t bothered to investigate further. Glad you got something out of the video.
I decided on a slightly different approach to setting declination. You already have part of it here, in your video--you need only a panoramic base that has degree markings. The one I have has 4 dots, 90 degrees apart. After doing a polar alignment, I get my camera roughly pointed at the celestial pole, and set the panoramic base so that 90 degrees is indicated. I then loosen the RA clutch and take a 10 second exposure while swinging the camera for most of a circle. The image will tell you where the RA center is. Then I use the fine adjustment knob to get the center of that circle as close to the center of the image as possible. And then leave it for the rest of the session. After this, I use the panoramic base to set declination, and hour angle to set RA. Then I refine polar alignment. My panoramic base has markings every 2.5 degrees, which is close enough that I've gotten my image in frame on the first try at 400mm focal length (400mm on a DX Nikon camera is about 3.3 degrees by 2.2 degrees FoV).
I’m trying to picture what you’re describing but my brain won’t work. Must be tired. Glad you’ve found something that works for you. This hobby certainly has the ability to tax the little grey cells.
For the tip 1.. I never thought of unscrewing the battery cap.. I always keep it at minimum brightness and worked well with no issues... Tip 2. Higher the tripod, more stable should be... So is better to keep it low when on lose ground or a cheap tripod.. Tip 3. Yeah, that's not ideal, but it does the job well for one time usage per session.. and is already included in the Pro pack! Tip 4. I always use a tripod ball-head between the camera and the tracke .. so much easier to work with...
Another good tip from my photography is to hang a backpack full of rocks off of the tripod, this will make it almost "tripod leg kick" proof. Also makes for an even sturdier platform. I also use an angle finder from my Minolta film cam that lets me look more comfortably and MoveShootMove makes the bracket, also MSM makes a laser kit for the Star Adventurer. great tip on the Williams Optics EQ base, I really do not like the Star Adventurer base at all. So many good ideas!!! I need to get a move on. Cheers!
Excellent video. I'm a newbie to astrophotography. I just purchased this tracker. Your are SO right about the base. My problem is with the azimuth control knobs. Precision they are not! I turn the knobs forward, nothing happens. I turn them both backwards, nothing happens. They just snug up quickly and the platform doesn't turn. I loosen the set screws and the platform turns in a herky-jerky fashion. Can't believe one has to loosen set screws just to adjust the azimuth. Once the screws are loosened even slightly, the entire base is sloppy on that axis. Tech Support was of no help. Their comment to me was: "it just a basic tracking platform"; I guess implying that it's low budget, made like crap and not to expect too much from it. That was my take-away from that comment. I hope the 2i body performs better. That battery cover, really! Doesn't seem like it would've been a technical challenge to design a cover that doesn't come off so easily. I believe I'll look into your suggestion regarding the William Optics base. Thank you sir!
Hi, thank you for your comment. With the azimuth control knobs, you need to turn them in opposite directions. You mention turning them both forward which should be correct as one will be turning clockwise and one anti- clockwise. They are basically just two bolts tightening onto a central peg. You need to loosen one, before you can tighten the other further thus moving the mount. If the mount is sloppy when you release those bolts you should tighten the two dome headed vertical bolts on the base to take out that slack. These should be only nipped up not fully tightened otherwise the mount will not move. Good luck. It is a very good mount to start off with and I would suggest getting to grips with it before deciding to spend more cash upgrading. 👍🏻
Wedge or Mount Base Fix -- I took apart the base and in the clutch found two different plastic washer thicknesses, one was 0.01" the other was 0.02". I added another 0.01" made out of plastic(mylar) to the short side and now the clutch is fixed, does not have the spring over when tightened down. If you measure the gap between the two white pieces it is about 0.785", and the thickness of the black piece with the gear teeth is 0.744" which leaves 0.041" for the plastic washers. From the factory one washer is 0.01" thick looks like mylar, the other is 0.2" looks like polyethylene, adds to 0.03" thick but leaves 0.011" of slack. To fully clamp down the clutch has to go another 0.01" and pushes the black part over, causing the misalignment. I cut the washer out of thin (0.01") sheet mylar, it doesn't have to be pretty, then put it in, the washers add to 0.04" with 0.001 slack and now the problem seems entirely gone. I used a little tape to pre-position the washers onto the black part, while inserting it back into the white part, and brought the washer hole down on the other side with a pen. So I think it is a factory error, a wrong size washer. I also put two wraps of teflon pipe tape on the three adjustment screws, as they were still side to side loose when fully in, indicating over etching on the Alu part. Smooth as silk and tight now. I left the main screw alone. If you can adjust the height with the clutch fully on, then you probably have an undersized washer.
The illuminator. I have not managed to strip the threads but find unscrewing the cap still leaves it on. I simply put a thin plastic washer under the battery when not in use. Sorted, simple works. Polar telescope. A right-angle viewer removes the need for a neck-truss or chiropractor. The wedge. Mine is one of the first series red Star Adventurers. I have practically no slop in the altitude lock screw. Did they change something? The date wheel can be rotated to set the Dec. It can become quite loose and too easily rotated. Don't rely on it staying in the right place. The zero marker can be reset on one Allen grub screw. Conventionally it is used to set your easting position. The use of the Dec dials is in the manual. The graticule is held in place and centred on three Allen grub screws. Remove the eyepiece and loosen one slightly to rotate it with a lens spanner. Because polar alignment apps show 0 at the top and it is important to get Polaris at the right place on the rings. This makes alignment easier when you are imitating a bat. Check the graticule is not off centre by aiming and rotating, but aim it downwards (tripod, ball head, and target, daylight) because the graticule can fall out if the three screws are loosened when facing up.
I have a v1 'red' SA wedge with no slop, it was spray painted over on arrival and pretty rubbish. Instead I attach the SA to a Celestron Alt-Az tripod mount and it is so smooth to adjust in Az and Alt.
Good vid! I rigged up a mount for a phone that allows me to use Stellarium as a go to pointer. I'll have to do a vid for it. I completely agree on the WO wedge, pinching a few pennies right now to try to work it into my kit!
Hi Timothy, you don't say where you are based. I'm in the UK and I got mine here - www.widescreen-centre.co.uk/william-optics-vixen-style-equatorial-wedge-red.html Also available from First Light Optics & Rother Valley Optics
4:52 LMAO....i didnt even know you had to turn the battary cap to turn it off. I just always have turned the brightness down to 0. I thought the ON and OFF arrows were just to let me know how to remove the cap.....yep, a regular einstein here.
Outstanding job of explaining something that is less than intuitive for someone just starting out such as myself. Thank you very much! Just got my Star Adventurer and had some success with the more obvious objects like Orion and the Pleiades but recently attempted M51 but instead of the Whirlpool Galaxy, I spent the night photographing the binary star Cor Caroli.. Ha! Live and learn as they say. Today with the help of your video, I think I learned something. Next chance, I'll attempt your well instructed method of using my printed declination scale and HA chart to find it.... hopefully.
