|
I just went through the similar process with my ED80 on EQ5. Before I was able to get up to 90sec exposure after spending few hours carefully aligning the mount (marking spots on the ground helps enormously).
Then I built a guiding system the cheapest way possible, with a finderscope + webcam (SPC900NC) and PHD2 (free) on my laptop. It works very well although finding a guiding star can be tricky. I managed to get 10min guided exposure on the first go (I never tried going longer).
So, if you like building stuff yourself that may be a cheaper and better option. As others already said, laptop opens many other doors.
However, I should warn you that my dreams of taking >10min exposures got crushed quickly. Once I overcome the guiding obstacle I hit the next one (or two): the light pollution (I live very close to CBD) and also the camera noise (the sensor heats up during long exposures). I am imaging now with 3min exposure time and am looking at getting a light pollution filter and building a cooling system for my DSLR. Don't get me wrong, having guiding was a great improvement and the 3min images are always perfect now. Before I had to throw out a third of 90sec exposures due to trailing.
Regarding PEC, you can record it using PHD2 and a webcam on your scope. Then you should be able to upload it to the mount somehow. This will help with unguided exposures. If you have guiding PEC is not needed as the guiding system will do the work.
|