Orion XY Guidestar finder

[avandonk]

Even though I use a GstarEX on my guidescope and can just turn up sensitivity to get a guidestar this is not always useful. If there is intermittent thin cloud around a faint guidestar is easily lost. If I then settle for a brighter guidestar I can lose the ideal framing of the object.

So I bought an Orion XY guidestar finder from Bintel. It works very well on the 90mm Mak. The action is smooth and there is no creep or drift after moving. The Mak has a focal length of 1250 mm and this is a fair bit longer than the usual 80mm or 100mm refractor used for guiding.

On two nights last week there was intermittent thin cloud and the guiding did not miss a beat. I use Guidemaster and dither between images. With a brighter guidestar and low integration setting 16 or 24 on the GstarEX there is no loss of guidestar while dithering and it takes less than 15 seconds to move and settle down to steady guiding

This means I can get more sleep with longer naps.

Bert

[wasyoungonce]

Very nice Bert.

I've been thinking about getting one of these but ATM have never had a problem getting a guide star in FOV...touch wood!

That said....I bet I'll need one future.

[AlexN]

Yep, I've heard good things about those XY Guide star finders..

Like wasyoungonce, I've never had to move my guidescope (nor have I had the ability to move it independently from the imaging scope) since I got my QHY5. I've never pointed it at an area of sky where a sub 3 second exposure couldn't get me a few usable stars...

[allan gould]

Have the Orion and another x/y finder. If you have never had one then you don't know what you are missing. Guidestar finding is just so easy And you don't have to resort to a less than optimal star for guiding. Like you I use a watev 120N camera which always fives a good guidestar. Simplicity in operation let's you find a star and then compose your shot.