Tripod or star tracker? Took my $400 gamble to Death Valley

I had to choose between a sturdy tripod and a budget star tracker before my trip to Badwater Basin last month. Picked the star tracker since I already had a decent tripod, and honestly the tracked shots of the Milky Way core were way sharper than my 30 second untracked attempts. The learning curve was real though, probably 45 minutes of fiddling with polar alignment before I got a clean 2 minute exposure. Anyone else regret skipping a proper tracker and trying to stack instead?

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owens.laura6d ago

My buddy Dave spent 3 hours stacking 200 shots and still got blurry stars, so your tracker was smart.