How to set up AUTO GUIDING and DITHERING with Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer and why you should!
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- čas přidán 26. 07. 2024
- If you're wondering why there is still noise after stacking my astro photos that's probably because you didn't dither. In this video I show how to set up autoguiding and dithering with a Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer tracker. This will get you cleaner images and allow to drizzle to get even better photos - but that's a topic for another video so...
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GEAR I USE (links affiliated):
► (Amazon) geni.us/ZHZHUX - Canon EOS R (I 100% recommend this camera for people both into photography and filmmaking)
► (Amazon) geni.us/CbHxKU - Sony a7s III (King of low-light filmmaking and photography)
► (Amazon) geni.us/LTV8L - Sigma ART 24mm f/1.4 DG HSM (excellent wide prime for astrophotography, landscapes and videos)
► (Amazon) geni.us/JV3H - Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM (excellent lens for moon photos, landscapes and deep sky astrophotography)
► (Amazon) geni.us/5D559tK - Sigma ART 135mm f/1.8 DG HSM (best of it's kind - absolute beast for wide field deep sky astrophotography)
► (Amazon) geni.us/pv2sf - Sigma ART 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM (perfect for video, wide field deep sky or Milky Way mosaics
► (Amazon) geni.us/BIlNzVk - Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer (astrophotography tracking mount)
► (Amazon) geni.us/lQ0Tasy - Rode VideoMicro (excellent quality cheap shotgun microphone - perfect for vlogging and youtube)
► (Amazon) geni.us/oJnDn3 - Gorillapod 3K PRO (best gorillapod ever - with aluminum sockets that don't break!)
► (Amazon) geni.us/0NuB - Aputure MC (the best every tiny RGB LED video light with build-in battery
► (Amazon) geni.us/AX3KABz - DJI Mavic 2 Pro (legend in drones - foldable, reliable, produces a beautiful image)
► (Amazon) geni.us/p9CINIu - Samsung T5 (excellent blazing fast, durable and tiny external SSD drive that I edit on)
► (Amazon) geni.us/JGoD - Aputure F7 (powerful LED bi-color video light)
► (Amazon) geni.us/6XnpwVq - Benro IB0 ballhead (excellent cheap ballhead with friction control Arca Swiss standard - very precise and durable)
► (Amazon) geni.us/vxB6 - Pixel TC-252 external interval timer (best bang for your buck!)
► (Amazon) geni.us/9u4y - Peli Air 1525 Pelican Case - MOST DURABLE CASE EVER for any camera gear
► (Amazon) geni.us/BslvOe2 - Zoom H1N audio recorder
LINKS TO SOFTWARE I MENTIONED IN THE VIDEO:
► edu.kde.org/kstars/ - KStars / EKOS - free acquisition software (works on Windows and MacOS)
► openphdguiding.org/ - PHD2 - free guiding software (works on Windows and MacOS)
LINKS TO STUFF I SHOWED IN THE VIDEO:
► (Amazon) geni.us/7xr9lQ - my guide camera
► (Amazon) geni.us/GBVYrMP - my guide scope (or similar with the same specs)
OTHER VIDEOS OF MINE:
► • How to edit deep sky p... - Elephant's trunk nebula from only 32 minutes of data!
► • SIGMA ART 24mm f/1.4 l... - Sigma ART 24mm f/1.4 - my favourite lens for Milky Way
► • GOTO SYSTEM for Sky-Wa... - GOTO system for Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer - find deep sky objects with ease
► • Colourful MILKY WAY PH... - Colorful Milky Way images with an unmodified camera and a special filter
► • Sky-Watcher Star Adven... - My complete DEEP SKY astrophotography setup with Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer
► • How to edit DEEP SKY i... - new FREE astrophotography processing tool - SIRIL - for both Windows and Mac OS!
