Auto guiding setup - wondering about it?

[Tim]

Well, the Off Axis Radial Guider from Celestron was tried. And tried. And tried. I am sure they are useful to a certain kind of astronomer, probably the Tibetan monk kind who are only allowed to speak one word every five years. Even then I think that one word would be "F*$#" after using it. Personally I dont have the patience or probably lifespan to ever get suitable results in my area.

So I bought another telescope. And a rack thing to pop it on to etc. And then still keen to hand guide the exposure, I did just that, using the secondary scope with an illuminated reticle and the slewing speed set to 0.5X. I just about managed a few 300 second exposures before my brain went into a sort of inactivity induced coma. The results were pretty good, but you have to think about what you would put on your CV under the section "Hobbies & Pastimes". If I was honest on mine, it would have included the line,

"I spend hours at night looking down a pipe and pressing a button every few seconds.

Not the best impression to offer a new employer, unless you want to work in customer service at B&Q, in which case you'd be over qualified.

THERE HAS TO BE A BETTER WAY!!

And so there is. And it goes like this. Go to OpticStar''s site. Order their AG-130 auto guider. Plug it in. Do long exposures. It really is that simple. I was very hesitant at first after horror stories about mount incompatibility and Vista problems etc, but this thing worked like a dream right out fo the box. The bundled PHD worked a treat, the included camera easily picked out a star even though the moon was extremely bright and seeing was poor, it locked on, set itself up, found out which way it needed to twiddle, and off it went. So easy to use I cant believe it. Soon I was rattling off 500 second exposures, no trace of blurring or trails. I cant wait till that lousy moon disappears and we get a night clear night, really looking forwards to going to a dark site and grabbing some long expo's now.

Big thank you to OpticStar.

For Sale: One hardly used Celestron Off Axis Auto-Guider. Excellent condition. All you could wish for in off axis guiding. Cheap.

Cheers

TJ

[Beyond_Vision]

HeHe welcome to the world of autoguiding. It transformed my astrophotography overnight exposures upto 20mins+ with no sign of drift using an 80mm imaging scope. I would also agree with you on the level of service from Opticstar. When I bought my saddle plate and dovetail clamp + shoestring autoguider from them, they sent me a large bag of assorted bolts nuts etc for mounting other parts to the saddle plate absolutey free.

Regards

Kevin

[royholl]

Hi TJ,

I have the AG-130 auto guider and PHD it works for me, the tests I did last week look real good. I am waiting for the Moon to move out of the way so I can get that first guided image.

Peter at OpticStar is very helpful a top bloke.

[CELESCOPE]

hehehe well done TJ.

Yes i remember so well a few years ago i tried that , Hmmmm i think that off axis guider is in a drawer some where , lol waste of time i thought, glad u sorted , now lets have some darn images for selection POW

ehehhehe

Rog

[cygnusx1]

Yip my experience with OAG's was similiar, eventually I was glad to get rid of it for 1/2 price.

A/guiding is def the way to go, i couldnlt give 13 hoots about being called a real astronomer and all that polony, standing in sub zero temps at the eyepiece, be a man,blah blah - i'm sick of tired of hassling with equipment, I wan't easy, hassle free, comfort imaging, the astro version of Mcdonalds if you see my point.

I'd like to spend 90% of my time doing research on what to image,setting up + testing the whole shebang painlessly , then going inside to do my other stuff, strollingback out every now and then to check all is going to plan rather than fumbling around in the feezing cold and dark getting absolutely nowhere after 10 excrutiating hours of relentless nothingness and retiring to bed feeling like absolute &^$% and miserable as hell.

After a long, hard journey, its all finally falling nicely into place for me, not a moment too soon.

Nnow I can start producing images i'm proud of and enjoy looking at as well as sharing them with others like you folk.

I can see leaps and bounds in my results already.

Good on ya mate, looks like your'e well on your way too!

[Vega]

I agree, in the same way I finally got GOTO.. it's not that I don't enjoy star hopping, it's just after 2 years of it, I like to save time finding the really faint fuzzies with the GOTO. Plus the motor's sound cool and the mount is the ultimate 'show off' piece of kit to your neighbours

Getting back to auto guiding, I'm warming to the idea too but it would mean even more kit to get out of the shed and setup (I don't have a pier or obsy ). It's bad enough already with the EQ6, 250px, Table, Laptop, Camera's, Power.....

Matt

[Tim]

if you already have all that its just one more cable.

[Beyond_Vision]

if you already have all that its just one more cable.

and guide scope mounting plate second CCD or webcam

Regards

Kevin

[Tim]

yeah yeah, but I was assuming he was gonna buy and use my Off axis guider

Its really worth it, time once wasted on wrecked exposures and hand guiding can now be wasted on something else.

TJ

[NickH]

Canot overstate how wonderful PHD is, and how it has completely revolutionised the "dark art" of autoguiding..

Craig Stark for president...?

OAG's tried em, hated em... waste of time..IMHO

[Vega]

No, judging by your experiences and many other's i've read about, I would avoid autoguiders at all costs. I was talking more of the additional guide scope, guide camera, tube rings plus an additional piece of kit to align etc.

Matt

[NickH]

Additional guide scope and rings is the way to go for sure for most people. Some with the large Lumicon style OAG do get results, but just not for me...I tried the Meade one...and wasted most of a night once trying to image M51.

[Tim]

Well I am trying the M3 system from Astrodevelopments. Apparently it alleviates differential flexure, whatever that is.

It seems to work pretty well even with my big old c9.25 bloating up one end, and the Wo on the other.

So far I have only used the WO for imaging, with the c9.25 targeting the same star or system. With the wide FOV its easy. Will try the other way round when it clears to see how that goes. I'm guessing that finding a star to guide that is in the same general area will be fine for tracking, I suppose ideally it would be either east or west of target, not north or south.

Its surprisingly easy to target the guide scope at whatever the main tube is pointing at. Takes about 5 mins to get it perfectly aligned using an illuminated reticle.

TJ

[MattyS]

TJ, seems like a good system. Just checking out the camera and wondered would you recommend the mono or colour camera or doesn't it matter?

[Tim]

Hi Matty. My experience and kit has altered somewhat since I made this post. I'm happy to help where I can though, what is it you are trying to achieve?

Maybe send me a private message with your needs, and i'll see how I can help, or point you in the right direction.

Welcome to SGL btw

TJ

[Tim]

For the sake of the thread, which has been resurected I'll just add that I now use an Off Axis Guider with two cameras on and would not consider going back to a seperate guidescope.

The OAG's are more accurate, completely eliminate differential flex, and allow much longer exposures, especially with big long FL scopes. IMHO they are the next best thing to active optics, and the best you can hope for with amateur guiding, for now at least

What is required is a bit of ingenuity with the spacing, and one of the more sensitive guide cameras, like a lodestar or mono DSI.

Cheers

TJ