New Guidscope help

[nickarp2000]

Hi all

I am looking to enhance my set up with a new guidescope in the 50-60mm range.

There are a plethora of these things out on the interweb rangeing from around £80 to over £250.

Im going to piggyback this onto my Equinox ED80 Pro which has william optics tube rings and then attaching the william optics carry handle and guide rings directly to this possibly with a plate first for stability, but Im at a loss as to where to push the button.

I know the optics dont have to be first class to guide but just wondering if anyone could just give me some pointers as to what to potentially avoid (particularly as pennies are getting tighter at the moment everywhere)

Thanks

Nick

[ONIKKINEN]

You pay for convenience in the form of a better focusing system and maybe included adjustable rings. In the end a simple 50mm finderscope turned into a guider will do the trick just fine. I had one of those but found focusing it to be very annoying, especially in very cold weather. Most will probably live with that.

Next step up is something like this: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/guide-scopes/astro-essentials-50mm-guidescope-finderscope.html

I have one that looks like this but is a 60mm one. The focuser is nice and the scope is sturdy, not much else to say and will definitely do the trick. But this one wont actually guide any better than the finderguider.

The best option IMO would be an OAG. Guaranteed to have the best possible guiding when it comes to guiding setups. Not that expensive either really. If youre worried about the setup being a hassle, it really isnt that difficult. You set the backfocus correctly once and thats that, it stays focused. If youre still worried its going to be trouble you could get one that has a mini focuser for the guidecam (like the Askar one).

 

[nickarp2000]

Thank you for your response, I will look into OAG systems and consider them

Cheers

Nick