autoguiding with dsi?

[phatlad]

hi i hoping that i someone can help me here. I have been trying to do abit of imaging over the last year with my DSLR or my meade dsi II pro. i have just upgraded my heq5 mount to goto, and was thinking of using my dsi to autoguide and image with my DSLR, what i am wanting to know is how do i connect my laptop to the autoguide port on the mount?

hope someone to help

glen

[beamish]

How are you planning on guiding ? ST-4 or via lappy. Are you going down the Eqmod route?

[Merlin66]

The DSI II doesn't have a direct ST-4 connection, so you'd need to get a ShoeString ST-4 guide cable (GPUSB) to connect from the laptop ( running PHD) and the ST-4 port on the mount.

The Shoestring Astronomy Store - Products

Ken

[phatlad]

thanks for the advice i am new to autoguiding so i had intended to using my 80mm refactor to guide with and image with my apo, i don't know a right lot about eq mod so i was hoping to use PHD guiding and the ST-4 port on the mount.

never had a goto mount and never done any sort of guided astrophotogarphy, can you tell lol

[blinky]

I would seriously recommend getting started with EQMod and PHD. You then just have the one cable going to your mount from the laptop and it opens up the ability to use something like Starry Night to trigger GoTo commands etc.

[beamish]

Glen , now that you've got the HEQ5 goto sorted it's just a small hop & a skip to go thru Eqmod and pulse guide the mount with your DSI thru Eqmod & PHD.

1) hook the DSI up to the lappy

2)get a USB-Serial adapter (whichever type takes your fancy tho I can thoroughly recommend making your own using a TTL 232 5v= PM me ! ) and hook that up to your lappy and/or mount/handset

3) then, either via H/set ( PC Direct), or directly from lappy to mount with the TTL232-5v cable

4) open up planetarium s/ware, connect to mount via EQmod

5) open PHD

Bob's your mother's brother !!

basically