OAG on 81mm APO?

[Gastraea (John)]

Hi All
I got an OAG in the kit with my ASI2600 and was wondering if it is worth using with my small APO.
I am currently using a 120mm cheap guide scope and cheap guide camera. My current focal length is 382mm after the flattener for the WO GT-81
I'm not sure if it make sense to use it because I have it or if it is a waste of time or just personal preference.

[raymo]

At 382mm you should be getting great guiding with any type of guiding system. If it ain't broke don't fix it, as the old saying goes. At 382mm you
should be able to get 150-180sec subs without guiding at all.
If your stars are round with subs of the desired length, don't change anything, stars can't be rounder than round.
raymo

[Gastraea (John)]

Originally Posted by raymo

At 382mm you should be getting great guiding with any type of guiding system. If it ain't broke don't fix it, as the old saying goes. At 382mm you
should be able to get 150-180sec subs without guiding at all.
If your stars are round with subs of the desired length, don't change anything, stars can't be rounder than round.
raymo

Thanks raymo.
I have tried out the OAG tonight and I'm happy with the tracking.
The downside is at the moment I have introduced some nasty tilt into the system. I'm not sure if I'll try to adjust it out or revert back to the old way of doing things.

[raymo]

Just my opinion, tilt can be difficult to eliminate completely, so as I said, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
raymo

[gb44 (Glenn)]

Gear that fits together with fine threads of say 54mm diameter are great but gear that stacks and is held together with thumbscrews is fraught with problems.
I have had gear that mates fine but the screws pop them out of alignment.

The solution then is some machining on a lathe...

Keep the OAG for long focal length fun, thats where they come into their own.

Good luck.

GlennB

[Gastraea (John)]

It seems like I had optical tilt issues with play in the draw tube. I have tightened the adjustment screws up this morning and will see on the next night out if I can get more consistent results on curvature.

BTW does anyone else think the price if CCDinspector is just insane? $180USD that's nearly as much as pixinsight.
Seems like they are just begging for people to use the eval copy in a VM.