Reddit mentions of Vixen Optics 35505 Polarie Star Tracker (White)

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].
  
  

My current equipment :

1. Camera : Canon T3i
   
2. Lenses : Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8, Canon 50mm f/1.8, Canon 55-250mm f/4.0-f/5.6
   
3. Tripod : Proline Dolica
   
4. Software : Photoshop CS3 and Lightroom 6
   
   Using these, I manage to get these : Album
   
   I want to further my astrophotography, but realize I would need better equipment to better these.
   
   
   
   Which of these would be best bang for my buck for a step forward with astrophotography?
   
   
5. A tracker : Ioptron SkyTracker OR Vixen Polarie
   
6. A good solid tripod and ball head
   
7. PixInsight software (Is there a cheap or free alternative to a $250 software? I tried DSS, but found it to be inconsistent with results)
   
   I know a good answer to this would be 'everything', but I can't get myself to spend a lot of $$ at this moment. I could spend a few hundred on one of these, and then at a later point re-evaluate.
   
   Thanks for hooking me into this awesome hobby!

Amazing advice on Wide field astrophotography.
You can also use a tracker and get photos like these:
My attempts at Andromeda and Orion's Nebula

The Cloudbait link works for me (I was able to get there from your post), so I'd just try it again, although the cached copy is basically the same.

Cost breakdown for just the tracking mount:

• Mechanical hardware (wood, aluminum, nylon, delrin rod, screws, threaded rod, etc.) was roughly $30
  
• Ball Head, $20
  
• Breadboard, $25
  
• Battery, $40
  
• Power leads, $5
  
• Microcontroller board, $20
  
• Motor, $15
  
• Angle block for calibration, $25
  
• Motor Driver Board, $20
  
• Misc bulk components (LEDs, headers, microswitch), $5
  
  So, a little over $200 for everything, although there is definitely room to save depending on what components you get and where you get them. Still is about half the cost and more flexible than a comparable commercial product like this, although mine doesn't look quite as elegant. :)
  
  The entire thing is also mounted on a $200 tripod head and a $200 tripod, but you could get away with something an order of magnitude less expensive--I already had the tripod equipment, so it wasn't an added expense for this build.

They are sometimes called "barn doors", or a Hinge Tracker. You can get them on Amazon for around ~$300usd

Edit: here's one

Hello, astrophriends. I purchased this off of eBay a month ago and it finally came today. A Vixen Polarie Star Tracker Mount. I saw it recommended in a thread somewhere in this subreddit. It was my impression when I ordered it that this was all I would need to get started taking longer exposures and eliminate star trails. I opened it and the manual is completely Japanese. Can anyone point me to a manual in English? Also- am I missing a part? Do I need this (Vixen Optics 35505 Polarie Star Tracker (White) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B006ZSRHKC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_F7E7Cb2515RNW) as well? Thanks in advance!

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!

A tracker is a motorized mount (~fancy tripod) that rotates the camera in synch with the rotation of the Earth, allowing you to take long exposures without getting star trails. A basic ones can be fairly cheap (I use this one which mounts on a regular tripod). With one of these you can take exposures of several minutes (wide angle) without having to worry about star trails and keeping you ISO down for less noise.

If you don't want or can't afford a tracker, keep you exposures short and bump up the ISO. I don't know how well your camera handles noise at high ISOs, but I wouldn't go above 1600. You'll find the proper balance with practice. At wide angles and with a little post processing, you can get decent pictures without tracking or stacking. If you want to use a focal > 50 mm you'll definitely need to either track or stack or both.

Stacking exposures is the next level. Basically you take 10-30 pictures with relatively short exposures and combine them with software. It can be a painstaking process though, you have to align the images to account for the Earth's rotation for example, which can get tricky when you have dozens of pictures. Thankfully there is dedicated software to help with that, like Registax (free). It's hard to get into, but can be really rewarding, giving you detailed, noise-free pictures.

PS : Photography is already an expensive and time consuming hobby, astrophotography is worse. Forget about tracking for a while until you get familiar with your camera and with the sky. Stacking can be a pain, but at least it's free, so give it a shot! Focal under 50 mm, exposures under 30 seconds, ISO under 2000 and a good tripod should be a good starting point.

I was looking into the polaire star tracker https://www.amazon.com/Vixen-Optics-35505-Polarie-Tracker/dp/B006ZSRHKC

what do you think about that?

Also, If I have my camera and the tracker, whats my next step? Do I only need a tripod?

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?

If you REALLY wanna get into astrophotography, a good purchase would be the Vixen Polarie. They're a bit expensive, but basically it rotates your camera around the North Star so you can take reeeeeally long exposures with no star trails.

​

Vixen Polarie

https://www.amazon.com/Vixen-Optics-35505-Polarie-Tracker/dp/B006ZSRHKC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1492963669&sr=8-1&keywords=vixen+optics+polarie+star+tracker

Definitely recommend it!

Reframe the nebula back to center every 50-100 photos then align in post. There's a few programs that will do this, Rotnstack, DeepSkyStacker.

But title is not adding up. 113 frames and 685 seconds would be 6.1 second exposures. Anything over 2 seconds would show star trails. Maybe OP used a combination, stacking and a star tracker.

I used a Wide Angle or Fish Eye - it doesn't start to blur until maybe 90sec or 2-minute exposures. It's probably worse for you since with a scope you're zoomed in.

What you can do is buy a tracker - it's a little device that attaches between the tripod and camera - works for when you want to do a really long exposure.

https://www.amazon.com/Vixen-Optics-35505-Polarie-Tracker/dp/B006ZSRHKC/