Autoguiders??? (Page 2): I found this review doing a quick search. It looks like 99 is for camera only no connecting cables, power, etc unless I am reading this incorrectly. Thanks Jim...

Albuqshutterbug Loc: Albuquerque NM

Tom--K4TTA wrote:

Check out a Mallincam Micro-Ex. About $99.00 It is primarily for video astronomy, but has been quite successfully adapted as a guider. There was a rather long thread on this recently on the Mallincam Yahoo group. I have a Micro-Ex, but have not used it for astroguiding. Also, I have no financial interest in Mallincam products.
Clear Skies,
Tom Richardson
Memphis Astronomical Society
www.memphisastro.org

I found this review doing a quick search.
It looks like 99 is for camera only no connecting cables, power, etc unless I am reading this incorrectly.
Thanks
Jim
http://www.cloudynights.com/topic/473674-avs-dso-1-comparison-with-mallincam-micro-ex/

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

Tom--K4TTA wrote:

Check out a Mallincam Micro-Ex. About $99.00 It is primarily for video astronomy, but has been quite successfully adapted as a guider. There was a rather long thread on this recently on the Mallincam Yahoo group. I have a Micro-Ex, but have not used it for astroguiding. Also, I have no financial interest in Mallincam products.
Clear Skies,
Tom Richardson
Memphis Astronomical Society
www.memphisastro.org

Thank you Tom, that sound pretty interesting. Your Group has a very interesting Site too.
I belong to the VAAS Vandenberg Amature Astronomical Society.
Craig

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

CraigFair wrote:

I spend way to much time setting up and moving to different locations.
Craig

:?
:lol: Makes me think of people sitting at a green light....
...maybe they are waiting for a different shade of green??? :roll:
Just kidding, Craig.

Now in my outdoor observatory :hunf: ... trees, houses, outdoor lighting, crap and corruption, power lines, walls, and a sundry of general shinola limits me.
Why would you set up, and then move? :shock: :?:

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

SonnyE wrote:

:?
:lol: Makes me think of people sitting at a green light....
...maybe they are waiting for a different shade of green??? :roll:
Just kidding, Craig.

Now in my outdoor observatory :hunf: ... trees, houses, outdoor lighting, crap and corruption, power lines, walls, and a sundry of general shinola limits me.
Why would you set up, and then move? :shock: :?:

Hello Sonny, I did see the green light :mrgreen: and pulled the trigger on the Celestron 93713 NexGuide Autoguider and got in the mail yesterday. I'm going to give it a test drive tonight.
I have a spot marked out on the patio that I use but almost every weekend I go to a star party. So it's all about taking it down and put it up at least twice a week. Keeping things as simple as possible just makes sense to me.
Craig

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Well??? :?:

We're wondering out here. How did it go?
Great, I hope!

Come on, Craig. There's a bunch of fingers hoovering over the buy button out here. ;) :lol:

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

SonnyE wrote:

Well??? :?:

We're wondering out here. How did it go?
Great, I hope!

Come on, Craig. There's a bunch of fingers hoovering over the buy button out here. ;) :lol:

I have not fired up the Autoguider yet.:oops: I'm waiting to get the mount tracking within guiding specs first. I don't want the Autoguider to be doing very much.
Craig

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

CraigFair wrote:

I have not fired up the Autoguider yet.:oops: I'm waiting to get the mount tracking within guiding specs first. I don't want the Autoguider to be doing very much.
Craig

I finally stepped back 15' and just looked at the scope & mount setup and visualized how everything was working. An epiphany, the Mounting Plate I put on the Meade telescope was off in two directions. I need to square the plate to the whole tube vertically and horizontally.
:oops: :oops: :oops:
Craig

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Oh darn!
Well you'll get it. Just keep plugging away.

Oknoder Loc: Western North Dakota

CraigFair wrote:

I'm in a quandary over this, all the ones I find I can afford are for 1500mm scopes or less. The off-axis guiders will interfere with the view the DSLR sensor sees. They are designed for CCD cameras with very small sensor size were the prism does not interfere with the light path. And I believe they guide an a star on the outside of the FOV. It's also one more thing hanging off the back of the OTA.
I know I'll get hacked to death over this but I need all the Info I can get.
Craig

I use the Orion thin off axis guider, and it does not interfere with the sensor of either of my cameras. Normally I arrange it so that the guider is directly underneath the main camera body. The biggest issue with an OAG is having the two cameras in parallax, after trying multiple times to gain focus while looking at the output images, I decided to just sit down and do the math and work it out with a set of calipers. This got me really close then the fine tuning was easier. One lesson I learned was to make notations, and mark the focus extensions to facilitate the next imaging session.

I also have a couple of refractors to use as guide scopes, but with my AT6RC it brings me over, what I think is appropriate, the load capacity to gain clean images. I recently have been trying to work out the intricacies of guiding. Last night was my first successful evening using all the equipment without any major hangups. I was able to get 5min subs without any trailing, sadly I had forgotten to list the drive in which to save the images so all 6 hours were lost. Tonight I am trying different lengths of exposures, of up to 15 minutes, and if it works ok I will have better hope of using my narrowband filters with my D800e without having to remove its hot filter.

One tip is program your PEC so that your guider does not have to fight your inherent periodic error. With my AVX my average PE was 12.6. I took 6 recording of my index's PE, averaged them together then reloaded them back into the hand controller. Now I just have to remember to hit the playback option before imaging.

Hopefully I'll have images to share tomorrow.
Matthew

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

SonnyE wrote:

Oh darn!
Well you'll get it. Just keep plugging away.

I will Sonny, just a couple fine adjustments and I should be on target.
Craig

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

Oknoder wrote:

I use the Orion thin off axis guider, and it does ... (show quote)

Thank you Matthew for all your great insight keep it coming we're all interested in what works.
Now I look forward to you images tonight.
Craig

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

CraigFair wrote:

I will Sonny, just a couple fine adjustments and I should be on target.
Craig

Check your PM's Craig... :shock:

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

SonnyE wrote:

Check your PM's Craig... :shock:

Got it Sonny,
Congratulations Sonny. Welcome to the AVX club.
Now we'll be pestering you for information.
Craig

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Told you I just dive in... :lol: :lol: :lol:
;) ;) ;)

Thanks Craig.
Thanks for your patience.
Thanks for your advice.
And Thank You for the warm Welcome. :-D

I'm sure I will have a lot of questions for you. :?
Oh lucky you. :shock:

Albuqshutterbug Loc: Albuquerque NM

SonnyE wrote:

Told you I just dive in... :lol: :lol: :lol:
;) ;) ;)

Thanks Craig.
Thanks for your patience.
Thanks for your advice.
And Thank You for the warm Welcome. :-D

I'm sure I will have a lot of questions for you. :?
Oh lucky you. :shock:

Oh sure! PM Craig and leave chopped liver out for the spiders!

Welcome aboard Sonny.
Each of us have our challenges and each of us finds the way, I think, although I may still be lost.
No wait, I'm right here.
Congrats!