Shoutout to the $180 tracking mount I almost returned, it fixed my star trails
For my first two years of shooting the night sky I told anyone who would listen that a cheap tripod was all you needed and tracking mounts were for people with more money than sense. Then last October I drove out to Cherry Springs State Park in Pennsylvania for the new moon and every single wide field shot came back with little streaked stars once I zoomed in, and I finally got why people complain. A guy set up next to me had the same camera as mine and his shots were pin sharp at 30 seconds, which mine could never do. I went home, swallowed my pride, and spent $180 on a small star tracker, fully ready to hate it. First night out in my own backyard I shot 45 second subs at 200mm and not one frame had trailing, and I just sat there laughing at myself. The part that really got me was how much time it saved in processing since I stopped throwing out half my frames. Now I want to know if anyone else held out on tracking for way too long, and what finally made you cave?