Guiding Options

[tekkydave]

I currently have a Celestron 127SLT with the regular Nexstar altaz mount & tripod. Now I know I need a better mount and I'm thinking of the Celestron advanced VX as it will work with the Starsense and GPS accessories I already have. I can then think about a scope suitable for DSO imaging. I will probably want to do guided DSO imaging so will need a quide camera. I already have an ASI120MC planetary camera which has an st4 port. My plan would be to get a finder/guide scope and use the ASI120 as a guide camera with PHD. I will use my Canon 1100D for imaging. This way I can make the best use of what I already have.

Is anyone using a similar setup and are there any major flaws in what I am planning.

[Xplode]

Sounds like a good plan

Your camera will work fine for guiding even if it is a color camera so you only need a good scope and the finderguider.

[Tiny Small]

I use the ZWO 134mc with a 70mm guide scope. Works fine but the cameras are very sensative so make sure you have the gain turned virtually off so you can have a longer exposure otherwise (as I found out the hard way) you end up chasing the seeing. With these cameras in PHD there are two places you need to set the exposure... on the main screen and in the cam dialog screen. I'm using between 1 and 1.5 seconds. If you have the gain at about 30, low milliseconds are the nowm which is too quick for guiding.

[Dave_D]

I've just switched from ST4 to ascom pulse guiding tonight, with my orion autoguider and 50mm finderguider. So far ascom pulse guiding seems to be producing better results than ST4, so if you can, i personally recommend ascom guiding

[tekkydave]

Thanks for the helpful advice.