Guide scope option

[Anthonyexmouth]

I've never had any issues with my skywatcher 9x50 but I kinda like the idea of the William optics 50mm slide base to clean up my setup. Is there any performance bonus with the wo option? I don't want to spend money on something that's only going to neaten up the rig, bit of there's a noticeable increase in quality then it might be worth it. 

[Varavall]

30 minutes ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

Is there any performance bonus with the wo option?

There is a thread on this over on Cloudynights https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/782348-william-optics-slide-base-guide-scopes/ 

I used to guide with the SW finder that you are currently using and it gave good results. I went for an 80mm TS finder/guider; so many stars! It also gave me a better camera/guide canera pixel ratio. Pay your money and take your choice.

[Skipper Billy]

I noticed a significant increase in guiding accuracy when I upgraded from a converted finder to a WO guidestar 61 - probably because it was much more rigidly mounted but also the focus mechanism is so much better. Standard Lodestar in both cases

I also noticed another increase when I added a UV/IR block filter

And again when I upgraded to a WO Zenithstar 73 III and again when I upgraded to a Lodestar Pro.

In decent seeing I am now routinely getting guiding around 0.25 p/arc" (milegae on other mounts may vary!!)

Is it better - yes!!

 

[Anthonyexmouth]

7 minutes ago, Varavall said:

There is a thread on this over on Cloudynights https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/782348-william-optics-slide-base-guide-scopes/ 

I used to guide with the SW finder that you are currently using and it gave good results. I went for an 80mm TS finder/guider; so many stars! It also gave me a better camera/guide canera pixel ratio. Pay your money and take your choice.

Up until last week I was using a skywatcher st80 but when I got my new stellamira triplet I took that of and left my ed80 that was my dso scope on the side by side next to my new SM90, which meant I had to go back to my 9x50. So far I haven't seen any degradation in guiding but maybe I'm just enjoying the better quality images from the triplet. 

The advantage of the wo slide base would be it would sit between the ed80 and sm90 better and have a more rigid fixing. 

[Anthonyexmouth]

6 minutes ago, Skipper Billy said:

I noticed a significant increase in guiding accuracy when I upgraded from a converted finder to a WO guidestar 61 - probably because it was much more rigidly mounted but also the focus mechanism is so much better. Standard Lodestar in both cases

I also noticed another increase when I added a UV/IR block filter

And again when I upgraded to a WO Zenithstar 73 III and again when I upgraded to a Lodestar Pro.

In decent seeing I am now routinely getting guiding around 0.25 p/arc" (milegae on other mounts may vary!!)

Is it better - yes!!

 

With my current load out I'm kinda limited to 50mm, I was using my st80 until I got my new triplet. A 50mm slide base would be more rigid but as mentioned above, so far I haven't seen much difference in guiding yet. 

[Anthonyexmouth]

A slide base would move my guide scope closer to the centre of rotation on the mount and off the finder shoe. Other option which might be cheaper is getting the fixed 50mm rings, not the adjustable type and seeing if my sw 9x50 at 53mm od without fit in them.