That $60 star tracker I bought finally paid off last night

I've been fighting with blurry Milky Way shots for months using just a tripod, so I caved and got a cheap star tracker off eBay for 60 bucks. Last night in Joshua Tree, I stacked 12 two-minute exposures of the Andromeda galaxy and got more detail than I ever pulled with a DSLR alone. The polar alignment process was a nightmare at first, took me like 40 minutes to get it dialed in. My question is, does anyone else think the alignment struggle is worth it for wide field stuff, or should I just stick to untracked wide angle next time?

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sarahpatel27d ago

Andromeda on your first night with a tracker? Sounds like you earned that 40 minutes of swearing at a tiny red dot. Maybe just buy a second tracker for wide field and let this one be your therapy session.