Any good guide cameras that are cheap?

[Olli]

Hello,

I have nearly completed the list of what i will be getting for imaging however i have no idea what i need to get for guiding. I will br using a 130pds and a cmos. I was hoping if there were any cameras that are around £100. 

Thanks 

[Cornelius Varley]

The ASI 120MM is currently on sale at £126.

[astrosathya]

1 hour ago, Olli said:

Hello,

I have nearly completed the list of what i will be getting for imaging however i have no idea what i need to get for guiding. I will br using a 130pds and a cmos. I was hoping if there were any cameras that are around £100. 

Thanks 

QHY-5R colour at the very least. The ZWO ASI 120MM or MC will be great too. Expensive one is a Lodestar, but its a really good guide camera, will burn your pocket a little bit.

[cjdawson]

I got really fed up with having problems with guide cameras when I was trying to be really cheap.  To solve me problem forever, I opted for the Startlight Express Superstar.  As @astrosathya said, expensive bit of kit.  I can now find guide stars without even trying,  it makes a huge difference.   The SuperStar is a big more sensetive than the LodeStar.

That said, I've heard good things about the ZWO ASI 120, and the QHY cameras too.

Just do yourself a favour and avoid the likes of the SkyWatcher SynGuider.  They do work, when you can find a guide star, but the big problem is finding a guide start in the first place!

[Stu Wilson]

I use the Orion star shoot guide camera and it ticks all the boxes for me.

[astrosathya]

1 hour ago, Stu Wilson said:

I use the Orion star shoot guide camera and it ticks all the boxes for me.

If you have the original silver Orion SSAG, open up the body and look at the print on the PCB. I wouldn't be surprised if you tell me its printed QHY ?

 

[Olli]

4 hours ago, Cornelius Varley said:

The ASI 120MM is currently on sale at £126.

Hi, i was looking at that one and flo are doing a bundle with a guide scope but wasnt sure how good the camera was.

[Olli]

2 hours ago, cjdawson said:

I got really fed up with having problems with guide cameras when I was trying to be really cheap.  To solve me problem forever, I opted for the Startlight Express Superstar.  As @astrosathya said, expensive bit of kit.  I can now find guide stars without even trying,  it makes a huge difference.   The SuperStar is a big more sensetive than the LodeStar.

That said, I've heard good things about the ZWO ASI 120, and the QHY cameras too.

Just do yourself a favour and avoid the likes of the SkyWatcher SynGuider.  They do work, when you can find a guide star, but the big problem is finding a guide start in the first place!

Thanks for the advice i was looking at the synguider as i dont have a laptop but after reading the reviews of the synguider i may as well get a proper guider and a laptop.

[Stub Mandrel]

1 hour ago, Olli said:

Hi, i was looking at that one and flo are doing a bundle with a guide scope but wasnt sure how good the camera was.

I have an ZWO ASI 120MC that I use as a guide camera, and I have never found myself without a choice of guide stars.

I use a guide scope that is 50mm x 182mm (f3.5) so quite sensitive with a 130P-DS and a HEQ5 and am now getting guiding at 0.6" rms.

The 120MM is about twice as sensitive in practice.

As for quality, these are four of my planetary images from this summer, all but Venus are with the ZWO:

 

[cjdawson]

18 hours ago, Olli said:

Thanks for the advice i was looking at the synguider as i dont have a laptop but after reading the reviews of the synguider i may as well get a proper guider and a laptop.

I think that's a very wise choice.    look at it like this...

 

Synguider £229 from Flo

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/guide-cameras/skywatcher-synguider-autoguider.html

Now to capture images you'd still need to have an imaging camera.   Without a laptop your choices are somewhat limited.

 

Soooooo.....

Zwo finder guider bundle £189

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/zwo-cameras/zwo-mini-finder-guider-asi120mm-bundle.html

Or

Zwo 120mm USB 2.0   £126 - minimum option but you'll still need to attach to your scope somehow.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/zwo-cameras/zwo-asi120mm-usb-2-mono-camera.html

 

 

Now add a laptop.

This would be the absolute minimum spec that I would suggest

£275 ish

https://www.cclonline.com/product/lenovo-v110-laptop-15-6-inch-1366-x-768-amd-a9-9410-4gb-128gb-ssd-radeon-r5-bluetooth-microsoft-windows-10-home-80td005puk/

 

In addition to running PHD2 for guiding, you could also use it to control your scope, as well as run the image capturing software for the main camera.

Continuing along this line, and you can do something similar to what I have done....

 

Guide camera controlled by PHD2

Main Camera scope and everything controlled by Sequence Generator Pro.

 

With my install that means I can pretty much do everything in one go.  Once the alignment is done - and I can use cameras to help with that.

Next I can setup an imaging sequence for the camera to capture, and walk away from the scope.  It can even plate solve it's way to the target, line everything up and be capturing data.

 

With all that in mind, if you can get the SynGuider working, it does make for a compact solution.   However, it does limit the possibilities of what you can do.

[Marky1973]

I've used a ZWOASI120MM with an ST80 and now a 50mm Evoguide and have never has trouble getting a guide star.

There is a 120MC on ENS at the moment for 100. Not used the colour one myself but plenty of people do use it for guiding.

http://ensoptical.co.uk/-zwo-asi120mc

 

[Stu Wilson]

22 hours ago, astrosathya said:

If you have the original silver Orion SSAG, open up the body and look at the print on the PCB. I wouldn't be surprised if you tell me its printed QHY ?

 

Well I won't go to that extreme but I image with the QHY8L if that counts lol