Autoguiding Advice

[Digz]

Ok guys, here goes nothing....helpppppp

I have about £300-400 to spend and Im thinking of maybe getting into autoguiding to improve my AP so Im after any advice that guiders amongst us may have.

I do have a cheap 4" Celestron scope lying around which I could use in conjunction with a guide camera but I would also appreciate any info on whether I can attach a guide camera to my nikon lenses.

I Plan to guide when doing prime focus AP and when doing wide-field with just my camera mounted to the mount.

Also am I right in thinking a guider has to run through a pc? - I am a little hazy on the exact connections required.

I have seen the skywatcher synguider which looks good but Im open to any suggestions.

TIA for any advice offered and apologies if this has been asked before, I did a search but yiedled nothing.

[steppenwolf]

I do have a cheap 4" Celestron scope lying around which I could use in conjunction with a guide camera but I would also appreciate any info on whether I can attach a guide camera to my nikon lenses.

The 4" Celestron would be ideal. The Nikon lenses less so as you could do with a reasonable focal length for autoguiding - 400 mm upwards would be good

I Plan to guide when doing prime focus AP and when doing wide-field with just my camera mounted to the mount.

Both would be fine.

Also am I right in thinking a guider has to run through a pc? - I am a little hazy on the exact connections required.

Most do require connection to a PC but the LVI Autoguider/Orion Solitaire and the SW SynGuider are stand alone devices and do not require a PC.

I have seen the skywatcher synguider which looks good but Im open to any suggestions.

See above but I have tested one of these and was very impressed but I still prefer the flexibility of a PC controlled guider. If you absolutely do not want a PC outside with you then the SW SynGuider is the better stand alone device.

[Digz]

Nice one Steve, I appreciate your input.

With regards to the Nikon Lenses I do have a 400mm prime which should be suitable (I also have a 170-500mm lens but there is not lock on the zoom so its liable to slip making this less ideal!) I presume I will need some sort of adapter to connect a guide camera to my lens? Im thinking almost like a reverse t adapter?

I don't think Im too precious about guiding without a PC as I already take my mac outside when observing / AP to use Stellarium and chat on here

I guess Im just seeing what the options out there are

[steppenwolf]

I presume I will need some sort of adapter to connect a guide camera to my lens? Im thinking almost like a reverse t adapter?

You will need a special adapter - I designed my own and got a machine shop to make them up for me. Details here of how I made up one for my Canon EOS using a redundant Canon extension tube to furnish the 'female' bayonet piece. You could design your own based on the ideas represented in my article.

[RobertCL]

I don't think Im too precious about guiding without a PC as I already take my mac outside when observing / AP to use Stellarium and chat on here

You might want to check that you can get software for the mac for autoguiding before you go buying other hardware. Unless you also have a windows laptop of course.

There are various software packages available for windows such as PHD (which I use) and Guidedog(?) and I'm sure some others. Don't know what is available for mac though.

[James]

PHD is available for the Mac

James

[Digz]

Cheers Steve, Ill be sure to read the article

Robert, I currently run parallels on my Mac so that should be an issue but as James has pointed out PHD is available for Mac so its happy days

[RobertCL]

Ah, excellent, I didn't know there was a mac version.

[Digz]

Anymore for anymore?

[Tim]

Nebulosity 2 runs on macs too (for image capture)

More and more astrophotographers are using off-axis auto-guiders. I wouldn't be without mine, they allow for the longest exposures possible because they help to eliminate some of the problems that come from guiding with one tube and imaging with another.

[Digz]

hmmm, of axis, I dont know what that entails but it looks like something I need to do a bit more research into.

[Digz]

Ok, am I right in thinking OAG means guiding through the same scope as I would image through thus avoiding any issues with flexure between the imaging scope and guide scope etc?