Can you recommend a guidescope cam to start me off

[Stub Mandrel]

On 26/08/2018 at 22:32, ollypenrice said:

Sorry but I don't agree with this. Autoguiding is the life blood of astrophotography and makes the impossible possible. The sooner you get into autoguiding the sooner you can get into the real business of capture.

It';s amazing what you can do without guiding and guiding takes your setup to a new level of complexity with the needs for a computer. I also found I needed to cool my DSLR to exploit five-minute exposures in the warmer season, although it's OK in the winter.

But I agree that it opens new doors to be able to take reliable exposures limited by the quality of your skies not the quality of your mount.

[ollypenrice]

4 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

It';s amazing what you can do without guiding and guiding takes your setup to a new level of complexity with the needs for a computer. I also found I needed to cool my DSLR to exploit five-minute exposures in the warmer season, although it's OK in the winter.

But I agree that it opens new doors to be able to take reliable exposures limited by the quality of your skies not the quality of your mount.

If I stopped guiding I'm afraid I'd be amazed by what I couldn't do. It's as simple as that.

Olly

[RayD]

1 hour ago, RiponJas said:

As I mentioned its not about not learning this early on.. I have said I will be following this route, but as many others on here will know money does come into the equation. New bathroom or guide cam and gubbins. Which do you think my wife will vote for? 

So why only quote me, and why not quote the very next, on topic, sentence of the same post where I suggested a ZWO 120MM and an Altair GP Cam, both of which are very cost effective guiding solutions as, like you, money comes in to it for me also.

[ollypenrice]

Nobody said guiding was free. Clearly it isn't. Whether it's worth it cost-wise is for the individual to decide, as with most other decisions in this mad game! But is guiding difficult? Usually it isn't. I could hardly use a computer when I jumped into all this and, following the advice of Ian King, I went the whole hog: mono CCD and filters and autoguiding. I was up and running in no time despite my having avoided computers in my life up to that time. And how much difference does guiding make? Well I think it makes all the difference. However, I have some renegade opinions regarding AP. I don't think it is obligatory or even preferable to start with a DSLR and I don't think OSC is easier than mono. So you have been warned. But I do teach and 'provide for' astrophotography for a living so I've thought about all this pretty carefully. Doesn't mean I'm right, though.

Olly

 

[Adam J]

I keep hearing this stuff about poor drivers on QHY cameras every time someone suggests one. I have had my QHY5L-ii for three years now across windows 7 and windows 10 and it has not given me a single issue in maybe 200 hours of use. I do wonder is some people who talk about these supposed issues have ever actually owned one in modern times or they are just repeating parrot fashion issues that some people experienced back in 2010.