Best economy Mono Planetary/Guidecam for ~<£150

[edarter]

Interesting thread as I'm hoping to get enough money for my birthday to enable me to dip my toe in the guiding waters. Without wishing to hijack the thread, is the following package any good? or are there better ways to achieve easy and reliable guiding??

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/guide-cameras/guide-scope-bundle-suitable-for-piggy-backing.html

Thanks
Ed

[Stub Mandrel]

I'm sure that's an excellent option, and the startravel 80 is supposed to be a fun grab'n'go to leave in the back of your car. But as a fully un-paid-up skinflint I've decided to  make my own guidescope.

[Yearofthegoat]

13 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

make my own guidescope.

Am heading over to the DIY forum, can we see your plans? For the life of me I can't decide on guide scope so am genuinely interested!

[Stub Mandrel]

13 minutes ago, Yearofthegoat said:

Am heading over to the DIY forum, can we see your plans? For the life of me I can't decide on guide scope so am genuinely interested!

It's an old 50mm x 300mm budget scope with the lens swapped out for a 50mm x 186mm coated achromat from Astromedia (about £6) and the barrel shortened drastically. The end of the focus tube cut down to avoid vignetting. Downside is that its a 0.965" focuser, but it is quite stiff when tightened up, which is good.

You can get similar scopes off ebay for about £16 but they are lower quality (the one I had had a 30x300mm air-spaced coated achromat in it which I chipped, and ebay one has an uncoated doublet) :-(

[Yearofthegoat]

That sounds good. I looked at the cheaper scopes and wondered how good/bad they'd be cf the ST80 etc. Hadn't really considered altering one but it makes a lot of sense. I'm not church-mouse poor but I do like a bit of DIY - more satisfying, particularly if it saves a few £££.

[Bagnaj97]

Mono cameras at this level all use similar sensors - either the MT9M034M (QHY5L-II, ASI120m, early GPCAM v1), or the slightly more sensitive AR0130m (later GPCAM v1, GPCAM v2, touptek). In all honesty I'd just get whatever's cheapest! There's a heatsink+fan cooler available for the GPCAMv1/touptek camera - https://www.altairastro.com/Altair-GPCAM-USB-Cooler-Module.html

I've got a MT9M gpcam v1 mono for guiding, but I did some unguided LRGB experimenting with it one evening just to try it out - the results won't win any awards, and it was my first time attempting mono imaging, but there's definitely potential for more than just guiding! 

 

and I've just realised how old this thread is, but I'll leave this post here in case it helps someone!

[Stub Mandrel]

I made a passive cooler like that for my Lifecam and it works well.

I think I will buy a ZWO camera though, because it will be easy to hang a pelitier cooler off the back and get it really cold.

This is the finder scope, except it's yet another 15mm shorter now!

[alacant]

Hi. Does it have to be sourced locally via a retailer? E.g. they'll send you the mono version of this at no extra cost and you'd still have funds for a guide scope. HTH.

[bobro]

On the DIY front, could a module using the AR0130 sensor be suitable? US$39 (including shipping). No ST4 of course.

[Stub Mandrel]

On 21/04/2017 at 18:09, bobro said:

On the DIY front, could a module using the AR0130 sensor be suitable? US$39 (including shipping). No ST4 of course.

Do you know the maximum exposure for a module like that?

[bobro]

45 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Do you know the maximum exposure for a module like that?

Probably down to the implementation and driver - I was hoping someone else would do all of the work and I could then copy it!  Seriously though, I'm thinking along similar lines, but somehow just purchasing a QHY.... or similar seems too easy. I have an Arduino Nano that happily will drive an ST4 (or the peculiar interface on my setup) so just need a sensitive guidecam. A collaborative test/venture? Count on 50% from me.

[Stub Mandrel]

It's probably worth punt on a module!

See this thread;

 

 

[bobro]

Yes, not a certainty but a possible step forward in understanding (and hopefully a bit of fun!). Could be an issue with PHD2 perhaps, but this didn't work with my webcam until recenltly, so changes are happening. If you are more ready for a bit of hardware testing send me a pm with a paypal email address (or similar) and I will happily contribute £20 towards the purchase of a module. Other suggestions equally welcome.

Tonight the sky looks clearer - so off outside to see if I can understand a bit more about how the DIY Coma Corrector works.

[Stub Mandrel]

Thing is,  I have been promising myself a guide cam for about 90 months and I'm finally getting paid for a five-month long job next week (I hope...)

[bobro]

No problem. I may look into this myself as a summer project. Last night the slightly re-arranged DIY Coma Corrector performed surprisingly well. I'll process the images and update the CC post.