Sometimes you just have to use what is at hand

[pyrasanth]

This might seem an odd post for the imaging section but bear with me.

I have stopped liking my Lodestar X2 for use on the innovations foresight ONAG. The problem is the very small field of view. It is a great guide camera if used in the back of a refractor like the Skywatcher 80 but on the ONAG if fails because of the very limited field of view. Binning is a big no as well- the pixels I suspect become so large the SkyX interface sees only black although this could be a software error.

Currently I'm caught between a rock & a hard place as the ONAG model I have will not support the Atik 11000 without vignetting as it is a full frame CD. I intend to upgrade but that means putting over a £1000.00 on the table so not a cheap option. I certainly don't want the expense of another camera either.

Then I had this idea and the irony is- I know your going to slate me for improvising such a solution but I will share it with you. The Atik 11000 has temporarily been utilised as the guide camera. It sits on the back of the ONAG & gives me the biggest guide field I've ever seen despite the vignetting which does not really matter. The Atik 460 is being used as the imaging camera & believe it or not this solution seems to work well.

So, I have a very expensive full Chip CCD being used as a guide camera & it only cost me £16.00 for the T-ring from FLO to couple them together- now that is guiding on the cheap....or expensive which ever way you choose to look at it.

When I upgrade to the Larger ONAG XM I will reverse the roles of the cameras as the current solution is severely oversampled with the ATik 460 on a 1x1 Bin (even 2x2 would be pushing it). The Atik 11000 at my current focal length will give me a much better 1.8 arc sec pixel at 2x2 binning which equates better with my rubbish seeing!

[andrew s]

If it works why knock it. It is the difference in marginal costs that matter. Unless you can get a better return by selling and replacing then as the costs are sunk why bother about them.

I have used a £4k back thinned E2V chipped camera as a guide camera in the past!

Regards Andrew

[pyrasanth]

I thought about the marginal cost of the equipment attached to the back of the telescope. If I unscrew from the focal reducer what I'm holding in my hand is £9K of equipment- that's an expensive hobby hence my desire to achieve the impossible & stop spending on Astronomy!