Hi Rick it was great to observe with you here in sunny and warm Tucson!

This is the same problem I had with my 208XT. The Pictor autoguiders don't
seem to have much tolerance for stars that are not close to pin points. Off
axis guiders don't give the best star images. Mine look like little sea
gulls even in the GEG. With very careful focus I have been able to get it
to guide, but only on fairly bright stars. Dealing with this problem is the
main reason why I use a guidescope.

Chris Vedeler
http://www.isomedia.com/homes/cvedeler/space.htm
Tucson, AZ


At 08:07 AM 2/2/98 -0900, you wrote:
>Ric L Ecker wrote:
>> The problem you are having is the calibration is moving the star off
>> the prism. An easy trick is to use a eyepiece diagonal and calibrate the
>> 201 through the main tube. Basically you only need to calibrate once in
>> this configuration for most of your guiding unless your are taking
>> pictures around or near polaris. The 201 will now be setup for your OAG.
>
>Ric, right now my 201 is callibrated through the main tube w/a star
>diagonal (without the OAG attached). It works great when I use it like
>this (for piggyback shots). However when I use the 201 through the off
>axis prism, it doesn't seem to work. Maybe the fact that I have to use a
>star diagonal in the off axis port to reach focus with the 201 has
>something to do with it. In this configuration, my right acsension star
>movements are the same as the main tube, but my dec star movements are
>reversed (i.e. when I maually guide with my 9mm illum reticle, I reverse
>the North South keys on my controller so I don't accidentally make a
>wrong correction). This is why I have to recallibrate when I use the 201
>off axis. Would a straight tube extension, in place of a star diagonal
>fix things so my North and South corrections are back to normal?
>
>Thanks,
>Rick Keil
>"7/5th of all people do not understand fractions." - unknown
>
>

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