► • My Adobe Lightroom PRE... - Introducing My Adobe Lightroom presets for Milky Way photos
► • POLAR ALIGN without lo... - Best ways to coarsely POLAR ALIGN an astro tracker without even looking through the scope
► • PHOTOGRAPHING THE MILK... - Photographing the Milky Way with a star tracker - FULL VLOG IN THE FIELD
► • NIGHT SKY photo TIPS o... - 4 useful TIPS to get the best out of a STAR TRACKER for deep sky astrophotography
► • FIND DEEP SKY OBJECTS ... - How to find DEEP SKY OBJECTS in the night sky and frame them up using a star tracker
► • BLENDING STAR TRACKER ... - Best way to BLEND SKY exposure with GROUND shot for star tracker nightscapes
► • ULTIMATE SETUP GUIDE f... - The ultimate guide on how to properly set up and polar align SKY-WATCHER STAR ADVENTURER
► • Get NATURAL COLORS OF ... - How to process images of the night sky to get the best COLOR ACCURACY
THE VIDEO THAT HELPED ME SET UP GUIDING FROM SCRATCH:
► • Auto-Guider Tutorial -...
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Excellent guide - exactly the next steps I was also looking for! Pity you're moving on from the SWSA but thank you for your guides on it!
Really love how much you get into things you can do with the SWSA. Looking forward to your videos with your new mount.
Thanks Paul! I’m looking forward to it as well 😃
EXACTLY what I was looking for! I have the same set up, EOS R, star adventurer, 120mm mini camera and scope. I've watched a lot of your videos and have learned many awesome tips and tricks that I use all the time. Subscribed and looking forward to your progression. I'll be moving on to an EQ6R Pro soon, which I imagine isn't too far off from the EQM-35. Clear skies!
Awesome, thanks! Yeah EQ6R is just heavier, stronger and more accurate for heavier payloads but same principles apply
Great tutorial and guide I have recently purchased a QHY5L-II-M and guide scope but yet to set it up this perfect timing for me. Thank you for all your excellent content you have helped me so mush with my SWSA
Excellent work, pushing the limits of this little mount !
Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks a lot!
Thank you so much, great video and that was what I am looking for 🙂
Thanks, I was expecting something like this.
Sad to see you won’t be using the skywatcher pro anymore. But definitely excited to see what you come up with on the new mounts!
thank you for awesome video!
Excellent video my friend, sadly this is the last video for the SWSA because it wild be interesting to see the fine tuning between SWSA & PHD2 for better guiding like how improve the total RMS value witch I understand must be below 1", I have almost the same equipment like you and I have the total RMS between 1,50" & 1.80" even using the guiding assistant tool & drift alignment, by the way just yesterday I was breaking my head because it was easy for me to find my target on the Sky using APT software & Stellarium to plate solve and my connection to the SWSA was by WiFi, and later PHD2 don't even calibrate, so the only way this works was setting the sidereal mode in the SWSA, after that PHD2 starts to guide, maybe this will help somebody in the future, hope to watch more videos about PHD2 here in your channel, a hug mate & congratulations for the new mount
The only way to do a decent guiding with a SA is to do polar alignment using the ocular then fine tuning it with a software connected with your camera: for example I use SharpCap Pro.
Anyway at the end you realize that the SA is not specifically designed to be used with guiding considering that you have the big drawback of being able to do dither only on AR axis. Too bad that EQ mounts starts at around 1k €.
Appreciated video❤️😊
Great video,guiding is ok but not Ekos, doesn't work on windows in local
Thanks for all your hard work in explaining this. Astrophotographers need to be their own IT wizards. 😭
Oh yeah and that honestly just scratches the surface. There is so much more to it. I’ll document this journey on this channel as I go deeper and deeper myself 😃
very clear thanks for sharing ...
Thanks, I appreciate the comment!
Tks for Tut👍
Hooray!
Great vid thanks for posting it. I use BackyardEOS for this and it works well. Can you please do a short video on SPA and PHD2 I wonder if this feature can be used with Star Adventurer.
Thanks Kamil for another excellent video. Before begin anything I wanted to guide and run the simulation but there is no such an option in my win10 laptop. Is this an option only for Macs or is the software version that do not allow this? 2.6.10 is my version. Thanks
Very good guide! Many thanks. You should write It as PDF...
Hi Kamil, great video! Did you ever experience issues with balancing with this setup (SA, DSLR+lens)? I can balance my setup nicely when the lens is pointing straight (in the 90 degree angle of the indicator strip), but when I've rotated the camera towards my target, it gets incredibly heavy towards the 'lens-side' that I can't balance out. I'm thinking whether it may help to put it all on a dovetail to at least balance the front-back better?