Great effort on this video. I have the SA mini and will be working on how to attach a smart phone with an astro finder feature to the mount. I think AstroHopper will work for Android and for iPhone, Pushtocam and FinderCam. I have made a video on both and am quite sure both will be great in finding your target.
Hey. I am back with another question. I am gonna give it another go, trying to sort out the goto upgrade. At 11:20 what ball head did you use to get that component that you added for better declination adjustment? What screw did you use?
i have seen on ebay a fiber optic attachment that clips on to selection dial the red light runs from the dial through the fiber optic to an attachment that clops in to front polar hole. no batteries
18:16 where did you get the reminder sticker that is on the mount, with yellow and green and white blocks? I can make out "Object Calculation Positive -" but i cant make out the rest.
Hi Kev. I can’t remember if I got this from a TH-cam video or made it up myself (Sorry not helpful). I don’t have a copy anymore. It is just a reminder for me for how to calculate the declination rotation angle (clockwise or anti-clockwise) based on whether your target HA is past the Meridian or not.
Awesome vid, with the date dial etc I’m confused why you actually even need it, I’m in Australia, and if I’ve polar aligned with with octans/ sharp cap what’s the dial used for ? Cheers!
Hiya, Not sure which bit you’re referring to, but as you’ve mentioned polar alignment, I’m guessing that. Initially the dial is used to rotate the polar scope into the correct orientation for polar alignment by eye (This video is aimed at those on a tight budget, who don’t have sharpcap or other polar alignment wizardry). Later, the dial is used to identify the right ascension (RA) angle for easier location of the deep sky target you are searching for. Of course, if you are only doing widefield landscape astrophotography, or your target is clearly observable in the sky, all of that is unnecessary. Hope this answered your question.
Hi Bob. Thanks for all the great tips! I particularly loved your idea of putting the top pano head of the Artcise MB52 on the SA dec mount, so I bought an MB52. However, I can't for the life of me get the top pano head off the ball head. It looks like it should come off with a hex key but I can't get it to budge. How did you manage to remove it? Any guidance would be much appreciated!
@@MilaBird-y7p Hiya, thanks for watching. The MB52 is a nice bit of kit on its own. Unless they’ve changed the design (which I doubt) it is just an Allen key bolt holding the top down. I recall it was very tight. The top is held in place by two lugs. I’ll include a photo of the ball head with top removed. Good luck 🤞🏻
@@photonbucket Thanks for the photo. Did your MB52's top pano head have a silver disk with two notches around the Allen screw, or just the Allen screw itself?
Hi Bob, much appreciate your video here! Just a question re the Williams optics latitude base mount - there seem to be 2 versions available (low and high latitude range) - which one would be the right one to get? Thank you for your help. Cheers from Hong Kong
@@danielscholz4117 You should only need the high latitude version if you’re going to the lower NSW regions. Basically once you move past the 34 degree latitude line, you’ll need the high latitude version.
Hasn't anyone come up with a right angle finder for polar scopes? Or a cheap video camera to do same? Anyway the problem with raising your tripod to look through the polar scope is that it will catch more wind and pick up vibration easier.
😂 if you struggle to eye up polaris using the finder, you need to learn to do squats. No joke, I had a sore neck issue a few years ago. And since that scare, I strength trained so I could squat without struggling, and can now easily make adjustments to the skywatcher SA 2i, without spending extra money on a replacement WO wedge for £200+
Nice video and very informative. But when you started replacing the base with a Williams Optics one it made up my mind not to buy this mount. If I have to go to those lengths and expense to fix silly design shortcomings then it's best to go for a more thought out mount e.g. GTi. That's not a judgement on your excellent video though just a fact.
I agree with your decision. The Star Adventurer has become the poor cousin to the GTi. The final decision for most will come down to budget. Many people will start with the SA and upgrade in time. If you have the cash to start with, the SA GTi is the way to go.
Hello Bob. Great video! So, my dates are different. I got 0 = Jully 12 and 12 = Jan 10 Why does it seem as though everyone is getting different dates? If you set the marker to 0, and you are simply leveling the green bar, shouldnt they be the same? Also, if I pull up your chart in excel and enter my 2 dates, will it populate the rest of the dates automatically?
Hi Kevin, To be honest, I’m not sure of the answer to the first part of your question. I can only assume it’s down to manufacture. In any case it doesn’t make any difference to the outcome. With regard to the spreadsheet, you will have to insert your own data by hand. This is because you are entering a date equivalent of the passage of time. As some months have 30 days, some 31, and one has 28 or 29 (the spreadsheet assumes 28), the start point will dictate how the fields are populated. My advice is to find your start date that corresponds to 0 minutes, then move on from there by the number of days that my spreadsheet changes. This will be two or three. The reason this changes is that it’s a nearest round number approach to converting 720 minutes (12 hours) into 6 months by date. Hope that makes sense.
@@kevinashley478 We don’t. Or more accurately I don’t. This is a get you in the ballpark concept, so just adjust by the odd day to get the result you need
@@photonbucket Could you do a video on how to accurately place the degree strip, mainly how to find the exact point where the 90 degree mark should be for greatest accuracy? My assumption is that the dates won't matter if your declination degree strip isn't in the exact spot.
@@kevinashley478 It’s a fair assumption. From memory, I believe I just positioned the base plate on a level surface with the rotator facing upwards. I then used a right angle 📐 passing through the bolt hole centre to identify the point at the top of the rotator which I marked. This is the point where the 90° mark should align. The trick is to make sure that the scale is printed out at the correct length, so that the -90 and +90 marks are then correctly positioned. For this, I measured the diameter of the rotator and used the equation 0.5(2πR) to find the length of half of the circumference. I then printed out the scale, measured its length, worked out what percentage of that length I needed and printed again, instructing the printer to adjust the size by that percentage.
Hi Bob, If you use the SAC (Star Adventurer Console) app could you use manual control on the ascension to set the desired angle? It appears to display the angle accurately and while the 12 hour scale breaks down into 2º increments per minor division, the manual control lets you advance in .01º increments so it should be resolved enough.
@@kevinashley478 when you connect to the tracker and go in to manual control there’s a left and right arrow button to select a direction and the displacement angle is shown at the bottom. Super easy to use. Once you identify an obvious close-by star get the RA coordinates from it and your target DSO and calculate the angle difference. That’s what you then dial into manually. Good luck with this!
@@ralphguppy Yeah, lol, i was just playing with it and i was like this thing is slow as molasses in january....but i get what you mean now by using it as a fine tuning and less of a main access tool.
i have just ditched the clutch screw and replaced with a regular screw with locking nut, i just dont release it and stays with same high friction, its still adjustable
Hi Kevin. I think I understand your question. Once you have your start date which you’ll have by reading off the date scale when you have the RA axis horizontal and level. You’ll need to be 6 months later in date for the horizontal position 180 degrees from the start position, which needs to correspond to 12 hours in time (1/2 a day needs to equal 1/2 a year) 12 hrs in time divided into 10 min segments = 72. 182 days (6 months) / 72 = 2.53. So each 10 minute change in Hour Angle will equate to a change of 2.53 days on the scale. Just work forward from your start date by 2.53 days for each 10 minutes and round up or down to the nearest whole number (day).
