I had a look at both units before deciding on the Orion AO.
Both looked good and were reported to work well. Cost is about the same. The Orion is cheaper if you take the cost of the guide camera into account.
There were two main reasons I chose how I did.
1. I wanted a wider selection of guide cameras. SX is made to be used with the SX Loadstar. Is is not really a drawback because the Loadstar is one of the better guide cameras and I may actually end up getting one myself to replace the Orion StarShoot Guider.
2. The SX AO uses a RS232 serial interface and the Orion AO uses a USB2. I've had enough of serial to USB adaptors and my PC has only one serial port and I need it for the EQ6.
The SteadyStar comes with its own very good control program and this is being and well supported.
It's very easy to use, works well and is stable.
It would be a good idea to read the unit's User Manual to get a better feel on haow it all goes together and works.
The only fiddly bit was getting the guide camera to be parfocal with the image camera, but after a bit of messing around with various spacers, some of which are supplied with the AO unit, there's no need to change anything unless you decide to change cameras.
Finding a guide star can be a bit of a problem unless the guide camera is a sensitive one.
The StarShoot seems to be OK but I think that the Loadstar would be better.
As far as I know, you can only control it via the Orion software at the moment. This may change in the future.
Cheers,
Luke
Quote:
Originally Posted by telemarker
Hi Luke, well the stars certainly look round so thats definitely a bonus. I'm curious about these or the Starlight Xpress equivalent. How's the software side of things - easy to run? Does it run under proprietary software or can you control it from other software via ascom.
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