[rogerg (Roger)]

Well, I have finally had a clear night! And I've had some success with autoguiding on my Losmandy GM-8 using GuideDog and my unmodified QuickCam Pro 4000. It's clouded over again now so will leave it for tonight.

Things appear to be working relatively OK "out of the box". I'm quite surprised that having only changed the focal length setting in GuideDog, other default settings appear to have it running smoothly.

I am missing a little understanding which perhaps people can fill me in on though, not sure.

My main lack of understanding resides around what guide mode the Losmandy should be in. I don't really understand if having my Losmandy on Visual Mode vs Photo Mode makes any difference, or other Visual Mode speeds similarly.

I think, that because I'm simply using the ASCOM telescope control for GuideDog to move the scope, it won't actually matter if it's in Photo or Visual Mode. And that the mode would only matter if I'm using a relay box and the autoguider port (which I'm not and won't be).

Does anyone know if my understanding is right? Any other tips to add?

Thanks,
Roger.