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Lodestar, Lodestar X2, CoStar


Astroscot2

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Ive been forced to start looking at buying a new autoguider camera,  yy almost 10 year old original Mark 1 Lodestar has finally giving up after 2 trips to Starlight and another fix by a friend in the last 3 years.

Over the years Ive used the Lodestar with a guide scope and more recently I'm using an OAG and have never had any issues picking up guidestars, Its been a great guide camera and I plan to continue using my Starlight OAG and I like the idea of having a similar replacement camera that screws directly into the OAG.

Ive had a look at the Lodestar X2 which boasts twice the sensitivity of the original Lodestar, This is great but the I just can not justify the cost at this stage for a camera that will only be used for guiding, so scrolling down FLO;s webpage I see the CoStar, 1/2 the price of the X2, a slight larger cmos sensor and what looks to be almost the same sensitivity as the original Lodestar.  Ok the CoStar has the same poor connectivity on the back as the original Lodestar but I can work with that.

My question is whether there are any imagers using the CoStar that can give their thoughts and recommendations on this camera, how is the sensitivity and do they have any issues picking up guide stars through an OAG.

My next slight concern is that I use AA5 for guiding,  I don't see any camera controller available for the CoStar, Ive asked MSB and await their reply, is anyone else using the CoStar with Astroart?

 

Thanks

Mark

 

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I am not sure what the fuss is about the Lodestar X2.  I bought one at great expense brand new and to be honest, I am not that impressed and am going to sell it and continue to use my ASI1174 and trusty QHY5 for guiding.  Yes, it is very sensitive but I never seem to have a problem finding guidestars with the cameras above, even in OAG mode.

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I thought the CoStar was near identical to the Lodestars in terms of software, so I'm surprised one is supported and the other isn't.  The Lodestars are all so similar that it isn't actually possible to tell them apart in software, not even to distinguish between mono and colour models.

James

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4 hours ago, kirkster501 said:

I am not sure what the fuss is about the Lodestar X2.  I bought one at great expense brand new and to be honest, I am not that impressed and am going to sell it and continue to use my ASI1174 and trusty QHY5 for guiding.  Yes, it is very sensitive but I never seem to have a problem finding guidestars with the cameras above, even in OAG mode.

Well if you do decide to sell the lodestar please let me know,  I'm 1 week from buying a new one!   Its frustrating , had a few clear nights recently and the scope is parked up.

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1 hour ago, JamesF said:

I thought the CoStar was near identical to the Lodestars in terms of software, so I'm surprised one is supported and the other isn't.  The Lodestars are all so similar that it isn't actually possible to tell them apart in software, not even to distinguish between mono and colour models.

James 

So was I James, The CoStar would have been ideal.

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Hi Mark.

I have used Astroart in the past and it uses two camera interfaces, direct plug-ins, for which there is no CoStar support and a universal ASCOM interface that will connect to any camera that has a ASCOM driver. I’m pretty sure that Starlight Xpress supply a standard ASCOM driver for the CoStar and Astroart should be able to connect to, and use, the CoStar’s ASCOM driver for guiding.

If you were planning to buy your CoStar from FLO why not give them a call/email and ask if they will try connecting to the CoStar via ASCOM for guiding in the free trial version of Astroart, or maybe let you trial it yourself and return it if it does not work?

You could even try contacting MSB again and rephrasing your question to “Will Astroart support guiding via the ASCOM interface with any ASCOM compatible camera driver such as Starlight Xpress CoStar and ASCOM driver?”

William.

P.S. Just to throw an additional spanner in the works I bought a ZWO ASI290MINI earlier this year to add a separate guide scope to my set up, having already a LodeStarX2 on an OAG, and I think the guide image from the 290MINI is actually better, certainly less noisy, than the LodeStar, and even though the pixel size on the MINI is around a quarter of the LodeStar it still seems sensitive enough, and I usually operate it at bin x2 anyway.

The reason I added the second guide camera is that for some of my photometry targets at 2m focal length I could not get a suitable guide star in the FOV of the OAG and having a second guide camera and short focal length guide scope permanently attached to the set-up I can swap over between them at will, probably would have bought a second LodeStar but took a punt on the ASI MINI and have not been disappointed.

 

 

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5 hours ago, Craney said:

So,  does the Lodestar deserve its reputation  ??  

I was seriously thinking about buying one.   Has the competition caught up and maybe surpassed ??

Well the sensor in the costar is the same as in the almost ancient qhy5-ii at half the price and a driver that probably works.

The peak QE on the X2 is 77% vs 56% from the QHY5-II, but it has 3x more pixels than the lode.

However some of the other sensors found in the budget end of CMOS - QHY5L-II is 74%, an ASI224 is 75% and the next level up in 174's and 290's are up nearly 80% - so yes - caught up and surpassed in cost, quality, performance and megapixels.

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8 minutes ago, Merlin66 said:

John,

I understand your comparison, but it doesn’t take into account the larger pixel size of the Lodestar, which makes it ideal for guiding with longer focal lengths and OAG.

 

Maybe, the active area of both sensors are very close - the QHY is 6.66mm x 5.32mm and the X2 is 6.4mm (Horizontal) x 4.75mm (Vertical), you just need to bin to get the same sized photosites if that's what you desire.

Even the QHY5-II is so ridiculously sensitive I cant believe it would cause an issue and if it does you can move up to the next sensors referenced which in every respect blows the X2 out of the water.

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