Why do wide-angle photos show edge star trails with Pentax Astrotracer?
Asked 2/6/2019
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I tested Pentax Astrotracer on Orion, about SSW and roughly 30° above the horizon, using 180-second exposures with a 16mm f/2 prime and a zoom at 12mm f/4. In both images, stars near the center were tracked fairly well, but stars toward the edges stretched into short linear trails that seem to radiate from different points rather than one single center. With longer lenses, Astrotracer works well on my camera.
What causes these edge trails on very wide lenses? Is this likely a lens issue, or a limitation of Astrotracer/tracking geometry when using wide-angle lenses pointed away from the pole?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
7y ago
2 Answers
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If you have streaks while using a tracker, your first assumption should be an alignment error. A close second would be to verify that you don't have a rate error (i.e., you're tracking sidereal while shooting stars, not lunar or solar rates).
If all of the streaks in your image converged towards a single point, that would indicate the lens zoomed in or out gradually during exposure. But your image doesn't show that. Notice that the streaks on the right side tend to converge towards one region, whereas the streaks on the left somewhat converge towards a different region. I've highlighted some of the "vector paths" below.
If a conventional tracker is not correctly polar aligned, or if it has some errors in its precise GPS location and attitude/orientation, then over an exposure such as your 3-minute exposure, you will get streaks.
The magnitude of the streaks depends on how much alignment error, and where in the sky you point the camera. If you are only one or two degrees off the North Celestial Pole (NCP), and you're also aimed north towards Polaris, you probably won't see streaks over a 3 minute exposure. But aimed toward the celestial equator, where stars appear to be moving fastest, you'll notice streaks.
Over at Pentaxforums.com, their review of the O-GPS1 says:
One major factor in astrotracer accuracy was the angle and direction the cameras pointed. We found that the astrotracer performed the best when pointed at Polaris with decreasing accuracy the closer the camera came to being pointed due East or due West. We also found that angling the camera upward reduced accuracy the closer it came to a 45-degree pitch with accuracy at zero and 90 degrees being basically the same. So a 45-degree camera pitch to the East or West will likely deliver the poorest results where as a zero- or 90-degree pitch to either the North, South, or Zenith will likely deliver the best results.
Based on this, and because you're aiming near the celestial equator (Orion straddles the celestial equator), you're definitely asking the Astrotracer to work near its limits. From what I've read, perhaps you could try to improve your calibration procedure (such as be slower and more deliberate when rolling the camera to calibrate the compass sensors and/or GPS)?
Originally by user11924. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user11924
7y ago
0
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This is most likely not a lens defect. It’s mainly a tracking geometry/alignment limitation.
Astrotracer moves the sensor to follow the sky, but over a very wide field the stars do not all appear to move in exactly the same direction or at the same apparent rate. That effect is stronger with wide-angle lenses and when shooting away from the celestial pole. So the center can look well tracked while the edges show short trails or slightly different “radiating” directions.
A small alignment/orientation error in the Astrotracer inputs (GPS/compass/attitude) can make this more obvious, especially over 180 seconds. If all trails converged to one point, lens zoom creep might be a suspect, but your pattern points more to tracking/parallax/projection effects than lens optics.
In practice, reduce exposure time, use a narrower field of view, or aim closer to the pole for cleaner stars across the frame. Careful calibration/alignment of the Astrotracer system may also help.
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