Guide scope for Celestron 8SE

[js31415926]

Hello, I'm new here so sorry in advance if I have made a silly mistake. I am looking into buying a ZWO 30 mm f/4 Mini Guide Scope for my 8SE. I will be doing some light astrophotography so I figured it would be good to have a guide scope/guide cam and a friend of mine uses this exact guide scope and loves it. Seeing as it was only $99, I put it on my telescope wish list. It had just occurred to me that this guide scope uses a different attachment method than the OTA of the 8SE. I am looking for an adapter but because I don't know what these attachment mechanisms are, I have no idea what to search for. Is there an adapter I could buy or a different guide scope that will fit my 8SE. Please keep in mind that my budget for this is $150 and I am not looking to take super long exposures. I have attached below what my guide scope mounting thing looks like on my OTA. 

Attached Thumbnails

 

[alacant]

Hi.

You can take videos of the planets without a guide telescope. That would work ok with an 8se.

Not sure if you have anything else in mind though...

Cheers

 

[Wyvernp]

Hi,

Are you using a wedge with your 8se? if not as I understand it even if guiding works you will get field rotation if you try to do longer exposures than ~15 secs depending on what part of the sky you are imaging rendering guiding useless.

It is possible to image DSO's with an 8se on it's standard mount without a wedge with very short exposures however it is very difficult especially if you are using the standard focuser.

This is a shot from my bog standard 8se of m81, it was compiled from over 200 15 sec subs ( a lot were excluded by the stacker due to bad stars)

I really wouldn't recommend it as a first imaging scope but if that's all you have then its better than nothing, but don't expect fantastic results without heavily investing.

Wyvern

Edited May 9, 2020 by Wyvernp