the right guidescope

[cloudyskies]

Hi all

i have a skywatcher 200mm newt on a celestron cg5gt goto mount and looking to autoguide with it.

problem is i need advice on which refractor to buy,the startravel 80 is lighter weight wise than the 102 but only has a focal length of 400mm while the 102 has a focal length of 500mm.

i fancy the 102 as it would be more suited as a grab and go scope but will this put the mount beyond it's limits.

would love to her from someone who is using the 102mm on this mount or has tried with poor results.

[George]

Weight is the deciding factor, I dont know much about the CG5 mount but I can tell you the ST80 is very light and an excellent guider.

I'm sure some one can tell you better than I

[Whippy]

I think you may want to think about having a look at a new mount rather than a guidescope as TBH an 8" on a CG5 is fine for visual but for imaging you're pushing it a bit. Add on 2 cameras, another scope plus rings etc and you might find the mount just won't be up to the job. I had a CG5GT and when I decided that I was heading into imaging, I sold it a got a EQ6 because at the end of the day, you can spend all that money on cams, scopes etc etc but if your mount doesn't track properly then your pictures aren't going to be great no matter what.

FWIW, I ended up buying a William Optics Zenithstar 66 as it makes an excellent guidescope and you can do widefield imaging with it too, so it's two for the price of one .

Tony..

[centroid]

You needn't worry about using an ST80 for guiding, I used one 'piggy backed' on a 10" LX200GPS for some time, and it did the job perfectly.

Dave

[cloudyskies]

Thanks for your input guys.