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Old 31-10-2008, 03:56 PM
ozstockman (Mike)
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ozstockman is offline
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Kenmore Hills, Brisbane, QLD
Posts: 392
as I mentioned before there is no point to pay so much for any standalone auto guiders. If you have already got a QHY5 it's only a matter of buying a 4" UMPC and you will get much better setup because you can use this UMPC for anything including running your planetary software.

If you check ebay you will find a lot of them for sale there


4"-5" are quite small devices so you can hold it with one hand. They usually run Windows XP OS which means you can install and run on it a lot of astronomy software. You can find a used or even a new one for US$500-600. You can even try and build it in your mount. At least my UMPC has has the same dimensions as a control panel side of EQ6 mount has.

I bought mine 4" SONY U750P for $450 in excellent condition for the same reason. But when I moved from DSLR imaging to CCD I had to stop using it as I needed a laptop for a CCD camera anyway.
You can still run CCD camera control software from an UMPC but usually they come with a single USB port and it will be harder to inspect your images on 4" screen.

cheers,

Mike
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