New ZWO camera with built in guide chip?

[tomato]

3 hours ago, Colin Haig said:

That made me chuckle.  Santa Barbara Instrument Group literally invented self-guiding cameras and patented the idea back in the late 1990's.

They were immensely popular - the ST-7 was the first in a long line of many self-guiding cameras.  This went on through to the STL-series with larger sensors and larger guide chips, and then on through to the late 2000's when narrowband filters became popular with the rise of light pollution and the reduction in manufacturing costs of the coating technology to make these interference based filters.  Eventually SBIG and later Diffraction Limited (the owners of SBIG since 2014) developed self-guiding filter wheels, so that the guide sensor was ahead of the filters, allowing for more guide star choices.

Apologies, I have a big gap in my Astro digital imaging knowledge, having only got back into the hobby in 2014. I am surprised that there has been virtually no mention of them on this forum since that time, but SBIG cameras don’t seem that popular in the UK. That’s a pity, because they were the real pioneers of digital imaging. I purchased one of the first ST-4 guiders in the UK back in 1990,  I know this because I got a call from SBIG shortly after delivery asking me if I wanted to be the UK agent for them!

[SamAndrew]

Interesting use case that I've been thinking about, rather than considering it as a guide chip on your main imaging scope, think of it as an imaging chip added to your guide scope (admittedely a bit expensive for a guide camera!)

This way you can image widefield thorugh your guide scope assuming it's good enough to cover the asp-c chip. Something like a zenithstar 61 or similar, probably not the evoguide 50ED.

On 09/05/2023 at 19:06, tomato said:

Apologies, I have a big gap in my Astro digital imaging knowledge, having only got back into the hobby in 2014. I am surprised that there has been virtually no mention of them on this forum since that time, but SBIG cameras don’t seem that popular in the UK. That’s a pity, because they were the real pioneers of digital imaging. I purchased one of the first ST-4 guiders in the UK back in 1990,  I know this because I got a call from SBIG shortly after delivery asking me if I wanted to be the UK agent for them!

They were not competitive on price in the UK for as long as I've been interested in photography, there aren't any UK dealers anymore as far as I can see.

[tomato]

36 minutes ago, SamAndrew said:

Interesting use case that I've been thinking about, rather than considering it as a guide chip on your main imaging scope, think of it as an imaging chip added to your guide scope (admittedely a bit expensive for a guide camera!)

This way you can image widefield thorugh your guide scope assuming it's good enough to cover the asp-c chip. Something like a zenithstar 61 or similar, probably not the evoguide 50ED.

They were not competitive on price in the UK for as long as I've been interested in photography, there aren't any UK dealers anymore as far as I can see.

Yes, Ian King used to stock them but FLO didn’t pick them up when he moved over to them.

[licho52]

On 12/05/2023 at 16:12, SamAndrew said:

Interesting use case that I've been thinking about, rather than considering it as a guide chip on your main imaging scope, think of it as an imaging chip added to your guide scope (admittedely a bit expensive for a guide camera!)

This way you can image widefield thorugh your guide scope assuming it's good enough to cover the asp-c chip. Something like a zenithstar 61 or similar, probably not the evoguide 50ED.

 

I am really not sure about this idea, I'm either missing something or it doesn't work the way you think.

[Dark Raven]

ZWO 2600MC DUO Unbox. I have mine on order for some time now and looking forward to getting it.

 

 

[Dark Raven]

First tests are in. Guiding appears to be OK for f6 and faster with 3nm dual band filters and 28mm image circle. Slower scopes to be tested next.
 

 

[petevasey]

Hi, Guys,

Very interesting...

From the above tests it looks very promising.  I owned a SBIG ST10 XME some years ago.   Very sensitive, the built in guide chip worked very well, even not too bad narrowband with careful selection of the guide star.  Prone to blooming, and when the QSI 683wsg came along with its built in filter wheel and off axis guider, I 'upgraded' to that in 2012, and still happily use it.  A lot of comment about imaging circles etc., so I thought this might be useful.  The attached image is a Skymap framing for both cameras at 2000 mm focal length (f8, but I have no problems with my f6.2 TMB105 refractor).  I use a 42 mm thread attachment, and have no guide star problems with any of my telescopes.  Of course my guide pick off prism is in front of the filter wheel, so 1.75" (44.5mm) ahead of the main sensor, and in a slightly better position in the light cone.  But as I say using a 42 mm adaptor with no problems.  So very positive for the Asi Duo.

Cheers,

Peter.

Edited June 20 by petevasey
Corrected typos

[Elp]

It'll certainly help if you're trying to keep to a light payload for travelling.

[nfotis]

I suspect that this system may be problematic for monochrome imaging and NB filters?

 

[petevasey]

There's no monochrome version shown on the ZWO web site.  Anyway, if you watch the 'First light results' video above, it would seem that the guide chip is sensitive enough to do well even with 3nm filters.

There is as always a caveat with a fixed guide chip, either off-axis as in my case or part of the camera as in this case.  A suitable guide star is not always available without rotating the camera, sometimes quite a bit.  But for me the advantages of off-axis guiding far outweigh the disadvantages.

Cheers,

Peter.

[Dark Raven]

It appears that ZWO ASI2600MC DUO guids just fine with dual-narrow-band filters down to f10.

Unfortunately it appears mine will not arrive before I leave for Summer vacation. 

Edited July 3 by Dark Raven

[Dark Raven]

Full review is in. 

This will make a perfect widefield grab 'n' go setup with RC51 and AM3.