Cheap autoguiding

[sologuitarist61]

Anybody had any experience using a webcan / meade dsi etc as an ST4 autoguider? Will it work OK guiding through a Revelation 80 semi APO refractor? Any other ideas for cheap auto guiding?

[Bizibilder]

I have used a webcam (SPC900) through an ST80 Achromat and PHD software with complete success. The only difficulty is occasionally you may have trouble finding a bright enough guide star.

[sologuitarist61]

I see - restrictewd FOV I presume - how about using a finderscope then?

[Kevdan]

I'm looking into this as well, apparently some people use 9x50 finders quite well, I have been looking at the celestron 70mm travel scope, it is £53.99 at currys, it's cheaper than the ST80 but it's a smaller aperture as well but bigger aperture and cheaper than a 9x50 raci.

Kev.

[themos]

The advantage of the finder is that it's f/3.5, quite fast. But at 6.6 arcseconds per pixel when used with a webcam, it can't support high magnification imaging. I'm not sure where the cutoff is, though.

[sologuitarist61]

My main problem is that I want to photograph deep sky objects (nebulae/galaxies etc) so I suppose there will be even less stars to use as for guiding.