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Old 27-06-2011, 05:30 PM
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pmrid (Peter)
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Adaptive Optics - Orion's SteadyStar

Has anyone used one of these yet? They're fairly expensive and the prism inside seems to be darned small and able to be tilted only and not moved in any other axes (unlike some other AOG devices). That could make it quite a challenge to find a guidestar at longer FLs.
I'd be interested to hear what others thought of this, say the other obvious contenders.
Peter
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Old 27-06-2011, 05:36 PM
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multiweb (Marc)
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Originally Posted by pmrid View Post
Has anyone used one of these yet? They're fairly expensive and the prism inside seems to be darned small and able to be tilted only and not moved in any other axes (unlike some other AOG devices). That could make it quite a challenge to find a guidestar at longer FLs.
I'd be interested to hear what others thought of this, say the other obvious contenders.
Peter
I've got the SX version. I can't comment on the Orion version but I'd say they're pretty similar? Is that for your 14" SCT?
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Old 27-06-2011, 05:44 PM
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I use an ao8 and I am just setting up a moag/aol/stl combo. Again like mark I cannot comment on the orion.

I pretty much have to use a rotator in conjuction with the skys fov indicator to get great results, especially for the postage stamp fov you will have for the guider. It will make a huge difference to your image sharpness if you make the effort to make it work.

Brett
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Old 27-06-2011, 06:00 PM
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I use an ao8 and I am just setting up a moag/aol/stl combo. Again like mark I cannot comment on the orion.

I pretty much have to use a rotator in conjuction with the skys fov indicator to get great results, especially for the postage stamp fov you will have for the guider. It will make a huge difference to your image sharpness if you make the effort to make it work.

Brett
Oh yeah, ditto. "sharpness"?, and your sanity finding a guide star
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Old 27-06-2011, 06:13 PM
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I've got the SX version. I can't comment on the Orion version but I'd say they're pretty similar? Is that for your 14" SCT?
Hi Marc. I was planning on putting it o the C14. When my PMX finally gets here, I plan to switch scopoes/mounts around and put the EdgeHD 14" on the PMX with the ATIK11002 and the C14 on the Titan with the QHY8.
Peter
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Old 27-06-2011, 06:16 PM
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and your sanity finding a guide star
That's what really worries me. I'm afraid I have no patience for things that don't work.
Peter
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Old 27-06-2011, 06:30 PM
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Hi Marc. I was planning on putting it o the C14. When my PMX finally gets here, I plan to switch scopoes/mounts around and put the EdgeHD 14" on the PMX with the ATIK11002 and the C14 on the Titan with the QHY8.
Peter
I might start a sh|t fight here but I'd go with an SBIG Camera + AO combo. I know you have already a QHY8 but those AO are not exactly cheap although they do the job to some extent. The SX does the job for me at 4-5 corrections per second (on a good night) and takes care of most micro-guiding errors, wind buffeting, etc... but if you want to go long and tackle the seeing you have no choice but go with a fast tilt mirror and SBIG and its proprietary technology are the only one on the market that I know provide an all in one solution. And as Fred said as well good luck finding a guide star bright enough too. Depends on a lot of things. No easy answer I'm afraid.
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Old 27-06-2011, 06:37 PM
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pmrid (Peter)
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I might start a sh|t fight here but I'd go with an SBIG Camera + AO combo. I know you have already a QHY8 but those AO are not exactly cheap although they do the job to some extent. The SX does the job for me at 4-5 corrections per second (on a good night) and takes care of most micro-guiding errors, wind buffeting, etc... but if you want to go long and tackle the seeing you have no choice but go with a fast tilt mirror and SBIG and its proprietary technology are the only one on the market that I know provide an all in one solution. And as Fred said as well good luck finding a guide star bright enough too. Depends on a lot of things. No easy answer I'm afraid.
Yeah. My gut feeling is that the guidestar thing will be the decider. I'll have a look at the MMOAG while I'm in this mood and see whether I can marry that up with a guidecam with more grunt that the little QHY5. Lodestar is the cam of choice I know.
The thing I want in an OAG solution is the ability to rotate the guide-cam around the axis of the light cone - the Celestron Radial Guider does it and so does the Orion Deluxe OAG. But the darned Orion AO unit does not. Nor does the MMOAG I think although I'll have to check that out again because now I'm not sure.
Peter
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Old 27-06-2011, 06:57 PM
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That's what really worries me. I'm afraid I have no patience for things that don't work.
Peter
Well, in that case a rotator is a given. The pyxis rotator works and is pretty much a reliable standard, but is irrititatingly noisy and slow to home on power up. It syncs with Sky though so you can plan what guide star you will use in advance. Forget fishing for one live bright enough for AO manually.

You might like to think long and hard about AO, its expensive regardless of brand to do properly, and the occassions you can use it to full effect will be very sparse (very bright guide star).

Its a bit like this, if you want to do an absolute killer pic once a year whatever the cost and trouble and win awards and be a legend, then nothin beats an AO'd pic with a 100 difficult variables all coming together in a magic confluence to make a master piece, if so then go for it.

If you want to bang out pics at a reasonable rate for fun, forget A0.
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