Plan, do, review. Whenever I do anything new, it’s natural to want to improve. So, what were the lessons for next time? Commercially available autoguiders are usable with the POLARIE U. (This will move in the direction of R.A. only.) The Vixen Optics Polarie is designed to work with wide-angle lenses to image star fields and the Milky Way. Featuring a built-in compass and latitude meter (which are helpfully illuminated in red light for set up at night), alignment is very straightforward – you'll need to locate the celestial pole through a sight hole or polarscope, with takes moments to achieve. There’s also a Vixen PF-L Assist phone app for iOS and Android.

We then attached the optional polar scope that enabled us to refine our polar alignment by visually aligning Polaris and two other stars against the image printed within the polar scope. Using a 150mm lens on a cropped sensor DSLR camera we started to see star-trailing after 60 seconds, despite revisiting our polar alignment. The direction of the slide power switch implies the directions of rotations in the northern or southern hemisphere. Right after turning ON th

Design

Star-scape photography. A silhouetted landscape on the earth is weaved into a beautiful photo of the starry sky. Something that would work stand-alone and independent of my laptop if necessary. (I really didn't want to carry my personal laptop, a work laptop, plus everything else as much as I was hopping planes.) Simple setup and teardown due to time constraints. Working Duration: About 3 hours at 20 degrees C (68 F) temperature, with use of Alkaline batteries; About 20 hours with an external power supply battery. These devices are commonly used with a DSLR camera and lens, or even a small astronomical telescope. Recent models now include dedicated smartphone apps to manage your imaging session, and even point to deep-sky objects in the night sky. The housing of the Polarie U is plastic, but it feels very rigid and robust and doesn’t flex when pressed.

The maximum loading weight will be increased to 6.5kg/14 lbs (approx. 2.5kg/5.5 lbs at 10cm from the center of rotation) if a POLARIE Multi We set the camera running with 90-second and 60-second exposures with both our 50mm and 150mm lens, correcting the polar alignment after swapping the lenses over. The camera mount is attached to the Polarie U by two thumbscrews so this can be fully detached (a carry-over feature from Vixen’s previous model), which allows the ball head and camera to be attached easily.When you use this function, the communication terminals with Wi-Fi connection such as a smartphone and application software are required. In

As you can see from the diagram above, everything you need is integrated into the body of the mount: The other thing to consider is that with gloves, particularly when using a ball head with a large base, the thumbscrews to fix the camera mount on the Polarie are difficult to operate. Battery Type And Battery Life You can know more by reading our detailed review of the Skywatcher Star Adventurer Mini. Skywatcher Star Adventurer Pro The Skywatcher Star Adventurer PRO with all included accessories. Needed to be accurate enough unguided for relatively long exposures at a modest camera lense focal length (~18mm up to ~300-400mm). The Polarie has a wide range of accessories, from the compass to mount on the hot-shoe for daytime polar alignment to the Counterweight Upgrade Kit, which includes:

How to Use a Star Tracker

Thanks to its 11lbs (5kg) payload capacity, the Skyguider is capable of supporting bigger lenses and even small telescopes, allowing you to capture up to 5-6-minute exposures even on a short telephoto lens without any issues. Set up using your smartphone as the Polarie produces its own WiFi signal. So you can control the mount from your smartphone using a free app. This is not only comfortable, but also enables hands-free operation. I set the Polarie up on the grass and pointed it due south. I have a mark on the fence so this was quite simple. Then I used the gauge to set the altitude. The gauge is small but appears to be reasonably accurate. I needed about 37.8°, and the photo looks closer to 36. The results showed that that was probably close enough for a 30 second exposure when using a 28mm lens. In common with other ultra-portable mounts of this type, the Polarie only moves in right ascension (RA); there is no declination (dec.) axis as such. Conventional telescopic astrophotography photographs a relatively narrow area of the sky. Star-scape photography mainly uses a wide-angle lens and takes impressive photos in which stars, and other celestial targets such as the majestic Milky Way and landscapes are combined. The possibilities of the compositions are endless and a completely new kind of landscape photography opens up.

The Vixen Polarie excels in portability. This is not only because it weighs less than 750gm but also because of its compact, rectangular shapes that allow you to easily slide the Polarie in a camera pouch or camera bag compartment. The Vixen Polarie fits in the palm of your hand. Image Credit: Astrophotophils Payload Capacity Im not sure if my stuff is not faulty in some way – at least the fine tune knobs, but i needed to fine tune the alignment in every 5 shots. Which is of course exhausting.Shooting with a wide-photo lens is easy by just locating Polaris at the center of the sight tube finder's field of view. It is fitted into the accessory shoe on the POLARIE U. For my experience, a 3-way tilt and pan head or a geared head is better than a ball head to mount the Polarie on the tripod, as you will have more control when polar aligning the mount. For the camera, a ball head is great. I’ve seen numerous Vixen telescopes and mounts at star parties and conventions, but never owned or used them personally, and having now experienced the Polarie, I feel like I might have been missing out on some very well-built equipment over the years. Figure 1: M42 wide field; ten 15-second exposures with a Canon T2i and 50-mm lens. Platform needed to be portable, i.e. fit in a bag or small case that could easily be carried on an aircraft and stowed in the overhead.