Originally I had planned on upgrading my Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer (SWSA) setup. Upon further research and speaking with many people much more experienced in the field, I’ve come to the conclusion that this setup is a bad idea.
While the SWSA has a max payload capacity of 11lbs, and this setup would be roughly 6-7lbs.. I discovered that it may have some issues with tracking. The general rule of thumb is to keep below the 50% weight capacity threshold. This setup would far exceed that. While the mount can support the weight, it may suffer from pre-mature wear on the gearing inside the unit as well as struggle with tracking for long exposures – which is less than desirable.
The New Plan
So now I have decided to stick with my Samyang 135mm lens, and only add a guidescope and guide camera. This will give me the ability to take longer exposures with more tracking accuracy. I am still going to upgrade the tripod to the Sky-Watcher tripod though, as that is the intended tripod to use with this mount.
This small but not insignificant upgrade should allow me to have more fun with the rig until I save up and start piecing together my future “big rig”. More on that later.
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