Guidescope vs OAG

[pringlepowell]

Hi

I've been toying with guiding for some time now and was ready to invest in the Orion Awesome guiding kit, but read recently that an Off Axis Guider works better with a Newt. Something to do with the mirrors moving.

Any thoughts/Experiences?

[ollypenrice]

On almost any reflector the mirror can move within the tube, so if you are guiding the tube you'll get an error. But if you guide from the same light beam that's creating the image, as with an OAG, your guider will correct the beam itself within the tube. That's the good news.

The bad news is that OAGs produce rather feeble stellar images much of the time and need sensitive guide cameras to pick up a star. Standalone systems are often not very sensitive.

I use a guidescope on the refractors and an OAG with a sensitive Lodestar on the reflector. It almost always finds a star without having to compromise the framing of the image.

Olly