souls33k3r

Ah ok. An excellent write up.

Awesome stuff Steve. This is why i love this hobby, you find gems who are happy to share their knowledge and experience only to see others succeed. Top marks to you sir P.S: Mind if i ask, what book is this from? I ask this because it's got page numbers on it.

Have you not heard that start small and aim high ... ok for you i'll do £50.01 ... do we have a deal? *spits on his hand and offers for a shake*

Are you pitching for a potential business mate?

I suppose. The fabricator got him a steel pipe for nothing and did the metal work for only that price. It's not fancy or anything, just works. Cheap as chips as they say.

A friend of mine had it made for £20 here in the UK. I'm after this friend to be my BEST FRIEND now

Cheers Gina, I do expect a lot from this scope if I'm being honest. Oh you're so very kind... I'll do you one better, what's your address and I'll drop it off your place as soon as hair grows on my teeth OK? I'll even chip in Jaffa cakes for ya

Postie left this mysterious box at my door step today ... question is, what do you do with this?

Got it. Will try that tomorrow if I get a chance.

Cheers mate. Much appreciated

I totally get that Gina but my question was with regards to the issue of focusing the oag (guide and main camera) during the day time when the max distance I will be able to see and focus both the main camera and guide cam is about 200m and that’s it. I know the recommendation is something that is a mile away

I've got the OAG as well and I'm wondering if I should really invest myself in making that work. Issue is, there's nothing out there during the day time that is any more than 200 meters away that I can use to focus both the camera and the guidecam. Not sure if it is at all wise to do that?

Ok I found a sw finderscope bracket. Basically a friend of mine had it and he doesn’t need it so I’m all set for that. Just need to buy the converter now. How do these scopes guide any way? Are they on par with the 50mm guidescopes out there?

I've already got the shoe but it was the bracket that i needed. Basically the finderscope that came with my Celestron EdgeHD has it's own weird attachment. I will go home and see if i can make use of that some how or do i need the Skywatcher 9x50 bracket.

Don't worry about it, found it

Cheers mate, that's exactly how i picture it. I wonder where can i find this mounting bracket from.

No worries, whenever you get a chance to post an image on how you've got it mounted would be helpful. Cheers mate

Cheers @fozzybear, how are you mounting your converted guidescope? Is it on the same bracket that it came with or some other method? If you've got an image to share of it being mounted, that would be awesome. Just looking for some ideas.

Cheers mate, i'll have a read through now

I will have to agree ... i'll use the search (doh! should've done that in the first place). I remember a friend told me a great Olly's method of bolting everything down ... i can't seem to find a way to do such with this unless i weld it down somehow

I'm pretty sure it isn't. Looks exactly the same but thought i'd drop that in there in case if it was.

Hi All, Has anyone tried to convert a Celestron 9x50 finderscope in to a guidescope? It's just that i'm getting slightly paranoid about losing stars / decrease in SNR (i'd be lucky if i get 30ish SNR and between 40 & 60 the star is saturated) and in the hunt for getting good guiding. Is this a good option? How will it stack against some other 50mm guidescopes out there in the market? Just wanted to find out what parts (sizes) do i need? I currently have a QHY5L-II mono camera. I'm not looking to spend £50 on adapters to convert something, any ebay El-cheapo adapters will do or a friend of mine has offered to 3D print the adapter for me. Thanks in advance

For that sort of price and experience i think you've done a fine job mate. Hats off to you. I know how proud you would feel to call it your own handy work. I wish i had even 1% of the necessary skills or understanding of how to do it. I'm the sort of a guy who gets it done if shown the right path so all these jargon that you lot throw around goes over my head (mostly)

Will not dwell in to the details of the major loss in life you've experience because i'm afraid i know where this might lead your mind to. My prayers are with you on that my friend and lots of good wishes on your way. I'm glad you've found something to keep your mind occupied with. You're not the only sad person around, i'm in the same camp Mind if i ask, how much so far?

This is coming along nicely mate. Have you been keeping track of your spends so far?