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If you take photos of the night sky, you know that noisy images and blurry stars are a huge hassle to manage. Due to the rotation of the earth, stars star to blur after just a few seconds.
This leaves you with only a few options:
- Deliberately shoot star trails by using a very long shutter with low ISO. You can’t capture the Milky Way that way and star trails aren’t a good solution to use often.
- Keep your exposure time very short and use a very noisy single frame ISO 6400 – 25,600. That may work for social media, but it isn’t something you’ll want to print.
- Capture 10-20 high ISO frames and using stacking software like Starry Landscape Stacker to align (rotate) and combine them to reduce noise while keeping the stars sharp. That will give you a pretty decent result without special hardware, but the final output won’t be a RAW file.
- Use a star tracker to rotate the camera perfectly with the stars to get a longer exposure at a reasonable ISO. This offers the highest possible image quality, but requires that you carry extra gear into the field and learn how to use it.
That last option to track has always been my aspiration. However, I don’t want to carry bulky devices like the Star Adventurer with me into the field (especially if air travel is involved). And polar alignment has always felt cumbersome and confusing.
So I was very excited when Move Shoot Move (MSM) reached out asking if I’d like to try their compact, laser-aligned tracker. It’s a fraction of the size and weight of other trackers and alignment is as simple as pointing a laser at the North Star. You can easily take this device anywhere.
My goals
I have taken 8 minute tack-sharp images with a 14mm lens on the Star Adventurer. It’s an amazing product which is solidly built and can hold a fairly heavy camera (such as with a 200mm lens), especially if you’re willing to use a counterweight. My goal is to capture skies to complement landscape foregrounds, so I only need to shoot 14-85mm lenses. If I wanted to shoot telephotos to isolate distant objects like galaxies, this would be a good tool to use. But it’s overkill for my needs and not worth the bulk / complexity. And my 8-minute exposures actually had too much detail in dimmer stars.
I use a 13 second exposure without tracking. Rounding that to about 15 seconds, 8 minutes is 32x longer (8 * 60 / 15). In other words, a 5 stop reduction in noise (2^5 = 32). Put another way, I could shoot at ISO 200 instead of ISO 6400 on that tracker.
My primary goal with this simpler, lighter tracker was to reduce noise by at least 3 stops (ideally 4). In other words, to reduce ISO from 6400 to 800 by using an 8x longer shutter time (2^3 = 8). That would be enough I could avoid stacking software even with an f/2.8 lens. I would ideally want a little more to allow me to stop down the aperture slightly from wide open (such as f/2.2 instead of f/1.8), which can dramatically improve the quality of stars in the corners of the frame.
Given my untracked shutter time for a 14mm is 13, that gave me a goal of 104 seconds (ie roughly 2 minutes).
When shooting closer to 85mm, I’d be an exposure around 5-8 seconds. That means I’m facing an extra stop of noise (half the shutter time) with a long lens. But the math is a little fuzzier as a long lens will be more sensitive to tracking error the further I point it away from the North star (as there is more relative angular motion). I’d like to avoid stacking when using a tracker, but it’s an option I’d use before carrying a heavier tracker.
I don’t have any interest in longer focal lengths of the night sky, and I frankly wouldn’t expect a device like this to offer the stability / accuracy needed for such a long and heavy lens.
How are the results with Nomad?
I was very happy with the experience. Setup with the laser pointer was incredibly easy. I was able to get 2-4 minute exposures which were sharp with the 14mm lens. I was able to meet my goals with longer lenses as well (unsurprisingly given similar weight for the lens and a similar goal in terms of extending relative shutter times). It was exactly what I was hoping to see: 4+ stops of noise reduction.
In the slider image below, the left side is a high ISO shot (12,800) at f/4. The right side used the tracker to achieve nearly 4 stops of reduction (3 stops of noise at ISO 1600, and 2/3 stop improvement in aperture at f/5.0).
This comparison underplays the benefit – I could have done better if I’d checked the result more closely in the field. I have another frame (not shown) with 5 stops of reduction (4 stops of noise at ISO 800, and 1 stop improvement in aperture at f/5.6). That other frame had minor star blur from motion at 120s. It was a very usable image, but I’d rather show one that’s tack sharp. I could have easily gotten a bit over 4 stops of noise reduction, but was seeing some tracking error at 5 stops. Perhaps if I aligned more carefully or revisited the laser calibration I would have pulled off 5. It was a rather impressive result for a 79mm focal length with minimal effort.
There were a few quirks using Nomad. When a camera is mounted and aimed at your preferred composition, it may block the alignment laser. I don’t fault the design here, you just need to consider it in your workflow. You can simply point the camera elsewhere or remove it temporarily to align. I found that hanging a heavy bag from the tripod was very helpful as it ensured I didn’t alter alignment while attaching the camera (or cause problems if I bumped the tripod in the dark).
The other challenge I had was the power switch. It feels firm and I wouldn’t expect it to get easily toggled. However, on 2 out of 4 nights driving down bumpy dirt roads I found the power switch had been switched on. It was in the carry case from the manufacturer and there was apparently enough friction in a bouncing camera bag to knock the switch. Both times this meant I had a dead battery. I was unprepared the first time and just shot high ISO frames for stacking. The second time I was more prepared and connected an external battery pack to the USB-C charge port and was able to use it. I contacted Move Shoot Move and they acknowledge the issue as well as plans to make design improvements to the switch. It isn’t a deal breaker, but you should consider putting some electrical tape over the switch or bringing a spare battery if you’ll traveling on rough roads.
