Reddit reviews Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Astro Pack – Motorized Dslr Night Sky Tracker for Portable Nightscapes, Time-Lapse, and Panoramas – Remote Camera Control – Long Exposure Imaging

There are some ~ $500 options that might be good for a photographer that already has a camera.

You can do /r/landscapeastro with a basic tripod and a wide angle lens. The Rokinon 14mm and the Rokinon 24mm are great lenses for Milky Way (widefield) astrophotography. With the camera locked down on a tripod you can do long exposures up to 30 seconds or so. You can shoot multiple exposures and stack them to reduce noise and bring out details. The lenses I linked to are fast and wide and have aspherical elements that makes them good for astrophotography.

The trick with shooting individual objects with a telephoto lens is that as the stars "move" across the sky during the night that motion is magnified in the viewfinder, so you have to shoot 1 or 2 second exposures so that the motion doesn't cause the stars to trail.

If you want to shoot with a telephoto lens you need a tracking mount. The motorized mount slowly moves the camera at the same rate as the sky, keeping the subject still in the viewfinder. This allows for longer exposures and better results.

There are some interesting low cost tracking mounts for cameras with lenses up to 300mm. I haven't used these (ended up getting a bigger mount) but I've seen some good results posted on the forums.

/r/astrophotography and /r/landscapeastro

SkyWatcher S20510 Star Adventurer Astro Package

Vixen Optics 35505 Polarie Star Tracker

iOptron SkyTracker Pro Camera Mount with Polar Scope, Mount Only

I was looking at this type of light duty tracking mount and what I didn't like is that you can't go "up" size-wise from there.

The next step up is a medium duty tracking mount like the

Celestron Advanced VX Mount

What I like about getting into a mount like this is that it can handle a decent size (and quality) telescope if you want to add that later. It uses the German Equatorial Mount (GEM) design that all top-of-the-line mounts use. So you're getting into a better class of mount that has tighter mechanical tolerances. You can use it with wide or telephoto lenses on your camera for now, and with a nice telescope later.

I recently bought a big ol' Atlas EQ-G tracking mount. It's $1500 new but I found a used one for $700. It didn't come with a tripod so I got a used Meade Field Tripod ($150) and an adapter plate ($120) so it was about $1,000 for that particular mount setup. I plan to use that with my Canon 400mm telephoto lens and expect to get decent pictures of Andromeda galaxy, Orion nebula and other deep sky objects (DSO). I need to tap some threads in the tripod and DIY a spreader and I'll be good to go. I guess my point is I got a heavy duty mount that will work with my existing gear and with a good sized telescope in the future. Worked for me, ymmv.

Check the classifieds at Cloudy Night forums for used equipment.

https://www.cloudynights.com/

Good luck!

Skywatcher Star Adventurer plus the Wedge and the counterweight kit. Should come to under $800 CAD, and give you tracking out to 1-2 min at under 200mm focal length.

This is the Star Adventurer. An Alt/Az tracks the object using altitude (up and down) and Azimuth (left and right). An Alt/Az mount will produce field rotation. An equatorial mount tracks using the rotation of the earth allowing for MUCH longer exposures. A prime lens is a lens that has one focal length. Many lenses will allow you to go from 18mm to 55mm or from 75mm to 300mm. When manufacturing non-prime lenses, some quality is sacrificed due to having to make the lens capable of multiple focal lengths. More quality and precision go into a prime lens. Prime lenses also tend to have larger apertures (letting in more light/low focal ratio). Prime lenses also tend to be a little more expensive, but you can get a Canon nifty-fifty (50mm) for wide field astrophotography and every-day photography for under $150. Here is a Canon 200mm prime for $750. Here is a picture from Astrobin taken with the Star Adventurer, a Sony A7, and a Samyang 135mm prime lens.

This is what I use with the counterweight kit and equatorial wedge base (both of which are sold separately)

Is the 'Frequently bought together' list here the setup you're talking about?

I'm looking to buy a small portable tracking mount for my DSLR... something I can just use to replace the head on my camera tripod. I'd love to have that sort of portability because I can just lug my Losmandy G-11 everywhere (lol). Ideally, I would want one with a polar scope for easy alignment. Here's a couple I've seen:

iOptron Sky Tracker

Skywatcher Sky Adventure

This $400 Vixen thing

There are several more on the market too, I just saw an ad for the mini version of the skywatcher in the most recent S&T. Has anybody used any of these?

it's the one /u/t-ara-fan linked, but It doesn't come with a tripod. you'll need to find a reasonably solid tripod. I leave my tripod on the shortest it will go when i take images since that makes it more stable. I think i paid less for mine than the one linked, cant recall though


Amazon has the three items listed at the following prices:

This item:SkyWatcher S20510 Star Adventurer Astro Package (Black) $329.00

SkyWatcher S20530 Star Adventurer Latitude (EQ) Base, Telescope Accessory, Black $65.00

SkyWatcher S20540 Star Adventurer Counter Weight Kit, Telescope Accessory, Black $30.00

Link