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Many thanks.
It was far harder when I had the old modded 350d with no.live view and no laptop or guide camera. I had to stand at the off axix eyepiece trying to keep a guide star in an illuminated reticle.
Now I can sit and make myself comfortable as I watch a very highly magnified guide star on the laptop screen. Getting accurate focus with the EOS Ra and 30x live view is so accurate now. Also the low profile EOS compatible off axis guuder means I get coma corrected guide stars that are nice and round.
I look at the incredibly expensive prices of autoguide capable mounts that can carry my heavy 10 inch with its full thickness Sutching mirror where the tube assembly and Sampson mount cost around a 3rd of the cost of an EQ8 or Losmandy G11. So i think I will be hand guiding for a long time to come unless someone makes an engineering breakthrough to be able to make precision mounts at a far cheaper price which i can't see happening.
The odd thing is while mounts are super expensive, Newtonian tube assemblies are much cheaper. $1200 gets you a 10 inch dobsonian for example. In theory just the OTA should be even less.
Cheers. Scott
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