Great video and tutorial. Do you know if perhaps the Benro Polaris tracker can also manage dithering without a guiding camera ?
excellent guide mate. would be great to see how you would manage polar aligning in the southern hemisphere...
Using drift alignment in PHD2. I’ll make a video about it soon!
Following
@@kamilkp as we say here in Oz, you are an absolute legdge mate!
Thanks
Thanks for sharing it clears a lot many things in mind, the question I have Do we need to install a driver for the guide camera first on mac/window in this method?
I didn’t have to install any driver but maybe it’s different on Windows
Just found this tutorial thank you, can you tell me why you do not connect the camera shutter release directly to the snap connector on the adventurer.
Hi Kamil. Well done! Really nice and practical video. I only have an issue. My setup is similar: Star Adventurer, Canon DSLR, ZWO guide camera, PHD2 and KStars but on a Win laptop. In the profile editor, the local mode is greyed out. Also when I try to run in Togle Ekos I get an error message: Connection to INDI Server at host localhost with port 7624 failed. Any thoughts? Thanks.
Hi Kamil!! Thanks for this AMAZING tutorial. I have just one question. What kind of ring are you using with your guiding scope? I have the same model and it looks different than yours
Thanks! A guide scope „ring”? What do you mean?
Thanks fort this video, recently I was thinking about doing the auto guiding and the dithering with SWSA so this material is really helpful.
Are you not afraid to take this MacBook for your photo sessions during the winter? Im talking about humidity and low temperatures (sub zero soon)??
This is actually why I'm considering ASI Pro which can be connected to a mobile.
No because I don’t keep my computer out with the elements. I have a long usb cable like I mentioned so I can keep the computer in a relatively warm car.
@@kamilkp Yeah I was expecting that you would keep it in the car, but still "relatively" warm.
I would consider buing some second hand "outdoor" laptop if I would not go for AsiAir Pro.
cold does not effect computers in a negative way as long as you keep the dew off of it, use a box that way dew stays off and screen light stays away from your optics
HI Kamil, this video was great and exactly what I need right now. However, after installing PHD2, I get the error message PHD2 instance 1 is already running and it won't recognise the ZWO guide cam....any suggestions?
Hi. I didn’t know about this. Much appreciated.
Can the Star watcher be programmed with a Nikon Z7 II camera to take a series of exposures at different shutter speeds in a minimum amount of time?
Thanks,
Paul
When using PHD2 with Star Adventurer I note that the guide star in the Star Profile window drifts along the Dec axis and can in fact disappear off the scale. The RA axis is perfect. I sometimes just stop guiding and restart immediately and the guide star reappears in the green cross hairs again and starts to drift again after a short period. The resulting images are not affected and stars are perfect over 3-5 minute exposures. Is this something to be concerned about or just to be ignored as the Star Adventurer Dec is not controlled? I am just looking for confirmation all is ok .
Why do you connect to the guide camera in both PHD2 and EKOS? Why not connect to the SWSA in EKOS?
Is the DSLR on the on position? I don't see it in the K-star- Ekos. I connected everything as you said
może udał by się nagrać tego typu film o autoguiding po polsku i np z asiairplus zamiast komputera :) , dobry materiał👍
Awesome video! Does the 2i have auto-guiding too?
I've had one for a year and thought it didn't...
It most likely does!
Is this better or different than the dithering from the SA Console app for the SWSA 2i? RA is the only dithering possible, right?
I have the Sky Watcher AZ-GTi mount in EQ mode. Can it track with a 400mm lens on a crop sensor without auto-guiding? I've had success at 300mm.
Hello - nice video . Thank you .
I have a very basic question . I have no experience with guiding .
You said the guiding corrections are done between exposures ? Not during ? Is that correct ?
Wouldn’t I want the scope to be guided during a long exposure ? Not after
I am sorry I am confused
Guiding is during. Dithering is between
Where does the guide camera attach to? On the lens/telescope or somewhere on the tracker?