How does tracking compare with stacking?
In the screenshots below, you can compare a tracked (ISO 200, 240 seconds) vs stacked (18 frames at ISO 6400, 13 seconds => 234s total exposure time to be directly comparable). Both used the same minimal RAW adjustments for chromatic aberration, color balance, sharpening, and minor noise reduction. Both use the same crop to show a 100% view of a portion of the sky from the Milky Way. The level of noise is very similar in these two approaches, which is what I would expect given the total shutter time is nearly identical.
However, the tracked shot has numerous benefits over the stacked result:
- much better star color
- better contrast
- the final sky is still a RAW image, which allows blending with a non-destructive result
The tracked shot shows much more detail in minor stars. You might view this as a plus or minus. I like the overall image much better, but I would probably process to minimize minor stars a bit to avoid having too much detail.
The two approaches are both great and I’d happily use either. But I have a clear preference for the tracked result. With the simplicity and lightweight of the Nomad, it’s a tracker well worth using for better night skies in landscape images.
Neither frame below has really been processed, so the final results would get much better. But this shows the mostly straight out of camera result (with again minor tweak of white balance and minor noise reduction being applied consistently to both frames).
Recommended components
The MSM website doesn’t make it very clear which components beginners should buy. I recommend the following:
- Nomad with laser (for alignment in Northern Hemisphere) and ballhead (cheap, light, reliable option to mount your camera)
- Wedge to allow you to mount the Nomad to your tripod and aim the Nomad for proper alignment. You may alternatively use a geared head (a ballhead will probably feel pretty fussy for precise alignment).
- Phone mount, if you will be shooting in the Southern Hemisphere
They also offer a V-mount to give you more freedom to align the camera (as the ballhead base won’t be level given the angle of the Nomad). While this sounds nice, it significantly reduces stability of the camera and will likely force you to use shorter shutter speeds. I believe you can (and should) avoid it most of the time, but you may find it helpful if you’re using a longer lens to point at parts of the sky far from the center of rotation.
Tips for shooting stars with a foreground:
You can try to be a hero and get both a blue hour shot and your night sky all setup without moving the tripod. Don’t be a hero. This is a disaster that adds no value to the shot. Keep in mind that whether your keep your tripod in the same spot behind a foreground subject or move it a mile away and point it in the same direction in the sky, it will show the exact same sky.
If you try to do everything with the same setup, it will be a nightmare. You can’t see your foreground at night and you can’t see the stars in the day. You can use photo pills to predict the stars, which would at least help at night (less so if shooting in the morning as you’ll struggle to see your foreground if setting up first for the stars). Even if you do that correctly, the camera will be rotating for the stars and this will cause problems at edges.
Whether you shoot in one place or two, you’ll be blending two images. Make your life easy. Shoot the foreground and sky separately. You can take notes on the compass heading and elevation if you want your sky to match exactly what would have shown in the same foreground setup. But by separating these shots, you’ll avoid edge issues with rotation, simplify setup, give yourself the freedom to walk back to your car while there is some amount of light left, or shoot a few good skies you can use some other time with your foreground. You can be as exacting and literal as you want, and it will make things so much easier.
How do you set up the Nomad?
Think of your platform in two parts: a lower and upper stage. The lower stage is everything up to the Nomad itself, including:
- Your tripod
- Anything you need to hold and align the Nomad (which might be a leveling base, wedge, or ballhead)
- The Nomad (including laser or phone alignment tools)
The upper stage includes:
- a ballhead (so you can point the camera at your desired composition)
- your camera
Rotational alignment is ensured for everything in the upper stage once the Nomad is aligned. Everything rotates as a block, so you can point the camera anywhere you want from that upper ballhead.
Setup:
- Set up the tripod legs. Make it as stable as possible and add weight if you can (such as hanging your camera bag from it).
- Add the wedge or geared head you’ll use on the lower stage for alignment.
- Attach the Nomad and roughly align it.
- Attach the red plate / ballhead. The top red plat on the Nomad needs to be very secure to the ballhead on top. Bring a coin to tighten the screw in the field, and use the offset hex screw to ensure your top ballhead is on tight. Once you add the camera weight, it’ll be loose / insecure if you haven’t done this properly.
- Attach the camera. Using the upper ballhead, try to get it pointed at your subject or nearby, but the laser should not be blocked.
- Do your final / precise alignment now that the camera is attached.
- Adjust the upper ballhead as needed to align the camera with your desired composition.
Thus far I’ve mentioned aligning with the North Star using a laser. Technically, this is not perfect. As though of you using polar alignment on a higher-end tracker know, the North Star is not the true center of rotation for the night sky. It’s just really close, and for our needs with a 14-85mm lens we don’t need to correct for the difference.
The laser itself should come calibrated to be straight, but it includes some set screws you can tweak to ensure the laser points properly straight. Here’s a video if you’d like to fine tune that laser calibration:
If you’re shooting in the Southern hemisphere, you can’t see and use the North star. Instead, you’ll need to align relative to the Southern Cross, which you can most easily go by using Photo Pills and your phone (with this attachment) as shown in this video:
