Guider location

[AlistairW]

Hello,

Does the location of a finder/guider on an OTA matter. Sometimes I see them toward the back and sometimes toward the front. I cant see any reason location would be a factor for anything - can you ?

Alistair

[kens]

As long as everything balances. 

[AlistairW]

Kens - that's the reason I ask - I am moving stuff about ?

[kens]

Now for the longer answer. Lets say before you attach the guidescope that you are at the limts of being able to balance. You might have your counterweights at the end of the shaft already or close to it. Putting the guidescope on top of the OTA might not be a good idea as the extra weight so far from the centre of gravity could mean your counterweight shaft isn't long enough or you don't have enough weight. A better approach could be to place the guidescope under the OTA.

Or if your OTA is back heavy but you are already at the end of the dovetail, then you would want to put the guidescope further to the front. 

[wxsatuser]

As long as there is no flexure and balance is ok, put it where needed.

Mine is on a side by side bar for obvious reasons.

[Alien_Photons]

Seems to go like this. Mount it

Where you can.

Where you guide rings are mounted.

Mount on your dual plate.

Get an off axis guider

Get an in camera guide chip. SBIG.

I used an SBIG years ago as much because I couldn't work out the best place/issues for my guide scope. That was a revelation.