It doesn’t matter really. Most people put it on the telescope but it can even be attached on the counterweight’s side. As long as it rotates along with the imaging scope/camera and points roughly at the same area and is sturdy - it will work just fine
In your experience/or a simple calculated guess, what maximum focal range (35mm equivalent) do you think the star adventurer can handle without showing significant star trailing! Thankss
I was shooting up to 600mm with it. But that was a but of a stretch. However it’s mostly the weight of the payload that should be your main concern
I use the internal dithering with advenced firmware , but get always biiiiiiiiig walking noise so i dont understand , i set up correctly my setting , 3pixels for 1 frames (and trying a lot of different settings ) and got always mix between trame and walking noise , its just horrible .. have you got an idea of why i got this pls? I project to buy an asiair but for the moment need to do without it and only with what i have so , my SA , my 1100d and my computer .
Great video Kamil.
But if I understand you right this does not work with one long exposure of lets say the milky way?
No. Having a log of keeper subexposures is key for this
@@kamilkp Just dont understand you answer Kamil.
You need a lot of good (sharp, non-blurry) exposures to stack
@@kamilkp Ah now I know what you mean. But I bought the Sky watcher star adventurer to get as long exposures as possible - which is in my case 3-5 minutes at 14 millimeters. Never thought of stacking them. I think this is more for deep sky photography.
Correct
Hi Kamil, I thought this video would be about the newer version of StarAdventurer (2i wifi) which has the option from the SA Console app Astrophotography --> Dithering Range (Arcmin). Do you happen to know if it's any good like the classic dithering I'm trying to learn? Thanks!
I don’t know actually but if you use the SNAP port to trigger the camera it might indeed work!
@@kamilkp That's the whole idea, exactly! I've tried it several times but I'm so inexperienced I can't actually see if it's actually working.
Look through the subs you take, they should NOT line up straight out of camera. There should be a slight change in the framing between them
@@dimitrislelekis6943 Hi mate did you figure this out?
do you mount the guide kamera on the EOS R?
Yes
The guide scope/camera isn't listed in the description yet
I’ve just added them!
Thanks for the tuto,
unfortunately I keep having this error :
2023-12-08T22:04:48: [ERROR] Camera_get_config failed (-53): Could not claim the USB device
I am using a canon EosRP, tried to see on different forum but can't really sove this, if you might have any ideas,
regards
Can i use a guider scope with my star adventurer mini? Im planning to use my Sony a6300 paired with a samyang 135mm f2 lense.
Don’t know if the mini has an autoguider port. If it does then probably yes
@@kamilkp Thank you for the answer :) unfortunately it doesnt have one, thought i could use the usb port for that, guess ill stick with the SAM for a little while and learn how to and upgrade to a better tracker in the future :)
hi, I'm a newbie here, the question is after installing this auto-guiding, then star adventurer still need polar align? or just point the star and auto-guiding only?
It still needs to be polar aligned. Without that nothing will work
@@kamilkp i see.. but may I ask, my location polar was blocked by a building, so I cant see the star, any other way can align it?
Yes! I’ll make a video about it soon!
@@kamilkp thanks lot.. wait for it to guide me there.
Dose this set up require an internet connection? Or wifi?
Because most of the time the dark location I go to take my images don't have any kind of internet.
Nope. You’re good offline
4:45 Do i remember wired phones?? LOL... I used to use a rotary phone. God help you if you misdialed halfway through. And im only 46...
I am watching this and remember everyone with pro gear telling me : autoguiding is pointless on your sky adventurer startracker version 1 that has only 1 axle to correct... I am confused. This would be a real budget friendly sollution for me as I would not be able to invest in an actual go to mount in the next year. ( 300 euro for the guide cam and guide scope vs 2100 euro for a go to mount + guide cam and guide scope )
Is this guiding really a game changer on a 1 axle tracker or is far away from guiding with a 2 axle tracker?
Sooooooo basically this is useless if you use the ASIair Plus?
You can dither with ASIAir but you’d a different video to learn how to do it
nice tutorial , sadly ekos not allow local usage for windows.
For Windows there is far more superior option
@@kamilkp i am currently search for but so far doesnt find a proper foolproof tutorial as yours , APT is payed , but dont fint a video where explain everything that i need so atm not buyin that .
NINA is the best option. And it’s free
@@kamilkp oh is it okay for star adventure 2i and dslr?
i tought thats for eq mounts and mono cams