@@photonbucket oh ok. If my current idea doesnt work, then ill try that. I am going out tonight to test a theory that if i set my level 0, which for me is July 14, i can then turn the date dial to match the date at the beginning of Kamil's video of the date rotation, then i should be able to use his video to give me the date needed based on the hour and minutes.
When i finished filling in the chart with my numbers, it didnt end exactly on my 12 hour date, of Jan 10th. In fact, the 12 on the chart was Jan 14.... Is that ok?
Hi Kevin. Should be fine. Remember this is only a rough guide to get you in the ballpark. Minor adjustments may still be necessary in real world shooting to zero in on your target
@@photonbucket Great! I am still a little confused on which way to turn, but practice should remedy that. I just got my first telescope, and Apertura 60/360, so i am hoping it works with that.
hi Bob, i have from Feb 6 to aug 8 wich is a 183 days. but when i calculate the chart my self only HA from 0 till 0.30 is the same. in your chart the diffrence in days between HA 0.30 and .40 is 3 days but i have 2. why is that. my calculation: 0.40 / 0.0394 = 10.152284264 ≈ 10 days 6+10=16 Feb and on the .30 HA i had Feb 14th i don't know if i did something wrong or not but can you please explain?
@UCsmObPcsyX_c_jcabCAp6WQ I’ve looked again at what you’re asking. Don’t confuse 40 seconds of ‘time’ with 0.4 as a decimal. On the Hour Angle reading 40” (40 seconds) is 0.66rec of 1 hour. So a 1hr, 40s hour angle = 1.66rec as a decimal number. Your 183 days divided by 12 hours, sub divided into 10 second increments = 183 / (12x6) or 183 / 72 or 2.54166rec. Let’s call it 2.54. So each 10 second increment on the chart is equivalent to 2.54 days. Your choice is to round that number up, down or to the nearest decimal point when compiling your chart. Hope that makes sense.
@@photonbucket Ohh oke i get your point, when it is .50 or above i round it above. But i am planning to run a wide field rig (135mm on APS-C sensor) so it won't matter alot. I hope.. But plate solving can help
@@photonbucket Thank you Bob, I got it. Do you have any video PA with SWA 2i in Southern Hemisphere? It's big challenge for beginners. Trying Android application SkEye Camera it should work like NINA or ASIAIR...Do you have any ideas? Cheers Alex
@@alexpol9065 Hello again. I'm strictly Northern Hemisphere and I don't have any experience with SkEye. I highly recommend the video's from Peter Zelinka. This is his tutorial on using the SA to PA in the Southern Hemisphere. th-cam.com/video/VKjGc-VjUFk/w-d-xo.html
@@photonbucket Hi Bob. I made some modifications for Star Adventurer and technic how to make GO-TO protractor as well as PA protractor ( ASIAIR assisted PA+ protractor). Can share with you if interested. Do you have Telegram, Facebook etc? Alex
Bob hi. I am trying to figure out RA ( Hour angle) for my SA. As you remember, I am in Southern Hemisphere. So the starting 0 point must be on the East and 12 hrs on the West. I made a protractor with hours 0-12 on top ( step 5 min) and degrees 0-180 on the bottom on the same strip. Strip width 20mm length 150. mm. Covered it with transparent, sticky school books covering film and attached to SA with double-sided thin sticky tape. It's (150mm) is exactly half circumference of RA part of SA ( part above battery compartment). Than I did level ( bolt downward position) and marked a line on the RA brackets. Not sure if it's clear. Unfortunately I am not familiar with uploading to Dropbox or Google drive....
Hi Bob : I’ve followed your tutorial from which you create the ‘chart’ and as you mention, my two start points are different to yours. My start point is 29th May and the 2nd point is 27th November (183 days) after rotating the RA 180 degrees. I have the printed scale taped to the declination head. Now I look at your chart (which is specific to your mount if my understanding is correct) and it has 73 days as reference points starting from point 1 and ending at point 2. Obviously not all of the 183 days are included. How do I superimpose ‘my dates’ against the relative hour angles? I note that you skip dates and move either 2 or 3 days. I think you may have an error in your chart (you have 29th May twice!). I’m lost now, unless I enter each of my dates separately and enter the corresponding hour angle for each date I pick. Are you able to assist me?
Hi Ian, Each mark on the Star Adventurer dial represents two days. So an odd day would be between two marks if that makes sense. I’ve checked my chart and May 29th only appears once? The reason the chart sometimes reads one day different and others two is because each ‘day’ is equivalent to about 3.9 seconds of ‘time’ the day shown on the chart represents the closest match for the given Hour Angle time. For that reason sometimes the chart skips a day. As I said in the video it’s not an accurate way of finding a target, but it’s about as close as you can get with the Star Adventurer. Very happy to do a FaceTime some time if it helps.
Thanks Bob. A lot to learn I think on my part. Looked again at your chart and I agree 29th May is only there once. Heaven knows what I was looking at. Tired eyes I think 😂😩
Hi Bob: I’ve managed to create the chart albeit I haven’t had chance to use it yet ( no dark skies until around midnight). One thing puzzles me. I use both the Stellarium app and Sky Safari 6 plus. I notice that at a given point in time, each app often differs when it displays the ‘hour angle’. One example is ‘the Garnet star’ in Cepheus (Mu Cephei). We’re you aware of this and if so, which co-ordinates can be relied upon when using the Star Adventurer? I’ve trawled ‘Google’ without success.
@@ianmacdonald2307 The hour angle coordinates are specific to your location and are only correct at the time you check them. If you check on Stellarium you should see the HA details constantly updating as the time goes by. For this reason you should only check the HA information at the time you’re imaging.
@@Chorge1972 Starting on Jan 10th, your 12 hr position should be JULY 12th. 180 degrees opposite Jan 10th on the SA scale. Chart here - drive.google.com/file/d/13LxhvmJK6273yhxuQqzeZBz7RasKHqcw/view?usp=share_link
Dear @bobcoastro - yesssss 🎉 it seems to work!! At least at home, simulating everything with my phone and Stellarium! When I adjust all according to the coordinates, the lense really seems to point on my target! Tried it with 3 different target - and it worked on all of them. They are all in the frame, that Stellarium shows for my cam system. I really guess, it will work as well out there in real world… hopefully the sky clears up and I can test it tonight on the simple America-Nebula target…
I've tried your RA chart using my numbers Start date 11/18 to 5/17 I can't get it to work RA is way off. I entered my dates on your chart and I still can't get working. Any Ideas on what I might be missing
Hi Frank, sorry you’re having difficulties. I’m on my holibobs at the moment with a rubbish internet connection, but when I get back I’ll run through this with you. In the meantime, check that you have your hour adjustment pointer set to zero on the polar scope. Also check you are using time accurate data for HA and Dec not RA and Dec when inputting your coordinates. This also has to be site specific. Use a good app like Stellarium to find your HA coordinates but remember to do this at the time and location you’re imaging from. Other than that I suggest another run through of the video going point by point if you can stand my monotonous voice for that long. Make sure you’re reversing the Dec angle and making the 12 hr time adjustment if the target is after the meridian.
