MMOAG is also about $1000 + Adapters so it will end up more. But it is a pretty good piece of equipment but it has a lousy focuser setup.
With my ST402 you can't use the helical focuser anyway as it is too far out.
But even if you could how does one use a helical focuser on a rectangular guide camera? What, spin the whole camera around including all the cables? eehhh no.
That means you slide the guide cam in the eyepiece holder until its in focus and mark the spot. Pretty crude.
Apart from that it works well although you have to make sure you camera adapters aren't tilted from hitting the prism holder. It is adjustable so no big deal but it did take me a few days to work out where the tilt was coming from in images when I first used it.
Also it can be tricky to setup. If the MMOAG is even a small amount out of focus the guide stars completely disappear making it hard to work out where focus is. They only appear when you are quite close.
This made it frustrating for me when I first got it. So much so I assumed it did not work properly and did not use it for many months.
This unit though looks heavy and looks like it may cause flexure as that heavy camera and filter wheel sitting right above it - that's a lot of pressure.
Also reflecting the light to the camera is saying the guide camera is more important than the imaging camera and the imaging camera can get the weakended reflected light along with all the artifacts, possible distortions and dust on the mirrors whilst the guide camera gets beautiful views.
I wonder though if it may be more compact in those situations where backfocus is limited so its not all bad.
I laugh at their 2 x 1 minute exposures added to simulate a 38 minute exposure. Do they think we're stupid?? Why not simply post a 38 minute exposure or was that all eggy
?
Greg.