Guiding

[Omega62 (Andrew)]

New to the forum and had a question on guide scopes. What would be the good setup for auto guiding? I have a Celestron 1100HD.

[jenchris (Jennifer)]

Ssag cam with an off axis guider would work well.

[Atmos (Colin)]

An off-axis guider may be less of a headache long term than a guide scope in this case. Guide scopes work really well with shorter focal length telescopes

[Omega62 (Andrew)]

Thank you gentlemen
As a beginner off-axis guiding is new to me.
I'm in the for the long haul, so maybe I should look seriously at this option.
I think a very to youtube is in order for some tutorials.

[raymo]

Your scope has great focal length, and as such will be very hard for
a novice to learn guiding with. If you have a focal reducer for it, that will
help a lot.
raymo

[glend (Glen)]

I sort of feel your picking a hard place to start. That long focal length scope does require guiding from its light path as indicated by the others, but it has a narrow field of view, which can make finding a suitable guide star a complication. Do you have a reducer for it? Which would widen your field of view, and make imaging a little faster (shortening the focal length). Obviously it can be done, people do it, but it increases complexity for someone starting out with guided imaging.

The easier path is to start with a dedicated guide scope on a shorter focal length scope, match the guide scope fl to the main scope. For example, a 60mm f5 guide scope on a wide field f5 refractor or newt, this allows you to learn how to use guide software, and integration with your imaging app and mount control. But that's just an opinion, maybe you have all that covered already. Research, as you stated, will help alot.

[Nortilus (Josh)]

Step 1, dont buy a POS cheap guiding camera...get something that can pick up even the faintest of stars...
Step 2, dont buy a POS cheap guiding camera...get something that can pick up even the faintest of stars...
See where im going...I have used a phillips toucam, QHY5 and neither of these compare to my DMK21AU...i have heard the lodestar cameras for guiding a next to perfect but someone who has one my want to chime in on that...other than that, off-axis or guide scope...either works...just make sure if you have a guide scope that it matches your scope...there is a ratio to match this but i cant remember where i've seen that...off-axis would be easier with that focal length too...
I've got a 8inch f/10 meade ACF SCT and im actually going back to my 8inch F/5 newt, mainly because i dont have time or a permanent obs to get the mount spot on aligned for long focal lenghts and i need something a bit more forgiving when tracking and imaging...as a beginner, try picking up an 8inch F/5 newt or a refractor like the ED80....you'll have less frustration and be more likely to get results sooner...

[NorthernLight (Max)]

Hi Andrew,

Ideally we'd all start out small and go bigger. But since you already have a c11edge, you might as well use it. What sort of a mount have you got for it (presume equatorial)? And how good can you get polar alignment on a regular basis? If you have a permanent setup and really good polar alignment, then you should be able to get away with a short f/ratio guide scope riding atop your mount, say 500mm focal length. A camera like the star shoot auto guider and PhD will be able to use sub pixel guiding on any of the many stars available. It also gets less critical the larger your imaging sensor.

Cheers

[Omega62 (Andrew)]

I have a short list

The guide

ZWO Off-Axis Guider OAG
https://www.bintel.com.au/product/zw...is-guider-oag/
or
Celestron Off-Axis Guider
https://www.bintel.com.au/product/ce...f-axis-guider/

The Camera
ZWO ASI120MM
https://www.bintel.com.au/product/zwo-asi120mm/
https://www.bintel.com.au/product/zwo-asi120mc-colour/

not sure on Momo or Colour

The focal reducer is a hard choice also any suggestions?

[DavidS (David)]

Hi Andrew

I was fortunate to spend this weekend at Star Stuff where Bintel had a setup. I spent a good hour or two with them as I wanted to begin guiding too. Where I got to was ZWO 120MM (mono has 4x resolution) on a ZWO 60280 Guidescope and as others are suggesting with a 0.62 Lepus reducer. As you have an 11" you will also benefit from a reducer. As I interpreted it if you have too big a difference between your scope and your guidescope FL then effectively they "swing" about two different pivot points. By having them closer in FL then the guiding will be more accurate and your trails at the outer edges of your frame will be smaller.

If you are running a full sized camera frame then this will make it even more pronounced. As I have a 600D APS-C then this will be less of a problem for me.

I also bought a filter wheel so I can planetary image as I get reasonably good polar alignment. Hope this helps! Clear skies!

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

I use a Lodestar on my C11 for guiding.
The NEQ6Pro mount and EQmod work well together.
AstroArt6 for camera control and image processing. AA6 will also work as a very capable guide software (PHD2 is also very good)
My set-up with the spectroscope works at f10, and the reflective slit plate acts as an on-axis guider. Never had any issues/ problems finding suitable guide stars. My normal "subs" would be 10 min.

I also have a 60mm finder fitted with a DMK51 to act as an electronics finder.

[Striker (Tony)]

The ZWO-120mm is an awesome guide camera, great value for money.

[AMG (Nathaniel)]

I use the ZWO ASI120MM with an Orion OAG find it works pretty well.