Thanks @BobCoAstro! I made the chart and will try it out. I already used the 'Pekala'-method, and that worked well, but I like having something in the hand instead of needing to have a video at hand. What does puzzle my, is that my dates are way different (Sep18-Mar19), any idea as to how? As I understand, for all the trackers the reticule is aligned (i.e. 0 at the top, 6 at the bottom), when the mark is aligned with the '0' and the date dial is set to October 31st, then how can our dates be so different? I think I'm having a brain-fart...
@@photonbucket but I really wonder… my Polarscope is in the same place as it should be. So I Wonder why my zero position is more than one hour off compared to yours. Are the formulas in the fields of your excel sheet? So I could insert my firs number, and than it will calculate all? If not, I will slowly try to understand your calculations and build my own table… Thank you so much for that helpful video! Great job!! 👍
@@Chorge1972 There are no formulas in my spreadsheet, just data. I must admit I haven’t used my SA to Goto a target for some time, having upgraded to an EQ6-RPro so I sometimes have difficulty remembering all the steps I go through in the video here. If you’ve followed all the steps correctly, it will work. A good friend of mine locally started with different readings, but then calculated from there and it all worked fine for him, so don’t worry if you have a different start date. Each entry in the chart changes sometimes by 2 days, sometimes 3 as it’s a ‘nearest whole number’ approximation. If you start at your 0 HA position and follow the pattern of 2 or 3 day changes for each 10 minutes of HA change, you’ll be right. As I say, it’s not exact, but you’ll be pointing at the right piece of sky.
You completely lost me when setting the date, I have watched a handful of tutorials and other than calibrating the scope and polar aligning this is the first I have seen that you have to set it to the actually date. Others have set it for October 31. I will have to keep looking for more info on this as unfortunately your info doesn't connect the dots for me.
@@Steve-pw2op Hi. The section you are referring to is only for when you wish to try using the Star Adventurer as a makeshift go-to mount. If you do not intend to or are not interested in doing this then you can ignore that part and just set up for polar alignment as other videos you have watched describe. Hope that helps.
@@emmaarcher Hi Emma. North London upbringing and yes, northern hemisphere. There are way better options for goto solutions. This video is aimed at those who want to achieve a way of aiming at set coordinates, but are constrained by their current equipment level and budget.
What can I say... First, your video close-ups are just too shaky. If you go through the trouble to hack your Star Adventure for more stable mounting and alignment, you should apply some stability practices to your videography as well. Secondly, your Star Adventure mount is slightly out of focus throughout the whole video. Considering this is a video about the Star Adventurer, it should fill more that 1/6th of your video frame. The Star Adventurer is only reason everyone is watching this video and yet it is literally the smallest item in the video frame. Thirdly, there is some sort of overhead glare washing over everything or maybe your camera lens is dirty. It is hard for me to watch you talk about precision astrophotography mounts when there is on precision in your how-to video. This is probably why you have 12K in views but only 361 likes. You lost me at the shaky video footage. Considering I see that you took the time to edit this video, you could've edited in more stable footage with sharper close-ups too. You will probably delete this critique from your video feed, and that's okay, but I hope you apply my criticisms to your future video products.
Wow! Super critical crtiique. Thanks for the feedback. I don't pretend to be a TH-cam star, and am certainly not comfortable in front of the camera. Take me or leave me as I am. I'm not here for the likes, just to spread a little information. I doubt I'll be taking on board any of your well intentioned advice as life is too short. Stop by for another shaky video when I can be bothered to spent my time putting something together. Till then, I wish you clear skies and good health.
![[LIVE] : ONE ลุมพินี 88 | คู่เอก "ป้อมเพชร vs อัสลามจอน"](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/1ZqTVVbMgbo/mqdefault.jpg)
Great tips. Thank you! I had seen Kamil's video on printing the scale. One thing I would add to your instructions and his is to make sure it's prints the correct size. The instructions give some guidance, but there's room for error. The way I worked it out was, like you, first find the 90 degree points around the perimeter, and I marked and notched them with a utility knife. Then I wrapped blank paper around and marked on the paper. Then I measured those marks and rescaled the image into a Word document with the ruler guides, making sire the 0, 90 and 0 degree marks lined up where I calculated them to be.
I particularly appreciated your tip about the polar scope illuminator. I have the tape, and I also bought a 3D printed glow in the dark insert, which works really well, but I'm anxious to try to fix the illuminator... if I didn't toss it.
I liked your solution on modifying the mount on the dec bracket. I had done something similar by mounting a panning base with an Arca clamp, but it was a bit bulky. Yours is a lot more trim. I'd like to find something like that, but stick with my current overall solution - I attached a Leofoto quick change receiver, so I can still use a panning base, or I can install an additional ball head or two-way head if I want. It makes for a more modular design and I can easily poach from my other camera gear without having to screw and unscrew things.
I've had the William Optics EQ base on my wish list for quite a while. The clutch on my Sky-Watcher base got stuck and I couldn't tighten it, so I switched to a heavy duty two-way tilt and pan head with 5 degree markings for tilt. However, I recently came across another video where one guy showed how to create and insert plastic shim washers into the Sky-Watcher base so that you don't get that movement you talked about, but it also solved my problem of the clutch being stuck, so I have use of it again. It always perplexed me why that clutch and its innards are plastic, while the rest of the base is all metal, except for the spirit level. Very odd design.
Thanks again! Very informative.
Hi, thanks for the response. I’ve also since seen the video about the base washers which makes perfect sense. Having moved over to the William Optics base, I haven’t bothered to investigate further. Glad you got something out of the video.
Super video so well explained
I bought a Minolta right angle viewer for a SLR and glued a plastic film canister to it. Cut open one end. Slides over polar scope! Works great!
I decided on a slightly different approach to setting declination. You already have part of it here, in your video--you need only a panoramic base that has degree markings. The one I have has 4 dots, 90 degrees apart. After doing a polar alignment, I get my camera roughly pointed at the celestial pole, and set the panoramic base so that 90 degrees is indicated. I then loosen the RA clutch and take a 10 second exposure while swinging the camera for most of a circle. The image will tell you where the RA center is. Then I use the fine adjustment knob to get the center of that circle as close to the center of the image as possible. And then leave it for the rest of the session. After this, I use the panoramic base to set declination, and hour angle to set RA. Then I refine polar alignment. My panoramic base has markings every 2.5 degrees, which is close enough that I've gotten my image in frame on the first try at 400mm focal length (400mm on a DX Nikon camera is about 3.3 degrees by 2.2 degrees FoV).
