About this product
Model: skyw_star_adv_astro_bundle
Part Number: 50211
Now features WiFi
The Skywatcher Star Adventurer provides an excellent route into astrophotography for those using DSLR cameras with wide-field and medium focal length DSLR lenses. Its ease of use and aircraft-friendly size will also appeal to those wanting to travel to dark-sky locations.
It provides various combinations to satisfy your grab-and-go portable astrophotography needs. It is a precise, portable and stable celestial tracking platform for sidereal, solar and lunar tracking with automatic DSLR shutter release control.
The Star Adventurer Pro Pack (formerly known as 'Astro-Photo Bundle') includes the Star Adventurer Mount, Ball Head Adapter, Illuminated Polar Scope, Dovetail L-Bracket, Equatorial Wedge and Counterweight Shaft with 1kg Counterweight.
An optional camera shutter release cable is available separately for many popular camera models/brands.
The Star Adventurer can attach to any standard tripod with ¼” or 3/8” adapters. The latitude can be set by either adjusting the tilt of your tripod head to match your latitude or, more accurately, by using the included Equatorial Wedge. Use the included Dovetail L-Bracket or tripod Ball Head (not supplied) to fit a camera to the Star Adv.
The Dovetail L-Bracket used in conjunction with the counterweight shaft/counterweight also allows small telescopes (e.g. Skymax-90), with a ¼-20 tripod fitting, to be used with the Star Adventurer. A small telescope and camera (using a ball head, not supplied) can be mounted simultaneously on the Dovetail L-bracket. Using the dovetail bar from the Dovetail L-Bracket, two cameras can be mounted simultaneously using two tripod ball heads (not supplied).
360° Product Tour
Please Note: Our Star Adventurers have a new green/white livery, as shown above, not the older red colour shown below in our 360-degree image.
GENERAL FEATURES
- Tracking rate selectable between Sidereal, Solar and Lunar
- Built-in polar scope with illuminator
- DSLR interface for automatic electronic shutter control
- Built-in auto-guiding interface for single-axis auto guiding
- Low power consumption
- External Mini USB power support
- Compatible with 3/8" and 1/4" camera tripod thread
- Free firmware upgrades
- Maximum payload at 5kg Specifications
- Mount Type Ultra compact equatorial tracking platform
- Motor Drive DC Servo
- Power Supply 4xAA battery: DC 3.6V~6.5V
- External power supply DC 5V
- Payload Capacity 5kg (11 lb)
- Tracking Modes Sidereal, Solar or Lunar tracking rate for both North & South hemispheres.
Quick Setup Guide
What's in the box
- Star Adventurer Mount
- Ball Head Adapter
- Illuminated Polar Scope
- Dovetail L-Bracket
- Equatorial Wedge
- Counterweight Shaft
- 1kg Counterweight
Downloads / Manuals
The following manuals and downloads are available for this product:
Manuals
Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer (Original version) (PDF)
Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer 2i (PDF)
Customer reviews
Average Rating (46 Reviews): | |
A lot of potential but a big pain to use! 05 October 2024 | Shaun
Once it is aligned properly, it is quite good. Tracking accuracy is very good for 1-2 min with a 105mm lens with a cropped sensor, but getting it polar aligned and keeping it that way is very difficult. The wedge and tripod are not really up to the task.
The wedge needs to be fully tightened in ALT to hold the position, any tightening of the alt lock after knocks it out of alignment. Azimuth backlash with the screws is so much it takes a long time and is frustrating.
Now once you finally have it polar aligned, you have to man handle the camera to where the target may be, but first, you have to focus! Both these require physical movement which generally will knock the mount out of polar alignment as the wedge and tripod are so flimsy. I've had the screw locks on the tripod loosen themselves over time and one leg retract by itself. Nearly every session after just framing the target I check and see the polar alignment has been knocked out and have to unframe the target and redo it.
Despite my knowledge of the night sky, lack of GOTO does get annoying when one's DSLR doesn't have a moveable LCD screen. A lot of effort and time is taken up finding and framing the object, and focusing, all while bending a lot. That isn't a fault with the mount, just my own experience.
There is an optional wedge, upgraded bolts and heavy duty tripod, but then this becomes neither affordable or light and portable. I do like the mount, but these are my gripes.
Simple.... if you update it 21 August 2024 | Greg
Read, read, read the instruction manual. It's not the best and I did have to seek some other info, but it does explain what you need to know. However, you need to update the firmware on the tracker out of the box - this I found out after a clear night and unsurprisingly...terrible images. Major frustration insued as you can only update the firmware via a PC - which we do not have at home.
This aside, the mount (updated with friends laptop) came with me on holidays to France where we were near some quite dark skies with great visibility and performed flawlessly. While I'd like to be able to set all the image shooting up through the app, it won't work with my Sony mirrorless camera (that I've yet figured out) via the snap cable. Probably possible, but I can use an intervalometer.
