Guiding a wide field scope with an 8" SCT?

[SXBB]

Hi,

I'm getting an AT65EDQ and I'm wondering if I can guide it with the SCT when I want to do wide field imaging.  The SCT is a 8" Meade LX200 with a .63 FFFR on an Atlas Pro mount.  It would be great to be able to just swap camera positions to go from narrow field to wide field without having to pull the scopes off and put on my short tube 80.  Another option would be to somehow mount the AT65EDQ and the ST80 side by side on top of the SCT and always use the ST80 for guiding.  Is there a way to do that without introducing much flexure?

Thanks

[ollypenrice]

I used a WO ZS66 piggybacked on a wedge mounted LX200 when I stared out and guided through the SCT. It doesn't make a great guidescope but it works. The 3.3 reducer might make life easier if you can find one cheaply. (They are not very much used because they cover only the tiniest chips so they are affordable second hand.)

I never did get the LX200 mount to guide well enough to take a presentable image through the big scope, though. The piggyback images were fine.

Olly

[Psychobilly]

I used to image through a piggy backed  Equinoxe 66 or Megrez 72 guided by a focal reduced (f6.3) CPC 800... It later added a 500mm/f8 t-mount Prime as a guide scope so that I could image through both "scopes" at the same time...

Peter...

[SXBB]

Sounds like it might work...  I'll test it out at first opportunity!

Thanks,

Bruce