- Sky Watcher / Star Adventurer

Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer

Tracker Review

With the popularity of DSLR & Mirrorless cameras wide field Astrophotography, Nightscapes & Night Sky Photography, quite alot are looking at how they can take better, cleaner images of the night sky and expand their opportunities with there current camera setups.

The Sky Watcher Star Adventurer with Canon 550D Modified Mounted with 300mm & Lacerta Auto Gudier

A while ago I was in the same position and I was looking to buy a tracking mount so I started researching various star tracking mounts and there’s a lot of them in the market.

One of them was the sky-watcher star adventurer, I saw a lot of review on it and settled on buying it. The reason for this choice was it was getting good reviews and seemed a bit more capable with larger lenses than other similar sized/priced trackers due to features such as Sky-Watcher’s fine tuning mounting assembly, equatorial wedge and counterweight and the braking point was that the adventurer it is compatible with an auto guider system, so i can advance further in my photography.

I been using the adventurer now for almost 3 years and finally decided to make a review.

Here is some information/specs :

(Recently there is another adventurer on the market is the adventurer i2 later on this review i’m going to see the differences about the two of them and if its not worth upgrading)

Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Motorised Mount – Pro Pack

The Star Adventurer Astro Package is an ultra portable equatorial mount kit ideal for small telescopes or for astrophotography with camera lenses up to 200-300mm in focal length. It fits on most astronomical, photo, or video tripods via its 1/4″ and 3/8″ adaptor. The mount satisfies all the needs of the astrophotographer; with a simple turn of the dial select lunar, solar, or star tracking modes, or four speeds from 0.5x to 12x to create interesting time-lapse videos with your DSLR. Moreover, it contains pre-programmed parameters to assist your DSLR via the optional shutter release cable. The Star Adventurer mount features a V-style dovetail saddle for compatible accessories and optical tube assemblies. The mount can be supplied with 4 AA batteries or via mini USB port.

Precise Polar Alignment for Pinpoint Stars Astrophotography
The integrated Polar Scope with an included illuminator helps the polar alignment process in both the Northern or Southern hemispheres. That is a great advantage for achieving professional astronomical photos. The equatorial wedge is equipped with fine adjustment knobs in both azimuth and latitude axes for easily centring the celestial pole without moving the tripod. Additionally, the autoguide system enhances the tracking in right ascension allowing longer exposures with telephoto lenses.

To fit a camera to the Star Adventurer

Either a tripod Ball Head is required (not supplied) or the Dovetail L-Bracket. The Dovetail L-Bracket, used in conjunction with the optional counterweight shaft/counterweight also allows small telescopes (e.g. Maksutov 90mm), with a 1/4″-20 tripod fitting, to be used with the Star Adventurer. A small telescope and camera (using a ball head, not supplied) can be mounted simultaneously on the Dovetail L-bracket. Using just the dovetail bar from the Dovetail L-Bracket, two cameras can be mounted at the same time using two tripod ball heads (not supplied).

In the Box:

Star Adventurer Mount Head
Ball head adaptor
Polar scope
Illuminator for polar scope
Adjustable Dovetail L-Bracket with Declination Fine Adjustment
Equatorial wedge (Black)
Counterweight shaft
1kg counterweight

SPECIFICATIONS :

Mount Type - Equatorial Mount

Mount Telescope - V Style

Payload - 5kg (with counterweight)

Mount Head Weight - 1.2kg

Latitude Range - 0-90°

Power Requirement - 4 x AA batteries, up to 72 hr / Mini-USB port for external power

Firstly what does a star tracker or equatorial mount do? It compensates for earths rotation by rotating on the same axis as the earth just in the opposite direction, giving the ability to photograph night sky objects without star trailing, breaking rules such as the 600/500 rule.

The Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer is available in a couple of different configurations. I chose to buy the full Sky watcher Star Adventurer kit complete with equatorial wedge, ball head adapter, fine tuning mounting assembly and counter weight. These sell for around €450 euros which I personally think is good value given we spend a lot more on decent lenses for our DSLR’s and a star tracking mount can really increase your night sky opportunities and help you create higher quality nightscapes.

Unboxing

Above images are of some of the items that come in with the Star Adventurer kit although not shown is the 3/8 ball head adapter that allows a ball head to be attached directly to the Star Adventurer if desired and the 1/4 to 3/8 convert screw adapter which is included to allow the Star adventurer to mount to various tripods.

Build Quality

The main body of the Star Adventurer is metal, it is solid and great quality, parts like the mode dial, clutch, battery cover and polar scope cover are plastic but feel solid enough, the polar scope is also metal (and glass). The equatorial wedge and fine tune mounting bracket are similar, the main parts are made of metal with knobs, adjusters, made of solid plastic. The polar scope illuminator is made mainly of plastic. All in all the Star Adventurer is very good quality, solid and well built. It is a quality product.

Abilities and Functions

The mount can be used in different modes and configurations as the images below, multiple cameras mounted via ball heads, camera and small telescope along with auto guider, single camera via ball head adapter and of course the way I have been using the mount, camera attached via the fine tuning mounting assembly with attached counter weight as a small equatorial mount.

Genuinely never used these above setups and these images where taken from sky watcher website but it can be used in multiple configurations.

The below images are my setups and some explanation of what equipment I use.

Mounted on Canon 5Dmkiii With Tamron 17-35 f2.8/4

(1) Canon 300mm F4, (2) Lacerta Auto Guider Camera, (3) Canon 550D Astro-Modified, (4) Lacerta Hand Controller Stand Alone

Back on the features of the Star Adventurer

Above you can see the mode dial, rotating it allows you to choose the mode you wish to use.

OFF
STAR = Celestial tracking
SUN = Solar tracking
MOON = Lunar tracking
0.5x = 48hr revolution
2x = 12 hr revolution
6x = 4hr revolution
12 x = 2hr revolution

The 0.5x, 2x, 6x, 12x I believe are for the time-lapse functions of the star adventurer, this is not something I have used, I plan on using these over this coming “Milky-way” season and writing a post specifically about the Sky-Watchers time-lapse features. On reading about these time-lapse functions I have found Sky-Watcher also has a firmware update that increases the functionality of the mount for time-lapse, adding some very unique features to this mount. You can find more about this advanced firmware here.

Above we can see the other side of the Star Adventurer, here we have a slide switch N, Time-lapse and S. N you set for celestial object tracking if you are in the Northern Hemisphere, S you set for celestial tracking if in the Southern Hemisphere (you can see I have it set to S as I’m in the Southern hemisphere) and the middle position, Time lapse, is to set the Star Adventurer in time-lapse mode.

Above the slide switch we have two direction buttons, you can use these to slew the Star Adventurer to help position the camera lens, personally I undo the clutch on the front and manually position my camera to point at the object I want to photograph then re-lock the clutch rather than use these direction buttons , but for long lenses/telescopes these can be very useful.

The slide switch (on the right image above) we can see a snap port for connecting your camera so the star adventurer fires your camera’s shutter, Also we have a Auto guider port/connection for attaching an auto guider, something I have never used but I believe is very useful for deep space astrophotography and is something missing from most smaller mounts, it adds to the abilities of this mount for astrophotography. We also have a mini USB port for upgrading firmware and also powering the unit, although I think most will simply use batteries i prefare to use a power bank for constant power, (the star adventurer uses 4xAA batteries for power).

Thoughts about the Star Adventurer

So as i mentioned before i did a lot of research before i bought this tracking mount and as i was doing my research i seen some amazing images taken with this mount that are simply mind blowing using both simple set ups for tracked wide field milky way composites, to deep space objects using telescopes, auto guiders and sophisticated post processing techniques. I can say comfortable that this mount is basically an investment as its for all levels of photographers form armatures to professionals, it has downfalls too as it is a bit heavy but i can compromise that with the quality made and the diverse capabilities of the tracking mount gives.

