Serious question, is a $500 star tracker worth it for a beginner?

I bought a Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer last year thinking it would let me take amazing deep space shots. After a month of trying, I realized my light pollution is so bad I can barely see the Milky Way. I spent hours setting it up only to get fuzzy, gray photos. On one hand, the gear is solid and works as advertised. On the other, I could have put that money toward a trip to a dark sky park and used a basic tripod. Has anyone else bought fancy gear before their location could support it?

2 comments

2 Comments

finley82012d ago

Classic case of buying the ticket before checking if the train is even running. That tracker is probably crying in your closet, dreaming of a dark sky it will never see. It's like buying a race car when you live on a dirt road full of potholes. The gear is good, but it's useless without the right conditions. Maybe you can use it as a really expensive paperweight until you move.

paule5312d agoTop Commenter

Wait, does a star tracker really need a dark sky to work? I mean, I thought they were mostly for long exposure shots to avoid star trails, even from a city. The light pollution would still mess with the final image quality, but the tracker itself should still function, right? Maybe it's more about having clear skies than perfectly dark ones.