Suffolk Chris

That’s a nice setup Dave, WOW!! my Meade is the LX200 without the mirror lock but I don’t have any mirror slop issues really. I have a crayford refractor type focuser on the back which works very well for fine focus as the main Meade scope focus can be tricky sometimes, I get the scope focussed best I can then use the crayford to fine focus, works fine for visual, I will see how it does when I get my 6D back from being Astro modified and see how I get on with that focus setup on the next clear night we have. so I’m guessing your guiding okay with the refractor, no guide slew issues with longish exposures? Your setup is great, is that the 10” scope or 12” I would love to see some DSO snaps from that setup if you have any?

Thanks Dave, im not too keen on OAGs to be honest, I would much prefer a dedicated guidescope really. I have read that OAGs do work well with longer focal length SCTs. I’m currently looking at the 80ED With a 1.25” camera of some sort, hard railed to the underside of the losmandy dovetail if there is enough room to get it on there. If not, I will get a second rail and mount the guide to the top to reduce slop.

Hi Just looking for some advice on a decent auto-guiding scope and camera for a SCT 10". From what I am researching, I am seeing that I shouldn't really be going with anything under 80mm to avoid not being able to keep a good guide when capturing subs longer than possibly 2 minutes, am I correct thinking that, or am I reading too much in to guide issues for the bigger SCT with F8s and F10s? Maybe someone who has gone through this pain already could save me the pain and the cost of learning the hard way. I am currently running a Meade LX200 Classic 10" F10 FL=2500mm on a SkyWatcher EQ6-R-Pro mount but have only done visual up to now and I would like to try some photography. I have been looking at going down the Orion ST80 Clone refractor or something similar as an auto-guider scope using probably PHD with a ZWO ASI1200 camera or something around that money in mono for auto-guiding. Would this be wise for my Meade LX200 10". I will be imaging with a DSLR EOS D6 for now to see how it goes. Any advice appreciated. Cheers Chris

Thanks for the advice people, I have gone with Astronomiser, the camera gets to him tomorrow, Andy is doing the mod next Monday. Next to tick off my list is a autoguider for my Meade LX200 10" F10 scope.not an ideal scope for DSO but its all I have for now, good learning AP scope no doubt. I will start a new thread for that I think.

Thanks David, I will certainly check them all out. Great pictures by the way, are they stacked or just one shot exposures?

Thanks City9Town0 - I will check him out. I am beginning to regret getting the 6D now with the prices im seeing, sure it will be worth it though.

Hi All, Ive just joined the forum (first post) and starting to get in to Astrophotography. I live in Suffolk in the UK. Could anyone recommend or advise on a good safe company to send my Canon EOS 6D to be astro modified. How much are other people on this forum paying for the service and who are they sending there camera's too and would they recommend the service they received? Are there any camera modders I need to avoid? Currently looking at DSLR Astro Mod, anybody had a 6D done with him and would they recommend?