Gaurav Mk

Great. Thanks for taking time out to explain these in detail.

I had two doubts here after going through the specs of the mentioned cameras. 1. ASI485 has low FPS. So wouldn't this be an issue for lucky imaging of planets? 2. What is the reason for choosing ASI 224 over ASI 462?

This was really helpful. Thanks a lot. I will check about the two options you suggested. I am gonna do OAG and I was worried about guiding using color camera. So needed to hear it from someone who had used it.

Yeah that makes sense. The other two options you suggested seem to better. I had some bias towards 224 n 462 because of something I had read, but I feel I need to reconsider. And yeah, I meant pixel size. Not the sensor size. Thanks for the correction. Thankyou for your suggestion

I own a Skywatcher 200PDS with EQ5 mount(not a goto mount, but has motors installed with a controller that has auto guiding port) and currently I am using a Nikon D5300 camera for capturing images through it. I intend to buy an astronomy camera from ZWO ASI within a budget of 400$ with the following requirements- 1. For planetary imaging. I would prefer going a colour camera as using a mono with filters would be a little tough for me. 2. Biggest motivation to buy is for auto guiding. I see that mono cameras are best for this. But I was wondering if i could get it done with a colour camera and as to how effective will be the guiding with colour camera? Autoguiding is to aid long exposure DSO imaging, as currently I am able to get only 30-60sec subs. So autoguiding port is a must. 3. Given my SW 200PDS has D=200mm & f=1000mm and I also own a 2x Barlow that can be used if required, I would prefer that the sensor size of camera be apt for the best sampling. The sky here gives about 0.5 to 1 arc sec viewing conditions. These 3 are my primary requirements while a high fps camera that could help get ISS transits is a plus point. I have narrowed the options to 178MC & 290MC. It would be helpful if you could suggest which one of the two would be best fit for my 3 requirements

Thankyou. I have the non go to basic EQ5 mount and I have added RA DEC motors and have a hand controller with st4 port. As I see the cable showed in ur case, eqdir, has one end with usb connection and another with st4 connection. So I think it should still work and eliminates need to have st4 port on ur laptop as well. Right? Please correct if my understanding is wrong. Thanks again for all the info

In ur setup, I presume u r using phd2 guiding. So does the st4 cable from the 120mini go into the mount controller or u use the st4 cable from laptop and that goes to control mount? I am pretty new to guiding, so pardon me if my questions are very naive

Yeah. I will probably go with the 224mc as it will give good planetary performance during imaging and can be used as guide scope for DSS imaging

Actually the 200pds in India comes with 8x50 finderscope. But it has same threads as 9x50. Thanks for ur inputs. Any preference between using c or T thread as both are possible ways of connecting?

Hi, I was looking for support about attaching the camera to the finderscope? I have a similar setup, but my finderscope is 8*50. I kindly request you to help me what adapter you used or an image with details. Thanks in advance.

I own a Skywatcher 200PDS with its 8*50 finderscope. I intend to upgrade my setup by using a guide camera that could fit well with the finderscope that I have. I kindly request you to guide me how to setup. My finderscope has two threads: 1.Roughly 2 inch wide female threads(image attached) 2. Roughly around 28.5mm wide female threads(image attached) Well I am not sure about these measurements as they have been roughly measured. Has someone used this particular finderscope and connected to some astro camera like zwo asi 224mc?

Yeah, 200 pds will not cause issues with focus. I will try to provide u the image next time I setup the telescope. Could you please show us a picture of ur setup? Two things- 1. After removing the 1.25in tube and connecting the dslr using t ring, I hope you don't have any extension tube and it goes directly into the focusser 2. Hope you have tried moving the focusser position from minimum to maximum

Thanks all for the guidance. I will add autoguiding and make the camera capture more than 30s exposures and then go with buying the filter

PA and tracking are already in my setup. I see some trailing around 1min exposure. So probably will need auto guiding too. Another limitation comes from the nikon camera, for which I lack an intervalometer in bubl mode allowing me to seamlessly capture greater than 30s exposures.

I am using skywatcher 200pds