Very happy so far for the Milky Way images I've taken with my 14mm lens. This was always going to be the stepping stone to a larger setup in the future, but I have plans to take it travelling with me whenever we go away camping.
19 April 2023 | Nicky
I bought this as part of my first steps into long exposure astrophotography. Although I haven't had chance to use it as much as I would have liked, the odd chances I have had I found that it is easy to setup as use. Polar alignment can be a little tricky at first but after a few minutes of trial and error I soon got the hang of it. The first night I used it I was able to easily achieve 2 minute exposures without no star trail. Highly recommended
10 October 2022 | Kevin
Usual very quick service from FLO,
06 October 2022 | Thomas
Awesome star tracker for any beginners, easy to get set up and running. Only problem I got is that I live in wales and it’s either raining or cloudy all the time
09 September 2022 | Paul
Ordered this for light weight on the go astro observing and imaging.
FLO as always were excellent with delivery.
The quality of this mount is impressive, it simply oozes quality at every turn. Even the packaging is good enough to warrant buying a flight case or back pack for to keep everything together when not being used.
The APP was easily downloaded from Apple Store and seems quite stable thus far, even that has some nice touches like the polar scope alignment utility tool.
The only niggle that I have is that it would have been nice to have a red LED built in for the polar scope rather than rely on the external illuminator ... but its good to see that was included in the package and not something you would have to buy separately.
Though I fully appreciate that this mount system is designed for use on a quality after market tripod, it would have been nice to have it compatible with the more robust tripod telescope mounts in the skywatcher range. Initially I thought that it might adapt for use on my sturdy EQ5 tripod but no such luck! I purchased the far superior Sky-Watcher 3/8" Stainless Steel Tripod (1.75" Diameter Legs) with the Sky-Watcher AZ5 Deluxe Extension Tube from a separate supplier and these are proving to be an excellent addition for use here at home, saving the photographic tripod for light weight field trips.
I also purchased the Shutter realise cable for the mount SNAP function from FLO. After doing some research on line the C1 cable (FLO advertise this for Canon) was found to be compatible with my Pentax DSLR.
So overall very pleased thus far. If you are looking for a light weight , and importantly portable, mount for simple visual imaging and some basic astro photography then I would recommend this system.
Very happy with this star tracker. 23 February 2022 | Jonathan
Okay there are a few things not right and that well documented (for example that battery cover that just doesn't stay on, or the polar scope illuminator that was must have been a late Friday afternoon bit of design), but otherwise what can I say - a really well made piece of kit.
Really easy to set up - watch loads of YouTube videos to see how easy it is. Attach your camera and get snapping away! My first image was of the Orion Nebula (as all newbies do) and I was really happy with the result for a first attempt. Any issues with the image are not down to the SWSA but to the user! With practice I can only hope to get better.
There is nothing I can really say about the SWSA that other reviewers of YouTubers have said. I am just really happy.
And great service from FLO. I have used them a few times now and have always found that email enquires are answered really quickly, and I am kept informed about delivery etc. Can't fault them on service.
30 January 2022 | John
I am using it with my Sony A7iii, SIGMA 100-400mm F5-6.3 DG DN OS Contemporary (& Sigma 1.4 converter) connected up with a Pluto S2 cable (see below) to enable control via my Android phone and the SAM app.
Initially a few problems setting up and correctly aligning with Polaris, but some good Youtube videos have put me straight (see below)
My only (So far anyway) problems are those of manually focusing the lens to infinity - suffering the common issue of "infinity and beyond" with autofocus lenses - but patience will get me through that hurdle.
The Pluto S2 cable was difficult to locate (Sky-Walker don't list a cable suitable for Sony "E" mounts) - so you might find this link of use:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01LYPHI9S/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
A Youtube for starting with:
https://nightskypix.com/skywatcher-star-adventurer-pro-setup-and-user-guide/
Great tracker but poor app 20 January 2022 | Steve
Fantastic service from FLO who delivered star tracker within two days of ordering. Build quality is excellent and the clutch was fine. The polarscope reticle was spot on as well.
I found the issue was the SA Console app downloaded from Google play store. It just would not work. WiFi was fine but the moment you entered the astrophotography panel and tried to run the shooting program, it refused to start. This may be an android issue and certainly reviews on the app weren't good.
In the end I downloaded the app again but this time from the skywatcher home pages ..see support menu ..... It then worked brilliantly. It was a frustrating couple of hours trying to get the Google play store version to work though.
Other than that full marks as always to FLO ... Their ordering dispatch and customer service is first rate. Thank you to the team
Astonishing build quality 14 December 2021 | Jona
I have never used any product, that has such a good build quality. It's extremely durable, quiet, has a beautiful design and is easy to use. An absolute must for beginners that want to go deeper in astrophotography!
Read all 46 customer reviews...
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