Stacked 30 minutes of Orion Nebula exposures with my tracker but the star trails were worse than my 10-second unguided shots

I went with the guided setup because everyone said it was better, but after 3 tries the alignment kept slipping and I honestly got cleaner detail from just stacking 5-second phone shots through my dob last winter, has anyone else dumped money into gear that actually made your photos worse?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_thomas1mo ago

What mount were you using? I had similar issues with a Star Adventurer Mini where the backlash in the declination axis made guiding worse than no guiding at all. Ended up spending more time adjusting the worm gear than actually imaging.

the_fiona1mo ago

Ugh same, I spent a whole night messing with that worm gear and STILL had backlash issues.

the_joseph1mo ago

That "better gear makes it easier" thing is a total trap, same as buying a fancy drill but still can't hang a shelf straight.

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