Guide Camera

[Frank the Troll]

Thinking of getting this camera, will be using it just for guiding

http://www.opticstar.com/Run/Astronomy/Astro-Imagers-Opticstar.asp?p=0_10_0_50_126

This should be good enough, any others in the same price range? too think about

 

[tooth_dr]

 What about a used ASI ZWO120MM?  That's what I use, can be bought for £80 secondhand.

[alacant]

36 minutes ago, Frank the Troll said:

any others

Hi. We use the mono version of this one, but I'm sure the colour version will be fine; it's the same specification as the one you cite.

Cheers and HTH.

[vlaiv]

43 minutes ago, Frank the Troll said:

Thinking of getting this camera, will be using it just for guiding

http://www.opticstar.com/Run/Astronomy/Astro-Imagers-Opticstar.asp?p=0_10_0_50_126

This should be good enough, any others in the same price range? too think about

 

That very much looks like QHY5LIIc that I used to have - I was happy with that camera except for some driver issues (a bit quirky drivers). I eventually replaced it with ASI185.

It uses well known sensor and for guiding purpose you don't need high speed interface. I would only be worried about drivers quality and possibly lack of raw format.

6 minutes ago, alacant said:

Hi. We use the mono version of this one, but I'm sure the colour version will be fine; it's the same specification as the one you cite.

Cheers and HTH.

Does it support 12 bit RAW output? I can't tell from the link you provided:

[alacant]

1 hour ago, vlaiv said:

12 bit

Hi. Sorry, don't know. It does whatever a zwo120 does.  Plug it into PHD2 as a zwo and it just works. Guides well. I think the OP just wants guiding. For guiding download, I'd recommend 8 bit.

Cheers

 

Edited January 31, 2020 by alacant

[vlaiv]

5 hours ago, alacant said:

Hi. Sorry, don't know. It does whatever a zwo120 does.  Plug it into PHD2 as a zwo and it just works. Guides well. I think the OP just wants guiding. For guiding download, I'd recommend 8 bit.

Cheers

 

I've found that I like guiding better when I use ascom driver and download 12 bit data.

Never had SNR over 50 or so with 8bit and native drivers in Phd2 but regularly have SNR over 100 or even few hundred with ascom driver and 12bit

[alacant]

7 hours ago, vlaiv said:

like guiding better when I use ascom driver and download 12 bit data

Hi

Native PHD2 driver feeding an INDI controlled mount here; 8 bit just works. We've never tried 12 bit. I think the recommendation is to keep the downloads as lean as possible so maybe best to recommend that to the OP? I think 8 bit is the default anyway so perhaps best not to complicate it!

Cheers and clear skies