[Paul Haese]

Hi all,

I am looking for some help and advice with my off axis guider on the QSI.

When I try to focus on stars I get two things happening. One is that the stars just will not focus to points. In fact they are about 2mm long by about 1 mm or so wide. This is with the focus ring fully inward. This is despite the idea that the Star Shoot Autoguider is supposed to be ideal as a guider.

My question is; will the shape of the stars matter to guiding (my guiding seems really erratic in PHD with big peaks and valleys) and it seems that the stars are eggy. What about focus? I had heard it is better if the stars are slightly out of focus for guiding, but these stars seem a bit too out of focus.

I have used an OAG in the past and the stars were oval shaped but I never got great results then and I am just trying to work things out. I contacted QSI and they have been really helpful. They suggested that the RC is most likely the cause of the stars being that shape and I should use a flattener. I have at this stage not used the flattener. I had to resort to using the guide scope the other night just to get some sense out of the guiding.

I would really appreciate so advice.