When cloud covers the guide star?

[Astroblagger]

Im just getting my guiding gear together slowly, As i havent done it before i know very little about the ins and outs of it, i just wandered if you have set everything up on the guide star and a cloud rolls in, do you have to start from scratch with the set up? I was considering a syn guider.

[ollypenrice]

Almost certainly Yes. It would be an almighty fine mount that kept the star in the selection box unguided. It probably wouldn't need a guider! On my system you can de activate the search if the star drift is more than a certain number of pixels so the mount stops looking. That means you get started again more easily because otherwise the mount roams the sky in search of a star...

This is a disadvantage with standalone guiders. Restarting is much quicker with PC guiders.

Horses for courses.

Olly