What guide camera do you use?

[msinclairinork]

Hello astrophotographers!

I thought i could start this thread or vote whatever you want to call it. As I beleive this would help me and alot of others that wish to get starting in autoguided AP.

I think their is some debate on which cameras work sucessfully to guide with. And I have seen the topic being asked (and by me) and it usualy sparks the debate.

So i thought this thread might be usfull to us starting out.

So the question is simpley what guide camera do you use? and maybe you could rate it out of 5 stars

i.e QHY5 *****

Philips toucam pro *** etc

Or maybe the mods could make this into a vote thingy!

Thanks folks i think this will settle alot of questions..

Michael.

[ncjunk]

Meade dsi colour ***** - cheap second hand and does a good job (cost me 100)

[RobH]

Meade DSI pro1 (mono).

My first imaging camera that I bought at the end of 2006.....works a treat and very sensitive.

Cheers

Rob

[lukebl]

Phillips spc900 webcam. Rate it ****½. The missing ½ is probably due to software, not hardware, issues.

Have an old Starlight Xpress MX917 camera, but would rate that *. It's old, heavy and cumbersome to use. The webcam just slots in with PHD and away you go.

[Merlin66]

I use both the QHY5 and the DSI II for guiding......the DSI seems to show fainter stars... but PHD works well with both.

[Psychobilly]

Meade DSI I colour, Meade DSI II Color , DMK21AU04AS, Or Synguider...

[robbieince]

Atik 16ic......

[jgs001]

QHY5v it works for me ***** I dismiss a loaned dsi for a while and thy worked very nicely too.

[step_hen]

Another vote for the Meade DSI!

[BlueAstra]

SX Lodestar, ****1/2, very sensitive, tiny, quite a few bright pixels though. Never had a problem guiding with it (cept when the guide cable came out and I didn't notice it!)

[shaunster]

qhy5 for me, works fine but not all that sensitive ***

[MikeD]

DMK21AU04AS*****, never had a problem and it's also makes a fantastic planetary/lunar imager.

Mike.

[martin_h]

QHY5 + PHD Like others have said, not very sensitive but I've never had a problem finding a star to guide on. ****

[brantuk]

I met someone at Kelling who uses an SPC900 with PHD and she produces some very nice dso pics - I'll be setting mine up on that recommendation

[daz]

SX Lodestar *****

[Glider]

Philips SPC900 NC and PHD ****.

[ollypenrice]

Two Atik 16ics. Five stars! Dead reliable and never once have I had to look for a guide star. Guiding in AstroArt. Not cheap though.

Olly

[r3i]

Meade DSI 1 Colour here also - straightforward, easy to use, and seems very reliable.

[James]

As a Mac user my options are different somewhat but I've happily used a DMK31 (Firewire version) for guiding and some imaging and most of the time it's a SX Lodestar - easy 5 stars for that one

James

[msinclairinork]

Well thank you all kindly for your votes, I think this might help some of us to make a choice.

So the count so far in order of popularity is:

DSI-I- 6 VOTES

QHY5- 4 VOTES

SPC900- 3 VOTES

DSI-II- 2 VOTES

DMK21AU04AS- 2 VOTES

ATIK 16IC- 2 VOTES

SXLOADSTAR- 2 VOTES

SYNGUIDER- 1 VOTES

(22 votes total)

Interesting to see some of the cheaper alternatives in the lead thier, i did not expect that TBH. So.....a DSI-I second hand perhaps??

Cheers folks,

Michael

[BlueAstra]

I think I count 3 SX Lodestars

[ncjunk]

There is one on astrobuysell.com for 85 quid..may a suggest it would be a bargain guide cam for you

[sgazer]

here's a new one for the list, I use a Mintron 12v6 video camera. Mainly because it's what I had when I moved into autoguiding, but also as it's suuuuper sensitive (internally stacks up to 128 frames) it never fails to find a star.

[msinclairinork]

Thanks chaps!

Sorry blueastra your absoloutly right! lol

THANKS NCJUNK!!! EMAIL SENT TO THE CHAP!!! Well spoted!! figures crossed!

[Deneb]

I don't use any

Nadeem.