I finally got out to properly test one of my new star tracker systems under excellent clear skies on location at Carnsore point, Wexford, the most South Easterly point of Ireland. This region, also a favourite of mine for seascapes, has unobstructed views East and South out to sea which makes perfect for astrophotography during Milky Way season April - September.
For months, since Government restrictions were put in place, I have been itching to get out to try out a new unguided star tracker I recently acquired. The Omegon Mount Mini Track LX3 is a purely mechanical analogue star tracker, therefore no batteries or electricity required. It is an upgraded version of its predecessor the LX2 with improvements made from customer feedback. This tracker is mainly suitable for wide angle shooting but also works up to mid-range telephoto using a tension based spring system to counter balance the weight. Once you wind up the device it ticks away for 60 minutes enabling tracking of the night sky.
Omegon-Mount-Mini-Track-LX3-SET
For anyone new to this type of device, it is used to counteract the earths rotation and eradicate trailing of the stars for long exposure night photography. Basically, this means you can shoot the night sky for much longer exposures and with a lower ISO, thereby resulting in more intense detail of the Milky Way or other celestial objects. You have to align the tracker position to the celestial pole or Polaris in order for it to work properly, a process which I will go into more detail below in setup.
I had been debating purchasing a tracker for quite a while even though it seemed everyone was gearing up!
There were two reasons why I was hesitant to acquire a star tracker before now:.
1. Size: The other more popular models like Skywatcher Star Adventurer and iOptron SkyGuider Pro seemed too large and bulky for hiking to locations. I had read many blogs from folks mentioning this, albeit the results they give are fantastic, I didn’t fancy lugging around the weight and it would probably limit where I would go due to this. I wanted something I could fit into my gear bag. I already have a large tripod and Low Level Lighting gearbag to carry to shooting locations.
2. Cost: The more popular brands are quite expensive and I didn’t wish to spend so much on a piece of gear I probably wasn’t going to be able to bring to many locations off the beaten path.
I wanted a budget priced star tracker that could fit in my bag and gave good results. The Omegon tracker satisfied the size and cost requirements but it hadn’t yet passed the big test, would it actually track and how good?
On Location - Experiences using the Omegon Mini Track LX3 Tracker.
Hiking
I had to hike for 15 mins from my car to my shooting location. The Omegon fitted snugly across the bottom section of my Lowepro Pro Trekker and I can definitely say it didn’t add any significant weight to my hike.
Setup
The tracker attaches to the tripod head and it is important to note that a second tripod head is required for mounting your camera like in the product link above. I would strongly advise to buy the set if you do not have a second tripod head already.
Something I learned by error upon setup on this first proper outing was to make sure to perfect your composition before polar aligning. I did spend time lining up my foreground composition, even using PhotoPills app as a guide, but once the night went on I could see that it was going to take forever for the Galactic Core to line up properly. I therefore had to change my shooting angle by a few metres to the left, reposition the tripod and polar align again, a process that frustrated me but as explained below, also left me content that it didn’t take too long using a new method I had come across online.
The process of Polar alignment is usually quite tediously done either electronically or by eye to get the tracker lining up with Polaris star in the northern night sky. I had been reading a lot about the frustration of this process but recently, how just pointing a laser roughly at Polaris would suffice. I wasn’t sure if this method would be accurate enough but after watching a great Nightscaper conference video from American Astrophotographer Eric Benedetti here, I was confident about the method.
This “rough” alignment method only supposedly works for wide-angle images approx 14-24mm focal length but I was delighted when it worked for me up to 35mm for the images from this outing. I had also purchased the tracker + laser + tripod head package from MSM so I had a laser to use. These can be bought online but be careful about their power outage and restrictions for different countries.
For the Omegon I scrapped trying to polar align by eye using the scope included in the set and basically held the laser inside the polar scope attachment and tuned my tripod head until it lined up. Would Eric be right? He said he casually points the laser at Polaris and aligns within a few seconds. Indeed, he was right and this was a great learning experience and has a huge effect on your shooting time on the night.
Shooting
Once setup was sorted, it was time to shoot. Yes actually, pressing the shutter! The Galactic Core was in view and my composition was nailed. It was all enjoyable from here on in as witnessing the first images on the camera LCD gave me that same ecstatic feeling I always get when capturing the Milky Way, It is a feeling of amazement and delight! One I will never tire of and one I would encourage all photographers to try experience themselves if they can venture out under the stars. This feeling was made all the better by the resulting images from now using a star tracker.
Close up of the Galactic Core with sharp tracked stars, gas cloud and dust detail and pink nebulosity coming through from the Lagoon Nebula.
The stars were clean and no trailing was present except for some slight elongation of stars at the edges of the frame from usual wide angle lens distortion. I could immediately see the difference in the extra detail captured and began testing different exposure times and ISO as listed below:
F/2.8 - ISO 3200 - 45 sec
F/2.8 - ISO 3200 - 60 sec
F/4 - ISO 1600 - 60 sec
F/4 - ISO 1600 - 120 sec
Normally, before I used a tracker, exposure time was limited to roughly 10-15 seconds for my focal lengths of choice and with much higher ISO (6400-8000) to achieve enough detail. Higher sensor gain is always a catch 22 as it will result in loss of fine quality and more digital noise. The noise can be alleviated by the process of stacking multiple images but you cannot capture the finer details of the gas and dust clouds. The tracked sky in my image above can be seen in the file info screen shot below. On future shoots, I will be test lower ISO and see how it fares.
Results
There is no disagreement that a professional tracker setup and precise polar alignment can undoubtedly give much better results. This blog about my experiences with the Omegon LX3 may be useful to any night sky shooters out there who are considering purchasing a tracker with a limited budget and would rather a more portable, compact and easier to use method for tracked astrophotography giving decent results.
The Omegon in my opinion per testing is quite suitable for any wide field astrophotography. The results were decent with no star trailing even though I done the polar alignment very quickly by laser.
Another feature I really like with this tracker is the clock ticking sound it makes while tracking. It is faint enough not to make it annoying but if you listen closely you can use it to determine if your weighting is correct as the motor should tick in perfect sync. If your setup is too heavy or not tensioned right with the spring system you can hear the tracking motion go out of sync by speeding up or slowing down. The spring tension weightings can be seen in the online product manual available here.
A product review wouldn’t be worthy unless I also stated the negatives of this product clearly and these are:
1. The polar scope to be quite frustrating to use and a bit disorientating and takes more time.
2. In the case of this smaller clockwork Omegon tracker, shooting time is limited to 60 minutes unless you reset the device. This may not be ideal for certain types of night sky imagery requiring many images. Also, quite annoyingly the way the device is configured, if you reset the timer, your camera will move out of position, therefore throwing your composition off.
I would like to thank anyone who has taken the time to read my first blog post and product review. If it’s a help to any photographers who may be on the fence about using a star tracker for astrophotography, that is mission achieved! I will continue to use this particular Omegon tracker and am confident it has given me the ability to make better quality night sky images.
CHANGINGLIGHT.IE PHOTOGRAPHY