[Bassnut (Fred)]

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Hi Spocky

People will tell you that Self Guide is great or even indespensable but from where I stand it is simply not necessary. A good quality mount is very helpful though

I have used piggyback guiding pretty much for ever and I cannot see what all the paranoid selfguide hulabaloo is all about

Here are some comparative examples that should belay any fears you may have about passing up on a selfguided camera

http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike20...94040/original

http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike20...45498/original

http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike20...05167/original

NB: Out of about 130 X 10min sub exposures taken over three nights for the full deep version of the above Centaurus A image, only about 3 or 4 were discarded due to guide errors!

Even using 15min sub exposures here is what piggyback guiding, when using narrowband filters so notorious for selfguided images , can do:
http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike20...18593/original

Think about what these comparisons are demonstraing and make up your own mind

Mike

Beware, Mike is low QE, non-AO capable, wide field wooze, FLI sucker freakoid. "even 15min subs" . It gets interesting at 20min plus. Mike doesnt know what 2m plus FL means, he is disabled .

Originally Posted by AlexN

I agree with Mike, in most cases its not necessary, however its sure is convenient... You can achieve just as good results using an external guide scope and guide camera... It sometimes will take a little more time and effort in eliminating any flexture etc. I was plagued with flexture when using my C11 due to its moving mirror... getting a self guided camera eliminated the problems...

My thoughts - Adaptive Optics is -THE- best way to guide... AO surpasses any form of normal guiding, as it reacts much much faster than your usual guiding methods.

OH yeah, if you want to "get real" with long FL/exposures, then AO is the ducks guts, yay SBIG