I’m trying to picture what you’re describing but my brain won’t work. Must be tired. Glad you’ve found something that works for you. This hobby certainly has the ability to tax the little grey cells.
Hi Bob, I watched many videos about same topic, you are one of the few nails down a great explanation to pass from theory to practice. Great work!
Thanks Antonio. Glad you got something from it 👍🏻
For the tip 1.. I never thought of unscrewing the battery cap.. I always keep it at minimum brightness and worked well with no issues...
Tip 2. Higher the tripod, more stable should be... So is better to keep it low when on lose ground or a cheap tripod..
Tip 3. Yeah, that's not ideal, but it does the job well for one time usage per session.. and is already included in the Pro pack!
Tip 4. I always use a tripod ball-head between the camera and the tracke .. so much easier to work with...
Another good tip from my photography is to hang a backpack full of rocks off of the tripod, this will make it almost "tripod leg kick" proof. Also makes for an even sturdier platform. I also use an angle finder from my Minolta film cam that lets me look more comfortably and MoveShootMove makes the bracket, also MSM makes a laser kit for the Star Adventurer. great tip on the Williams Optics EQ base, I really do not like the Star Adventurer base at all. So many good ideas!!! I need to get a move on. Cheers!
Sage advice Randy. Thanks for the comments
Excellent video. I'm a newbie to astrophotography. I just purchased this tracker. Your are SO right about the base. My problem is with the azimuth control knobs. Precision they are not! I turn the knobs forward, nothing happens. I turn them both backwards, nothing happens. They just snug up quickly and the platform doesn't turn. I loosen the set screws and the platform turns in a herky-jerky fashion. Can't believe one has to loosen set screws just to adjust the azimuth. Once the screws are loosened even slightly, the entire base is sloppy on that axis. Tech Support was of no help. Their comment to me was: "it just a basic tracking platform"; I guess implying that it's low budget, made like crap and not to expect too much from it. That was my take-away from that comment. I hope the 2i body performs better. That battery cover, really! Doesn't seem like it would've been a technical challenge to design a cover that doesn't come off so easily. I believe I'll look into your suggestion regarding the William Optics base. Thank you sir!
Hi, thank you for your comment. With the azimuth control knobs, you need to turn them in opposite directions. You mention turning them both forward which should be correct as one will be turning clockwise and one anti- clockwise. They are basically just two bolts tightening onto a central peg. You need to loosen one, before you can tighten the other further thus moving the mount. If the mount is sloppy when you release those bolts you should tighten the two dome headed vertical bolts on the base to take out that slack. These should be only nipped up not fully tightened otherwise the mount will not move. Good luck. It is a very good mount to start off with and I would suggest getting to grips with it before deciding to spend more cash upgrading. 👍🏻
will be using tip no 4 😊
Wedge or Mount Base Fix -- I took apart the base and in the clutch found two different plastic washer thicknesses, one was 0.01" the other was 0.02". I added another 0.01" made out of plastic(mylar) to the short side and now the clutch is fixed, does not have the spring over when tightened down. If you measure the gap between the two white pieces it is about 0.785", and the thickness of the black piece with the gear teeth is 0.744" which leaves 0.041" for the plastic washers. From the factory one washer is 0.01" thick looks like mylar, the other is 0.2" looks like polyethylene, adds to 0.03" thick but leaves 0.011" of slack. To fully clamp down the clutch has to go another 0.01" and pushes the black part over, causing the misalignment. I cut the washer out of thin (0.01") sheet mylar, it doesn't have to be pretty, then put it in, the washers add to 0.04" with 0.001 slack and now the problem seems entirely gone. I used a little tape to pre-position the washers onto the black part, while inserting it back into the white part, and brought the washer hole down on the other side with a pen. So I think it is a factory error, a wrong size washer.
I also put two wraps of teflon pipe tape on the three adjustment screws, as they were still side to side loose when fully in, indicating over etching on the Alu part. Smooth as silk and tight now. I left the main screw alone. If you can adjust the height with the clutch fully on, then you probably have an undersized washer.
Fantastic information. Thank you for this very detailed explanation and remedy 👍🏻
typo in above => " 0.2" polyethylene" should be " 0.02" polyethylene " Love your videos Bob!
The illuminator. I have not managed to strip the threads but find unscrewing the cap still leaves it on. I simply put a thin plastic washer under the battery when not in use. Sorted, simple works.
Polar telescope. A right-angle viewer removes the need for a neck-truss or chiropractor.
The wedge. Mine is one of the first series red Star Adventurers. I have practically no slop in the altitude lock screw. Did they change something?
The date wheel can be rotated to set the Dec. It can become quite loose and too easily rotated. Don't rely on it staying in the right place.
The zero marker can be reset on one Allen grub screw. Conventionally it is used to set your easting position. The use of the Dec dials is in the manual.
The graticule is held in place and centred on three Allen grub screws. Remove the eyepiece and loosen one slightly to rotate it with a lens spanner. Because polar alignment apps show 0 at the top and it is important to get Polaris at the right place on the rings. This makes alignment easier when you are imitating a bat. Check the graticule is not off centre by aiming and rotating, but aim it downwards (tripod, ball head, and target, daylight) because the graticule can fall out if the three screws are loosened when facing up.
All good valid points. Thank you Jeff.
I have a v1 'red' SA wedge with no slop, it was spray painted over on arrival and pretty rubbish. Instead I attach the SA to a Celestron Alt-Az tripod mount and it is so smooth to adjust in Az and Alt.
I wasnt expecting to hear banging Psytrance when i clicked this video! Nice one! ;-D
That’ll teach you to stereotype 😂😂
@@photonbucket to be honest, i've never seen anyone use psytrance in an intro to a youtube video, was good to see the psytrance love on your video 😀
Thanks so much for making this video. I definitely learned so much. Commenting for the algorithm.
Good vid! I rigged up a mount for a phone that allows me to use Stellarium as a go to pointer. I'll have to do a vid for it. I completely agree on the WO wedge, pinching a few pennies right now to try to work it into my kit!
where did you get the Williams Optics base? I didn't see it on their site..but I may have missed it.
Hi Timothy, you don't say where you are based. I'm in the UK and I got mine here - www.widescreen-centre.co.uk/william-optics-vixen-style-equatorial-wedge-red.html
Also available from First Light Optics & Rother Valley Optics
This is absolutely exceptional, thank you Sir!
Nice video! I had already watched Kamils video and watching yours as well really helps. Thanks.
Hi Mark, glad you got something out of it. Good luck with your Astro.
Great! Thanks a bunch for the tips!
4:52 LMAO....i didnt even know you had to turn the battary cap to turn it off. I just always have turned the brightness down to 0. I thought the ON and OFF arrows were just to let me know how to remove the cap.....yep, a regular einstein here.
Outstanding job of explaining something that is less than intuitive for someone just starting out such as myself. Thank you very much! Just got my Star Adventurer and had some success with the more obvious objects like Orion and the Pleiades but recently attempted M51 but instead of the Whirlpool Galaxy, I spent the night photographing the binary star Cor Caroli.. Ha! Live and learn as they say. Today with the help of your video, I think I learned something. Next chance, I'll attempt your well instructed method of using my printed declination scale and HA chart to find it.... hopefully.
