Still think unguided astrophotography is overrated...

I shot M31 from my backyard in Tucson last week with just a star tracker and a DSLR, no guiding, and got more keepers than my friend did with his $2k guided setup. Has anyone else had better luck just letting the rig run free?

3 comments

3 Comments

charlie_stone729d agoMost Upvoted

Gotta push back a little on that framing though. Star trackers are still guiding your mount, just with a simpler algorithm, so it's not really "unguided" in the strict sense.

paigewood9d ago

You totally just made me rethink my whole stance on this, because I used to be one of those people who thought if you weren't guiding with a separate camera and software you were basically shooting blind. But after trying a basic tracker with a 135mm lens last month I actually ended up with sharper stars than I ever did with my guided setup on a windy night. It's like the simpler setup just works better for my specific location and how I shoot. I honestly don't know why I was so stuck on needing all that extra gear when the tracker does the heavy lifting for most focal lengths.

alicebarnes8d ago

charlie_stone72 has a good point about the tracker still guiding, but I think the real lesson here is simpler gear means less to go wrong. I spent a whole summer trying to get a guide scope aligned properly and ended up with nothing but trailed stars. Last weekend I just slapped my camera on a basic tracker and shot 30 second subs untracked and got a perfect shot of the Orion Nebula with zero drama.