The first time I used a star tracker for Milky Way shots was a game changer

For years I just did single exposures on a tripod for night sky photos, relying on high ISOs and short shutter speeds. Last month I finally borrowed a friend's Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer and got a 4-minute tracked exposure that showed way more detail than I ever pulled out of stacked shots. Has anyone else found that using a tracker changes how you plan your whole night of shooting?

2 comments

2 Comments

phoenixb347d ago

Bought a used iOptron SkyGuider Pro last year and it completely changed how I shoot at night. That first 3 minute exposure where I could actually see the dust lanes in the Milky Way was honestly mind blowing. Now I plan my entire night around getting a good polar alignment before anything else. I used to spend hours shooting dozens of short frames and stacking them only to still end up with noisy results. Now I just shoot a handful of long tracked exposures and the data is so clean I barely have to touch it in post. It makes you realize how much detail you were leaving on the table with the old way.

harperg767d ago

The thing that nobody talks about though is how much time you end up spending on setup and breakdown. Like yeah the results are way better but I used to just throw my tripod out the car window and shoot, now I'm out there 20 minutes early fussing with a polar scope and leveling everything.