SCT's & off-axis autoguiding - solution ?

[Mel]

Hey Rich, your Meade OAG is still sitting in my garage - don't worry, she's perfectly safe and sound. Haven't even looked at it since I got my sxv and other toys bits.

Maybe it's time I tried this, although I usually image thru the Megrez, it would be good to get the LX doing some work for it's keep... guess I need the focal reducer first. I fear another curve approaching... brake, brake...

[RichieJarvis]

I'd be interested to see how you get on Iain. I wonder whether the Meade OAG will be parfocal for my SXV-H9 and Guidecamera, as the guidecamera has a similar sort of focal point as a 12mm eyepiece, whereas the SXV-H9 needs to be inside of an 12mm eyepiece.

[Tim]

Peter, I have a DSLR mount on top of my SCT for just that reason. Its only dew really that stops me, but I now have a 2" dew heater. One thing, the baader camera mount with the swivel ability would be a lot better than the celestron one I have, I find that with a wide angle lens you tend to take pics of the dew shield :s

Can, or do you use EQMod? You can set slew limits on that too.

I have ordered, and am expecting tomorrow the adapter I need to use my new off axis guider. Hopefully then we'll get some clear skies and i'll give the thing a proper test, and report back. The guider is fairly new out, and i'm not sure there are many of them in the country yet.

[Psychobilly]

I have mounted a Manfroto 484RC2 Ball and Socket Head onto the guiderings at teh momnent its onthe rear but can easily be moved to the front one..

The mount has programable limits so provided i set them properly it will be OK... I have a 50mm f1.8 coming tomorrow the same as Steve used for his Barnards Loop shot...and there are a few customer sale L series wide-angles in the shop ... so i better wear blinkers...

[Tim]

Interested to see how you get on with the fast lens. Been thinking about one for quite some time.