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c/astronomy-photoslaura_knight54laura_knight5410d agoTop Commenter

Took a $35 star tracker out near Lake Elsinore and it actually worked

I've been telling people those cheap star trackers are junk for years but my buddy insisted I try his. Picked up a used Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Mini on Craigslist and got a 2 minute exposure of the Orion Nebula that actually looked decent. Anyone else had luck with budget gear that surprised them?
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foster.dylan
Read somewhere those cheap trackers are basically all the same internals as the expensive ones.
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holly63
holly6310d ago
@foster.dylan yeah I've seen that take a few times now and honestly I think there's some truth to it. I mean look at anything from power tools to cookware, the cheap stuff and the mid range stuff often comes from the same factory with different paint jobs. My buddy spent $200 on a tripod and it wobbles worse than the $60 one I grabbed on clearance. It's weird how that pattern shows up everywhere, not just with star trackers.
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