Great effort on this video. I have the SA mini and will be working on how to attach a smart phone with an astro finder feature to the mount. I think AstroHopper will work for Android and for iPhone, Pushtocam and FinderCam. I have made a video on both and am quite sure both will be great in finding your target.
Hey. I am back with another question. I am gonna give it another go, trying to sort out the goto upgrade. At 11:20 what ball head did you use to get that component that you added for better declination adjustment? What screw did you use?
Hi Kev. The ball head was an Artcise MB52. The bolt I had in stock. Unsure of the size and thread pitch off the top of my head.
i have seen on ebay a fiber optic attachment that clips on to selection dial the red light runs from the dial through the fiber optic to an attachment that clops in to front polar hole. no batteries
Holy speaker-breaking intro batman. Maybe you might wanna turn that down?
Yeah, sorry about that. First time working with the video editing software and got a bit carried away 😂
Excellent tutorial 😊
18:16 where did you get the reminder sticker that is on the mount, with yellow and green and white blocks? I can make out "Object Calculation Positive -" but i cant make out the rest.
Hi Kev. I can’t remember if I got this from a TH-cam video or made it up myself (Sorry not helpful). I don’t have a copy anymore. It is just a reminder for me for how to calculate the declination rotation angle (clockwise or anti-clockwise) based on whether your target HA is past the Meridian or not.
Awesome vid, with the date dial etc I’m confused why you actually even need it,
I’m in Australia, and if I’ve polar aligned with with octans/ sharp cap what’s the dial used for ?
Cheers!
Hiya,
Not sure which bit you’re referring to, but as you’ve mentioned polar alignment, I’m guessing that. Initially the dial is used to rotate the polar scope into the correct orientation for polar alignment by eye (This video is aimed at those on a tight budget, who don’t have sharpcap or other polar alignment wizardry). Later, the dial is used to identify the right ascension (RA) angle for easier location of the deep sky target you are searching for. Of course, if you are only doing widefield landscape astrophotography, or your target is clearly observable in the sky, all of that is unnecessary. Hope this answered your question.
@@photonbucket awesome thank you!
This will come in dhandy for deep stuff as I’ve always wondered how to located these
Cheers
Hi Bob. Thanks for all the great tips! I particularly loved your idea of putting the top pano head of the Artcise MB52 on the SA dec mount, so I bought an MB52. However, I can't for the life of me get the top pano head off the ball head. It looks like it should come off with a hex key but I can't get it to budge. How did you manage to remove it? Any guidance would be much appreciated!
@@MilaBird-y7p Hiya, thanks for watching. The MB52 is a nice bit of kit on its own. Unless they’ve changed the design (which I doubt) it is just an Allen key bolt holding the top down. I recall it was very tight. The top is held in place by two lugs. I’ll include a photo of the ball head with top removed. Good luck 🤞🏻
www.dropbox.com/t/FstatBmv1f5iCN8S
@@photonbucket Thank you! I'll keep trying.
@@photonbucket Thanks for the photo. Did your MB52's top pano head have a silver disk with two notches around the Allen screw, or just the Allen screw itself?
@@MilaBird-y7p Yes mine has the silver disk
Hi Bob, much appreciate your video here! Just a question re the Williams optics latitude base mount - there seem to be 2 versions available (low and high latitude range) - which one would be the right one to get? Thank you for your help. Cheers from Hong Kong
@@danielscholz4117 Hi Daniel, In Hong Kong you will definitely need the low latitude version which will cover latitudes between 7 and 34 degrees.
@@photonbucket Thank you so much Bob. So when or for which location would I need to consider high altitude? As I am also going to Australia I wonder?
@@danielscholz4117 You should only need the high latitude version if you’re going to the lower NSW regions. Basically once you move past the 34 degree latitude line, you’ll need the high latitude version.
Hasn't anyone come up with a right angle finder for polar scopes? Or a cheap video camera to do same?
Anyway the problem with raising your tripod to look through the polar scope is that it will catch more wind and pick up vibration easier.
There are a couple of versions of a right angled eyepiece that fit. They’re around £60 U.K.
Why don't companies like Star Adventurer offer Right Angle Viewfinders for their Polar aligners?
😂 if you struggle to eye up polaris using the finder, you need to learn to do squats. No joke, I had a sore neck issue a few years ago. And since that scare, I strength trained so I could squat without struggling, and can now easily make adjustments to the skywatcher SA 2i, without spending extra money on a replacement WO wedge for £200+
Nice video and very informative. But when you started replacing the base with a Williams Optics one it made up my mind not to buy this mount. If I have to go to those lengths and expense to fix silly design shortcomings then it's best to go for a more thought out mount e.g. GTi. That's not a judgement on your excellent video though just a fact.
I agree with your decision. The Star Adventurer has become the poor cousin to the GTi. The final decision for most will come down to budget. Many people will start with the SA and upgrade in time. If you have the cash to start with, the SA GTi is the way to go.
Hello Bob. Great video! So, my dates are different. I got 0 = Jully 12 and 12 = Jan 10
Why does it seem as though everyone is getting different dates? If you set the marker to 0, and you are simply leveling the green bar, shouldnt they be the same?
Also, if I pull up your chart in excel and enter my 2 dates, will it populate the rest of the dates automatically?
Hi Kevin, To be honest, I’m not sure of the answer to the first part of your question. I can only assume it’s down to manufacture. In any case it doesn’t make any difference to the outcome. With regard to the spreadsheet, you will have to insert your own data by hand. This is because you are entering a date equivalent of the passage of time. As some months have 30 days, some 31, and one has 28 or 29 (the spreadsheet assumes 28), the start point will dictate how the fields are populated. My advice is to find your start date that corresponds to 0 minutes, then move on from there by the number of days that my spreadsheet changes. This will be two or three. The reason this changes is that it’s a nearest round number approach to converting 720 minutes (12 hours) into 6 months by date. Hope that makes sense.
@@photonbucket oh ok... great, more math...lol.
How do we account for leap years?
@@kevinashley478 We don’t. Or more accurately I don’t. This is a get you in the ballpark concept, so just adjust by the odd day to get the result you need
@@photonbucket Could you do a video on how to accurately place the degree strip, mainly how to find the exact point where the 90 degree mark should be for greatest accuracy? My assumption is that the dates won't matter if your declination degree strip isn't in the exact spot.
@@kevinashley478 It’s a fair assumption. From memory, I believe I just positioned the base plate on a level surface with the rotator facing upwards. I then used a right angle 📐 passing through the bolt hole centre to identify the point at the top of the rotator which I marked. This is the point where the 90° mark should align. The trick is to make sure that the scale is printed out at the correct length, so that the -90 and +90 marks are then correctly positioned. For this, I measured the diameter of the rotator and used the equation 0.5(2πR) to find the length of half of the circumference. I then printed out the scale, measured its length, worked out what percentage of that length I needed and printed again, instructing the printer to adjust the size by that percentage.
