Putting the Skywatcher Star Adventurer through the paces

Tested the EF 400/5.6 and the Sigma Art 135/1.8 on the Adventurer during one clear sky night this week. With some prolonged Polaris alignment I managed to make some shots with the 400mm until the camera ran out of juice unfortunately after about only 10 shots without me noticing.

After swapping to a fresh battery I also tested using the 135mm.

The target was Arcturus,  the brightest star in the constellation of Boötes, the fourth-brightest in the night sky, and the brightest in the northern celestial hemisphere. Arcturus is part of the Spring Triangle asterism together with Spica and Denebola.

With short exposure ie less than 10secs you can get away with a more or less Polar alignment which is what I've been doing thus far. With proper alignment even the 400 managed to get to 45 secs. The 135 managed to take it all the way to 83 seconds.

EF 400/5.6 shots above, max exposure reached this time was 45secs (above shot was 30secs and 45secs). 

Art 135/1.8 max exposure achieved was  83 secs (shots above vary from 30 secs to 83 secs).

Arcturus, is associated with the arrival of spring , and in the southern hemisphere heralds the start of autumn, here a stack of 135mm shots only lights, cropped.

Since the objective of the Star Adventurer was only to make longer exposures of the Milkyway and possibly also of the M42 Orion Nebula, I think the Adventurer has now proven more than fulfilled the tasks it's supposed to be doing.

Incidentally now that I have gained better experience with Polar alignment, there's less reason to leave the Adventurer at home and limit my exposure time. More tracked shots of clear sky undoubtedly. Here's to more clear skies!

Chasing Comet Iwamoto

Trying my luck at Comet Iwamoto tonight ... supposedly magnitude 7 between 10-13th of February with it's trajectory crossing the Leo constellation. I caught Comet Wirtanen earlier in the year without tracking, so this time I'm trying to capture Iwamoto with tracking ...  hopefully it's in the frame somewhere. I'm using the Sigma Art 135/1.8 on Canon 6D mounted on the Star Adventurer.

Since clear sky is hard to come by on the West Coast, I'm onto the chase ... fingers crossed I got it!

Rapidly moving to the northwest, Comet Iwamoto zips from Virgo to western Leo in the coming week. The open circles mark the comet's position for 0h UT (7 p.m. on the previous date EST) daily; the crosses mark its location at 12h UT (7 a.m. Eastern). Stars are shown to magnitude 7. From https://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/comet-iwamoto-ascends-and-brightens/

An attempt without tracking Sony A7S+Samyang AF85/1.4 @f/2.8. So this is basically done with continuous single shots at 1secs exposure to minimize trailing, and then stacked using Sequator.

Another attempt without tracking Sony A7S+Samyang AF85/1.4 @f/2.8

Tracked shots, 95 shots on Star Adenturer 30secs exposure each @ f/2.8, Iso 400 at every 35secs interval, and then stacked on Sequator. We can see that that the Comet Iwamoto moves really fast!

With the current winter weather there are very limited options for travelling to an LP free location, perhaps later in the fall there would be more opportunities to assess the stupendousness of Star Adventurer tracked shooting of the night sky. But then again there is always Tenerife, La Palma ... however dragging gear across international airports becomes a big drag, literally.