Reddit mentions of iOptron SkyTracker Pro Camera Mount with Polar Scope, Mount Only

There are a lot of tracking mounts on the market. Just a few of the popular ones:

• Star Adventurer - $320
  
• iOptron SkyTracker - $280
  
• Polarie Vixen - $400
  
• Nyx Tracker - $89
  
  Of these, it seems that the Star Adventurer is the best performing at ~40 arcsec of periodic error. Performance of the Nyx Tracker scales proportionally with price, but still good enough to take 5x longer exposures than without a tracker. [A disclaimer - the Nyx Tracker is my product, designed as a budget option for those testing the waters or that want a portable, light, rugged, easy to use option].
  
  

get yourself a tracker and use whatever lens you want. :)

link

Otherwise the samyang 12, fuji 14 and fuji 16.

Happy to help!

Putting the 80ED on a regular (non tracking GEM) tripod will unfortunately be a waste of time if you want to shoot galaxies and other deep space objects. The issue is that they are extremely faint, and you need long exposures to capture the little light that they give off. So if the mount on the tripod is not moving along the earths axis at the same speed that the earth rotates all you'll get is a bunch of star trails. And even with a GEM mount it's still highly recommended that you use computer guiding to make up for mechanical errors while shooting. So yes, keep saving...trust me it will be worth it.

So there are smaller mounts that track the Earth's rotation albeit not as effectively as a big telescope tracking mount. This isn't a major issue however because they're designed to mount DSLR's and not long focal length telescopes. Here are a few examples of what people have shot with their DSLR and the smaller mounts:

• Orion
  
• M31
  
• Lagoon & Trifid
  
  These were shot with DSLR's and the iOptron SkyTracker you can also buy it's competitor the SkyWatcher Star Adventurer
  
  You'll need to attach that head to a sturdy tripod, and I should say that I'm not sure if this is the latest gen...you might want to look into that.
  
  There are some large objects in the sky which widefield shots (DSLR lenses) are great for. M31 is about three times the size of the moon in the sky...it's hard to capture it all in a telescope but much easier with a DSLR and wider lens. I would say that if you want to get into it at a low cost, then this is your best bet. I don't want to encourage you to try astrophotography with a telescope and your current budget because it will be so frustrating that you'll risk giving up this awesome hobby entirely.

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!

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?

How does this setup look?


EOS T7i
iOptron
Rokinon
Remote
Tripod

This was shot on a Canon 5d Mark II with a Tokina 16-28mm f/2.8. These were taken at 16mm, f/2.8, 25 seconds (I think). There are 250 photos in this sequence.

I used an iOptron SkyTracker Pro on a tripod for the tracking. The stars aren't supposed to move that much, but my camera set up weighs more than the recommended weight for the mount and I didn't have a counterweight. I used a cheap intervalometer.

I've found the best nights are super black with no moon. Have a dark sky preserve near you? If you're in the northern hemisphere, the weekend of May 26-28 would be excellent for some night sky photos if skys are clear. Moon rises at 6am, milky way rises at roughly 2-3am, so 3-4 am would be an excellent time to start taking some pictures.

You might know all of this, but some basics: I always start with a super high ISO (16000 is max on the 80d) to frame the picture, then actual shots are always max aperture. I explained in another comment how to focus in the dark. Once you've framed what you want, drop that ISO way down and set the exposure up to your lens' max (500 rule). Vary the ISO from 400-3200 to find the balance between noise and light. That's the basics of getting a night shot.

For more advanced: The best photos are a stack of multiple light (basically high ISO) shots and dark (low ISO) shots. Since noise from ISO is random, taking multiple shots will average out the noise to an unnoticeable level, while start light will shine through. One caveat: the earth rotates, so the starts will move in your frame of reference. You could either ignore the slight trails/misalignment or build/buy a star tracker. You can build a barndoor tracker for like $30 (all manual) or purchase one on amazon for ~$300 (iOptron is usually a solid brand)

One of the best intro lenses for land(star)scape photography is the Rokinon f/2.8 14mm. It's all manual, but is a sharp, fast lens at under $300. I own one but my primary lens is a Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 lens (designed for APS-C cameras).

Start basic before spending lots on trackers/tripods/lenses, that first time you capture the milky way is exhilarating. for more, check out /r/astrophotography