Help with QHY CCD and finderscope

[krikus]

Hi all,

Brought a SW 9x50 findescope and a qhy ccd camera for guiding and was wondering how you achieve focus on your guidestar?Does PHD software do this for you?And also theres little play with 3  screws on the bracket to maneuver the scope to a guide star again is this something the software does or the camera?

As you can tell i`m a dumb newbie 🙄

[Buzzard75]

I'm not familiar with the SW 9x50 finder scope, but my guess is it has some sort of helical focuser that you have to twist to find focus. There may be some sort of locking ring you have to undo first and then twist the objective out or something. PHD will not focus for you, but you can use the image to help you focus. You should find a bright star or look at the moon to find focus. It's actually better to be slightly defocused for guiding:

As for aligning the guide scope, t's not absolutely necessary that the guide scope be pointed at the exact same spot that the imaging scope is, but it's a good idea. If you do a GoTo and you don't see your target in your imaging scope, you may be able to use the wider field of view of the guide scope to position your target in the imaging scope more easily. PHD will automatically pick out a guide star anywhere in the field of view. You don't have to adjust the guide scope to center a guide star.

[krikus]

Hi, thanks for the reply,yes i think my finderscope has a locking ring and can be turned in and out but not alot of thread to play with, need a clear sky to try it.

Thanks again for the info