Hi Bob, If you use the SAC (Star Adventurer Console) app could you use manual control on the ascension to set the desired angle? It appears to display the angle accurately and while the 12 hour scale breaks down into 2º increments per minor division, the manual control lets you advance in .01º increments so it should be resolved enough.
Sounds like a great idea 👍🏻
How does that work? I have just now began to play with the app...
@@kevinashley478 when you connect to the tracker and go in to manual control there’s a left and right arrow button to select a direction and the displacement angle is shown at the bottom. Super easy to use. Once you identify an obvious close-by star get the RA coordinates from it and your target DSO and calculate the angle difference. That’s what you then dial into manually. Good luck with this!
@@ralphguppy Yeah, lol, i was just playing with it and i was like this thing is slow as molasses in january....but i get what you mean now by using it as a fine tuning and less of a main access tool.
7:08 Im sorry....did you just spin that head around??? Sir, i need to know how you did that...
i have just ditched the clutch screw and replaced with a regular screw with locking nut, i just dont release it and stays with same high friction, its still adjustable
What method did you use to figure out the dates? also, you said you did yours in 10 minute increments, yet i am not able to get the dates to match up.
Hi Kevin. I think I understand your question. Once you have your start date which you’ll have by reading off the date scale when you have the RA axis horizontal and level. You’ll need to be 6 months later in date for the horizontal position 180 degrees from the start position, which needs to correspond to 12 hours in time (1/2 a day needs to equal 1/2 a year) 12 hrs in time divided into 10 min segments = 72. 182 days (6 months) / 72 = 2.53. So each 10 minute change in Hour Angle will equate to a change of 2.53 days on the scale. Just work forward from your start date by 2.53 days for each 10 minutes and round up or down to the nearest whole number (day).
@@photonbucket oh ok. If my current idea doesnt work, then ill try that. I am going out tonight to test a theory that if i set my level 0, which for me is July 14, i can then turn the date dial to match the date at the beginning of Kamil's video of the date rotation, then i should be able to use his video to give me the date needed based on the hour and minutes.
When i finished filling in the chart with my numbers, it didnt end exactly on my 12 hour date, of Jan 10th. In fact, the 12 on the chart was Jan 14.... Is that ok?
Hi Kevin. Should be fine. Remember this is only a rough guide to get you in the ballpark. Minor adjustments may still be necessary in real world shooting to zero in on your target
@@photonbucket Great! I am still a little confused on which way to turn, but practice should remedy that. I just got my first telescope, and Apertura 60/360, so i am hoping it works with that.
hi Bob,
i have from Feb 6 to aug 8 wich is a 183 days. but when i calculate the chart my self only HA from 0 till 0.30 is the same. in your chart the diffrence in days between HA 0.30 and .40 is 3 days but i have 2.
why is that.
my calculation:
0.40 / 0.0394 = 10.152284264 ≈ 10 days
6+10=16 Feb
and on the .30 HA i had Feb 14th
i don't know if i did something wrong or not but can you please explain?
@@photonbucket Ahh Oke thanks for the fast response!
@UCsmObPcsyX_c_jcabCAp6WQ I’ve looked again at what you’re asking. Don’t confuse 40 seconds of ‘time’ with 0.4 as a decimal. On the Hour Angle reading 40” (40 seconds) is 0.66rec of 1 hour. So a 1hr, 40s hour angle = 1.66rec as a decimal number. Your 183 days divided by 12 hours, sub divided into 10 second increments = 183 / (12x6) or 183 / 72 or 2.54166rec. Let’s call it 2.54. So each 10 second increment on the chart is equivalent to 2.54 days. Your choice is to round that number up, down or to the nearest decimal point when compiling your chart. Hope that makes sense.
@@photonbucket hi,
Did you mean to answer me? Im a bit confused becouse you taged someone else
@@ObbeJ Yes. Just replied to your message. The long tag was input by TH-cam. Probably the full TH-cam address for your profile name?
@@photonbucket Ohh oke i get your point, when it is .50 or above i round it above. But i am planning to run a wide field rig (135mm on APS-C sensor) so it won't matter alot. I hope.. But plate solving can help
Hi Bob.where can I download your
Chart?
Hi Alex. There’s a link in the video description above.
@@photonbucket Thank you Bob, I got it. Do you have any video PA with SWA 2i in Southern Hemisphere? It's big challenge for beginners. Trying Android application SkEye Camera it should work like NINA or ASIAIR...Do you have any ideas? Cheers Alex
@@alexpol9065 Hello again. I'm strictly Northern Hemisphere and I don't have any experience with SkEye. I highly recommend the video's from Peter Zelinka. This is his tutorial on using the SA to PA in the Southern Hemisphere. th-cam.com/video/VKjGc-VjUFk/w-d-xo.html
@@photonbucket Hi Bob. I made some modifications for Star Adventurer and technic how to make GO-TO protractor as well as PA protractor ( ASIAIR assisted PA+ protractor). Can share with you if interested. Do you have Telegram, Facebook etc? Alex
Bob hi. I am trying to figure out RA ( Hour angle) for my SA. As you remember, I am in Southern Hemisphere. So the starting 0 point must be on the East and 12 hrs on the West. I made a protractor with hours 0-12 on top ( step 5 min) and degrees 0-180 on the bottom on the same strip. Strip width 20mm length 150. mm. Covered it with transparent, sticky school books covering film and attached to SA with double-sided thin sticky tape. It's (150mm) is exactly half circumference of RA part of SA ( part above battery compartment). Than I did level ( bolt downward position) and marked a line on the RA brackets. Not sure if it's clear. Unfortunately I am not familiar with uploading to Dropbox or Google drive....
Hi Bob : I’ve followed your tutorial from which you create the ‘chart’ and as you mention, my two start points are different to yours. My start point is 29th May and the 2nd point is 27th November (183 days) after rotating the RA 180 degrees. I have the printed scale taped to the declination head.
Now I look at your chart (which is specific to your mount if my understanding is correct) and it has 73 days as reference points starting from point 1 and ending at point 2. Obviously not all of the 183 days are included.
How do I superimpose ‘my dates’ against the relative hour angles? I note that you skip dates and move either 2 or 3 days. I think you may have an error in your chart (you have 29th May twice!). I’m lost now, unless I enter each of my dates separately and enter the corresponding hour angle for each date I pick.
Are you able to assist me?
Hi Ian, Each mark on the Star Adventurer dial represents two days. So an odd day would be between two marks if that makes sense. I’ve checked my chart and May 29th only appears once? The reason the chart sometimes reads one day different and others two is because each ‘day’ is equivalent to about 3.9 seconds of ‘time’ the day shown on the chart represents the closest match for the given Hour Angle time. For that reason sometimes the chart skips a day. As I said in the video it’s not an accurate way of finding a target, but it’s about as close as you can get with the Star Adventurer. Very happy to do a FaceTime some time if it helps.
