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Auto-Guiding ... which way to go?


Tim99

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Hello everyone.  I have been reading a lot to figure out which way I want to go to get set up for guiding.  I use an Explore Scientific ED80 for my imaging scope.  Would a side-by-side arrangement be the way to go?  I am using a CGEM and I see adaptors are available to mount my 80mm scope and then mount the guide scope next to it.  

I was thinking that I have my finder scope on the ED 80 and how would I mount a guide scope on there also/  that lead me to the side-by-side idea.

Just wondering how others are mounting their guide scope when using a short tube refractor for imaging?

Tim

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Hi.

I have been using both a finderguider and a piggibacked st80, and they both work well.

Hovever due to a few recent threds about guiding i will probebly go back to use my finderscope and mounting it mutch more securely.

A ~50x9 finder with good optics is more than good enough, but you dont want any flex between the scope and the finder.

http://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p3281_TS-D-90-mm-Telescope-Tube-Rings---CNC---set-2pc-.html

In the link you see something like im going for. Im just going to mount a longer dovetailbar to the the tube-rings and a findershoe on each of the guidescope rings.

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The real key to autoguiding is avoiding flexure. With this is mind, an off-axis guider is the best solution although they do introduce problems when there is a reducer/field flattener in the light path. At your focal length, a finder-guider would be perfectly adequate and these tend to be pretty good for flexure control if you clamp them down hard.

A side by side arrangement on a SUBSTANTIAL bracket like the Losmandy style from ADM will be better that a piggy-back arrangement.

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Since guiding a short FL refractor is not inherently difficult I think that the mechanically most simple solution is the best - and that's piggybacking for me. Side by side means that the need for a meridian flip comes much sooner. (A wide rig collides with the pier or tripod before a narrow one does.) Personally I'd move away from a piggybacked ST80 when I had good reason to do so. That wouldn't apply when using refractors up to about a metre of FL. I haven't used the finder guiders but they look sound to me - if they are stiffly mounted. (The spring loaded third adjuster on the standard Skywatcher finder is out of the question for guiding.)

Olly

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I use an OAG on my frac but that is because I wanted to keep the weight down and I don't have a finderscope.

Mounting a second scope as big as the imaging scope seems a bit odd to me and my mount would certainly struggle if I did that.

Another advantage of the OAG is that you don't need a separate dew heater ;)

/Dan

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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