First Go At Guiding

[RSM]

A friend of mine who has been observing for years told me that getting into astro imaging was a slippery slope to spending lots of cash. At the time I dismissed his comments, however I'm beginning to believe he may have been right. Having got the bug, I wanted to up my success rate of taking images which were both longer exposure and also less impacted by wind, tracking or poor alignment in a bid to take better photos. I read a lot about the different options for guiding and decided that my EOS500D on a Skywatcher 200PDS was pushing the weight limit on my HEQ5 mount. Not wanting to add a heavy guidescope, nor wanting to have my lap top outside, I plumped for the Lacerta MGEN II which many had suggested was a simple way to modify the existing finder scope on the 200PDS to being a guidescope. I have to say, it works a treat. OK, so I'm a bit lighter in the wallet (bit = lot!) but my success rate has gone from having about 30% of my subs at 30-45 sec being usable to over 90% at exposures between 3 and 5 minutes. Couple that with reducing the ISO from 1600 - 800 and what this means is I get a lot more useable data and am able to extract some lovely detail without the need to stretch the stacked images too far and uncover lots of noise. With the large number of cloudy nights recently, it also leaves me less frustrated at having to throw away what could be an hour or two of exposure time on the clear nights we do get.

Here are a few of the images I've managed so far. I've been concentrating on taking M33 until Orion is high in the sky and then moving over to the Horsehead Nebula - one of my favourite views of the night sky. M33 so far is from about 11 x 5 minute subs and Horsehead is from about 60 x 3 minute subs. I'm planning to add to these over the coming weeks whilst they are in good viewing at reasonably social hours before moving on to other things later in the year. Might move to Orion Nebula if we get clear nights when the moon is relatively full. Any feedback on the attached images or advice is as always, very gratefully received.

Thanks for looking and clear skies! Richard.

[laudropb]

Very nice images.

[RSM]

Thank you for the kind comment. Looks like more clear skies are on the way which is good news.

[eyepod]

Some excellent images there and good to read the auto guider works well. I'm thinking about guiding but also don't want to overload my EQ5 pro and i have a spare 8x50 finder. Can i ask where did you purchase the Lacerta mgen II from?

regards

Jason

[richyrich_one]

Very nice!

[wxsatuser]

Some excellent images there and good to read the auto guider works well. I'm thinking about guiding but also don't want to overload my EQ5 pro and i have a spare 8x50 finder. Can i ask where did you purchase the Lacerta mgen II from?

regards

Jason

I got mine from those nice guys over at Teleskop Express in Germany.

Brilliant piece of kit

http://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p4173_LACERTA-MGEN-Stand-Alone-Autoguider---Guiding-ohne-Computer-V2.html

[cwit1]

Super images well done!!

[RSM]

Some excellent images there and good to read the auto guider works well. I'm thinking about guiding but also don't want to overload my EQ5 pro and i have a spare 8x50 finder. Can i ask where did you purchase the Lacerta mgen II from?

regards

Jason

[RSM]

Got mine from teleskop express too. Very quick service from Germany over the Christmas holidays. Only took 4 days from ordering. Works great.

[RSM]

Some excellent images there and good to read the auto guider works well. I'm thinking about guiding but also don't want to overload my EQ5 pro and i have a spare 8x50 finder. Can i ask where did you purchase the Lacerta mgen II from?

regards

Jason

Forgot to add, they sell a range of adaptors rings too which fit various finder scope sizes. Bought that too and it all worked seamlessly. The only things I needed to buy extra was a £2.99 lead to connect it to my camera. It will run the exposures automatically and you can set it to dither between each frame too which helps control the noise levels.

[JohnSadlerAstro]

Wow!!!

Really amazing images! I really like the M33 image--I've never seen it with my scope, I think that I would need perfect conditions! (if such conditions really exist!)

Sometime, probably when I get a well-paid job (!) I want to get a CCD, guiding, EQ6 Pro.....etc.....! All  dreams at present, as my income stands at the amazing amount of £2 a week!!!   :icon_biggrin:  

On a more serious note, how much does the move up to auto-guiding cost? (I'm on dangerous ground... )

John

[RSM]

Hi John. There's no easy way to break the news that the Lacerta was about €550 delivered. It may not be the cheapest route, but I don't want to take my MacBook out into the cold wet uk nights. The Lacerta system works perfectly and its light in weight. Anything larger and I would have needed to start looking at an Eq6 mount which is serious bucks

[RSM]

Im sure there must be cheaper ways though.

[JohnSadlerAstro]

Hi,

I think that  might be somewhat past my 'means'!!! :grin:   

John 

[RSM]

Hi,

I think that might be somewhat past my 'means'!!! :grin:

John

That said, you can get some really nice images stacking 30-45 second exposures. With free software available to download. You don't quite get the same detail levels but with a bit of time and effort... As I'm sure you'll have seen, there are many of us on this forum posting our work based on much shorter unguided exposures. Good luck with whichever route you choose to take.

[eyepod]

Forgot to add, they sell a range of adaptors rings too which fit various finder scope sizes. Bought that too and it all worked seamlessly. The only things I needed to buy extra was a £2.99 lead to connect it to my camera. It will run the exposures automatically and you can set it to dither between each frame too which helps control the noise levels.

Thanks Richard, like you i dont want to start setting up laptops out in the garden, this seems a good lightweight choice for guiding on my EQ5 Pro

Jason