Quote:
Originally Posted by 04Stefan07
I used to have an ST80 mounted on top of my tube as a guidescope. Although it worked ok and the weight is fine I never really got it configured correctly as a guidescope.
For those with an 8" or even bigger SCT what do you use for a guidescope and how do you mount it?
Thanks,
Stefan.
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Hi Stefan,
I have the Orion ST80 on my 10" SCT and it works really well. I have the full telescope length dovetail thingy, and I bought some decent tube rings for it. It's a very simple setup and all you need to do for aligning, is setup the guiding camera and the main imaging camera and ensure they are both pointing the same direction/rotation. Then find a bright star to centre the main camera on and adjust the ring adjusters on the guide scope so that the guide camera sees the same star then fine adjust to centre it.
When I first setup my guide scope, I used the 50mm finder that is also attached to my scope to help roughly line up the guide scope as there was a wider field of view which made it easier to find the target.
The other thing to note is to have a fairly close F# with main scope and guide scope. Like you, I have the F6.3 focal reducer and I find it works well as the ST80 is F5. Close enough. When all is setup correctly with my rig, guiding works very well with the ST80. I use a QHY5 mono for the guide camera and so far, this has worked well too.
Cheers,
Damien