Just realized my $200 star tracker was a total waste for landscape astro

I spent $200 on a star tracker last spring to get sharper milky way shots over the desert. But for wide angle landscape shots under 24mm, it just added blur and complexity when stacking later. My tripod and a good 15-second exposure did the same thing with way less hassle. Anyone else ditch their tracker and go back to static shots for certain scenes?

2 comments

2 Comments

xena_murphy1mo agoTop Commenter

Have you seen that video where the guy tests star trackers against static stacking? He showed that for anything wider than 20mm, the difference was basically invisible unless you were pixel peeping at 400%.

dixon.felix1mo ago

Wait, are you saying a $200 tracker actually made your images worse? I always figured anything that costs that much would be a solid upgrade over just shooting static. Guess I dodged a bullet skipping the purchase then.