Advice on guiding setup needed

[Black Knight]

First of all I apologise for the long post, and long list of questions .

I'm looking to upgrade my setup to allow me to do guided photography, initially with my 200p newt and DSLR, and later on adding an ED80 for more wide field work. I'm planning on upgrading my mount to either an HEQ5 or an NEQ6 and using an ST80 as a guidescope. My questions are:

1. Should I mount to guidescope ontop of the newt or side by side? Which is the best way to go?

2. Should the guidescope be mounted with normal tuberings or guidescope rings? I've always assumed that it should be with guidescope rings, but I'm sure I read on SGL recently that normal tube rings would be okay (although I can't find that thread now ).

3. Although I hope to be able to buy a cheapish guide camera at some point, I know PHD says you can use a webcam (I have the NexImage) for guiding. Would this work OK on an ST80? Or should I be budgeting for a guide camera straight off?

4. I know with a guide camera you can use the onboard ST4 port. But assuming I can use the NexImage webcam on an ST80 together with PHD for guiding, how do I actually connect up the laptop to the mount i.e. what sort of cable do I need?

Any help you could give me would be very much appreciated, thanks,

[step_hen]

Hi Andy

1. either would be fine! A side by side arrangement is what i use. It allows me to swap scopes around easily, but on the downside its heavy, so extra weight for the mount, and its more expensive. There is some debate as to which arrangement puts less strain on the mount.

2. Again either way is possible and i've seen both used successfully. Guide rings can help with locating a guidestar as the guidescope can be pointed in different directions, but then can also be a cuase of flexure. Clamping with tube rings is less likely to flex and normally a guide star can be found easily if you have a sensitive guidecam and/or a wide field of view guidescope.

3. The Neximage is a rebadged SPC900 and can be used as a guidecam, but its not that sensitive. The QHY5 is popular, as is the Meade DSI-C which i use which is more sensitive but...

4. using the DSI- C or the Neximage/SPC900 requires the use of the shoestring GPUSB unit to commnunicate between camera and laptop and mount, wheras the QHY5 has a direct line into the guideport in the mount- so one less cable required!

My advice would be to start off with a ST80 and your neximage in a piggyback arrangement on an HEQ6, and then you can add to the setup later bit by bit with better guidecam, dual mount bar, guide rings etc, if you think you need to. The 80ED is a great imaging scope and would be able to guide the newt or vice versa instead of the ST80 in the future. Check out Steves (Steppenwolf) book from FLO 'Making every photon count'. Its a great guide and intro to imaging!

Stephen

[Black Knight]

Wow, thanks Stephen, you've coverred all my questions

[The Sailor]

Andy, take a look at what I have done here:

http://stargazerslounge.com/members-equipment-gallery/119937-seben-recycled.html

Might be of help, it was meant as a joke about the Seben but has turned out well.

Jim

[Glider]

I think you can try all of this with the kit you already have and decide if you like it before starting to spend money as once you move to the dark side a black hole can open up in your wallet!!!!.

This all assumes your mount handset has 2 connectors at the bottom, RJ45 to the mount and RJ11 for serial connection to a PC. If not then I don't think what follows applies.

...Use a 9x50 finder as a finderguider (search for the thread on SGL) on the 200P.

...Connect the handset to the mount and to your PC running PHD.

...Use your Neximage as the guide camera.

Now, allowing for posts about how the Neximage won't be sensitive enough, etc, etc ,etc the point is this could get you guiding for the cost of modifying the finder scope that I'm assuming your 200P came with.

Obviously you pick your targets to have bright guide stars nearby and see how it goes.

Worth a thought?

[Black Knight]

Jim, took me a while to figure out just what was going on your pictures! Very impressive looking though

[Black Knight]

I think you can try all of this with the kit you already have and decide if you like it before starting to spend money as once you move to the dark side a black hole can open up in your wallet!!!!.

This all assumes your mount handset has 2 connectors at the bottom, RJ45 to the mount and RJ11 for serial connection to a PC. If not then I don't think what follows applies.

...Use a 9x50 finder as a finderguider (search for the thread on SGL) on the 200P.

...Connect the handset to the mount and to your PC running PHD.

...Use your Neximage as the guide camera.

Now, allowing for posts about how the Neximage won't be sensitive enough, etc, etc ,etc the point is this could get you guiding for the cost of modifying the finder scope that I'm assuming your 200P came with.

Obviously you pick your targets to have bright guide stars nearby and see how it goes.

Worth a thought?

I did look briefly at doing a finderguider a little while ago. Definitely worth a thought. I think I'll have another look ....

[The Sailor]

Thanks Andy, don't want to detract from your thread but what I done was to give me a way to move the guider scope without spending money, it works well and with balance little strain on the motors.

Jim