Here are some images from these past years with the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer …..

As you can see the longer shutter speed I was able to use because the star adventurer was tracking the stars has allowed me to use a lower iso for a clean image it has also pulled a lot of detail from the sky.

Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer VS 2i is worth upgrading?

So basically the Star Adventurer 2i is identical to the original based on style , construction and how it works , the differences are based on the Wifi capabilities that the 2i has.

lets talk about the Wifi capabilities that the 2i ….

The Star Adventurer can be operated in the usual way as the original or with the new feature, via the free Star Adventurer app for Android and iOS .

Wi-Fi signal to connect to your phone, the Star Adventurer 2i contains pre programmed long exposures, helping you create time-lapse more easier.

The improvements that the 2i has are more on time lapse.

Time-Lapse Functions

What sets the Star Adventurer 2i apart from most other trackers is its ability to also function as a time-lapse motion controller.

In this mode you do not polar align, but aim the polar axis straight up. The camera must be connected to the Snap port, as the shutter has to be synchronized with the motion. Instead of turning continuously, the 2i instead turns by a tiny increment between each exposure, in what is called a Shoot-Move-Shoot mode.

You program in the angular extent of the move and the number of frames desired and, in the Long-Exposure Time-Lapse mode, the shutter speed. A Regular-Exposure Time-Lapse mode is for daytime uses where the 2i sends just a short pulse to the camera to trigger the shutter, with the exposure set by the camera.

A function that is unique to both the new 2i and the older Mini is their Astro Time-Lapse mode. In this mode you do polar align, then frame a nightscape scene. The Star Adventurers will then track the sky for the programmed length of each exposure, preventing star trailing and recording a richer Milky Way.

After each exposure the Star Adventurer 2i resets its position back to where it started, then resumes tracking, firing the shutter again. This also worked very well, showing absolutely no frame-to-frame jitter from imprecise re-framing.

In all, the new Star Adventurer 2i is a major improvement over the original model in providing many more shooting options through its Wi-Fi app.

However, if your interest is taking just tracked night sky images, and not time-lapses, and you already own an older Star Adventurer, upgrading to the 2i won’t provide any significant benefit. But if you are buying your first tracker, the new 2i is well worth considering for its wide range of shooting modes, including time-lapse options, and excellent tracking accuracy. I suggest getting the full Pro Pack to have all the accessories.

Conclusion

I personally love the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer, its easy of use, ease of set up, small light form factor, portability and reasonably low price is amazing for those that want to explore tracked astro, either for accessible deep space objects, wide field tracked milky way or shooting composites and blends to create art. It really does open up a lot of opportunities for your night photography. If you have been thinking of exploring tracking mounts I highly recommend you take a look at the Star Adventurer.

Custom Made Adapters For Cameras & Sky Watcher Star Adventurer.

As much as i love my Star Adventurer, i find it very frustrating at night to roughly polar align without a laser pointer, as the star adventurer does not come with a laser or some kind of attachment to hold a laser pointer, so at first i had to hold myself a laser and roughly align with the other hand and that’s is not how it should be done as believe me the stars from the polar scope they all look the same and apart of that i go back home with my back hurting :) , so i did a lot of research to find some kind of holder or adapter that holds a laser pointer and fits with my Star Adventurer.

While searching i encountered this seller on social media (Facebook / eBay) called Landscape Specialist that sells 3D printed mounts from Italy (i’m mentioning his name as i’m very happy with the quality products that he makes) and he dose all kinds of camera mounts and adapters highly recommended infect i acquired a laser hot shoe holder for my camera as its very useful indeed to search targets and to be sure where your pointing in the night sky.

I will drop some pictures of what i acquired from this guy as i’m very happy that now i can polar align and search for my targets much easier.

Mount For Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Polar Scope Laser Holder