Honestly, which is going to be the better system - a Lodestar through a PERFECT Takahashi finder (modified by me into a guidescope) solidly mounted on top (no flexure - I used Borg tube rings with a small aluminium custom milled set of spacers for a perfect fit), or the self guiding chip in the SBIG ST-8XE (which is now admittedly an OLD scope, but still fantastic in my opinion).
Is the chip on the ST-8XE sensitive enough to see well? I am thinking it may not be as sensitive as the Lodestar.
Seeing we still have horrendous cloud up here on the "Sunshine" Coast, got lots of time to sort things out.
Image of the current rig with the rigidly mounted guidescope arrangement (and the custom made light cone I had made to fit the 4" drawtube
)