Ian, Open the chart in Excel and you’ll be able to enter your own readings.
Thanks Bob. A lot to learn I think on my part. Looked again at your chart and I agree 29th May is only there once. Heaven knows what I was looking at. Tired eyes I think 😂😩
Hi Bob: I’ve managed to create the chart albeit I haven’t had chance to use it yet ( no dark skies until around midnight). One thing puzzles me. I use both the Stellarium app and Sky Safari 6 plus. I notice that at a given point in time, each app often differs when it displays the ‘hour angle’. One example is ‘the Garnet star’ in Cepheus (Mu Cephei). We’re you aware of this and if so, which co-ordinates can be relied upon when using the Star Adventurer?
I’ve trawled ‘Google’ without success.
@@ianmacdonald2307 The hour angle coordinates are specific to your location and are only correct at the time you check them. If you check on Stellarium you should see the HA details constantly updating as the time goes by. For this reason you should only check the HA information at the time you’re imaging.
Tried so hard to get the formula..... COULD YOU PLEASE HELP ME AND OFFER ME A TABLE WITH MY DATES? For my unit, 0 is Jan 10th, and 12 is June 12th
Working on it
@@photonbucket THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!
@@Chorge1972 Starting on Jan 10th, your 12 hr position should be JULY 12th. 180 degrees opposite Jan 10th on the SA scale. Chart here - drive.google.com/file/d/13LxhvmJK6273yhxuQqzeZBz7RasKHqcw/view?usp=share_link
@@photonbucket omg - you‘re GREAT!!! 1000x Thanks!!!
Dear @bobcoastro - yesssss 🎉 it seems to work!! At least at home, simulating everything with my phone and Stellarium! When I adjust all according to the coordinates, the lense really seems to point on my target! Tried it with 3 different target - and it worked on all of them. They are all in the frame, that Stellarium shows for my cam system. I really guess, it will work as well out there in real world… hopefully the sky clears up and I can test it tonight on the simple America-Nebula target…
I've tried your RA chart using my numbers Start date 11/18 to 5/17 I can't get it to work
RA is way off. I entered my dates on your chart and I still can't get working. Any Ideas on what I might be missing
Hi Frank, sorry you’re having difficulties. I’m on my holibobs at the moment with a rubbish internet connection, but when I get back I’ll run through this with you. In the meantime, check that you have your hour adjustment pointer set to zero on the polar scope. Also check you are using time accurate data for HA and Dec not RA and Dec when inputting your coordinates. This also has to be site specific. Use a good app like Stellarium to find your HA coordinates but remember to do this at the time and location you’re imaging from. Other than that I suggest another run through of the video going point by point if you can stand my monotonous voice for that long. Make sure you’re reversing the Dec angle and making the 12 hr time adjustment if the target is after the meridian.
@@photonbucket
Thanks for the quick reply Bob. I'll work on it. Hopefully I get it right.
Thanks @BobCoAstro! I made the chart and will try it out. I already used the 'Pekala'-method, and that worked well, but I like having something in the hand instead of needing to have a video at hand. What does puzzle my, is that my dates are way different (Sep18-Mar19), any idea as to how? As I understand, for all the trackers the reticule is aligned (i.e. 0 at the top, 6 at the bottom), when the mark is aligned with the '0' and the date dial is set to October 31st, then how can our dates be so different? I think I'm having a brain-fart...
@@jeroenfrijhoff8392 mine were off too? feb 20 to aug 22??? I'm interested in any answer you come up with.
Tried it… my values on the scale are completely different from yours… is this normal????
Quite likely. The proof is in the operation. If you find yourself pointing at the wrong piece of sky, you’ve gone wrong somewhere 😊
@@photonbucket but I really wonder… my Polarscope is in the same place as it should be. So I Wonder why my zero position is more than one hour off compared to yours.
Are the formulas in the fields of your excel sheet? So I could insert my firs number, and than it will calculate all? If not, I will slowly try to understand your calculations and build my own table…
Thank you so much for that helpful video! Great job!! 👍
@@Chorge1972 There are no formulas in my spreadsheet, just data. I must admit I haven’t used my SA to Goto a target for some time, having upgraded to an EQ6-RPro so I sometimes have difficulty remembering all the steps I go through in the video here. If you’ve followed all the steps correctly, it will work. A good friend of mine locally started with different readings, but then calculated from there and it all worked fine for him, so don’t worry if you have a different start date. Each entry in the chart changes sometimes by 2 days, sometimes 3 as it’s a ‘nearest whole number’ approximation. If you start at your 0 HA position and follow the pattern of 2 or 3 day changes for each 10 minutes of HA change, you’ll be right. As I say, it’s not exact, but you’ll be pointing at the right piece of sky.
Mega!!!
Please keep your background music at the same level, or preferably, at a lower than your voice track.
Apologies Robert. Sorted in later videos
You completely lost me when setting the date, I have watched a handful of tutorials and other than calibrating the scope and polar aligning this is the first I have seen that you have to set it to the actually date. Others have set it for October 31.
I will have to keep looking for more info on this as unfortunately your info doesn't connect the dots for me.
@@Steve-pw2op Hi. The section you are referring to is only for when you wish to try using the Star Adventurer as a makeshift go-to mount. If you do not intend to or are not interested in doing this then you can ignore that part and just set up for polar alignment as other videos you have watched describe. Hope that helps.
i'm not so sure. maybe it's the accent maybe you're setting it up in the northern hemisphere, but this video is lost on me.
@@emmaarcher Hi Emma. North London upbringing and yes, northern hemisphere. There are way better options for goto solutions. This video is aimed at those who want to achieve a way of aiming at set coordinates, but are constrained by their current equipment level and budget.
What can I say... First, your video close-ups are just too shaky. If you go through the trouble to hack your Star Adventure for more stable mounting and alignment, you should apply some stability practices to your videography as well. Secondly, your Star Adventure mount is slightly out of focus throughout the whole video. Considering this is a video about the Star Adventurer, it should fill more that 1/6th of your video frame. The Star Adventurer is only reason everyone is watching this video and yet it is literally the smallest item in the video frame. Thirdly, there is some sort of overhead glare washing over everything or maybe your camera lens is dirty. It is hard for me to watch you talk about precision astrophotography mounts when there is on precision in your how-to video. This is probably why you have 12K in views but only 361 likes. You lost me at the shaky video footage. Considering I see that you took the time to edit this video, you could've edited in more stable footage with sharper close-ups too. You will probably delete this critique from your video feed, and that's okay, but I hope you apply my criticisms to your future video products.
Wow! Super critical crtiique. Thanks for the feedback. I don't pretend to be a TH-cam star, and am certainly not comfortable in front of the camera. Take me or leave me as I am. I'm not here for the likes, just to spread a little information. I doubt I'll be taking on board any of your well intentioned advice as life is too short. Stop by for another shaky video when I can be bothered to spent my time putting something together. Till then, I wish you clear skies and good health.