At 07:56 PM 12/29/99 -0800, you wrote:
>Off Axis or Guide Scope???

Off axis. Period.


>I have been taking pictures (35mm Camera eyepiece projection) with my
>scope for the past six months. I have taken some good moon and
>planetary photos. I am currently struggling with deep sky objects (long
>exposures). I recently bought a Meade Super Wedge and have been taking
>10-15minute exposures. These look much better than they did wiithout
>the wedge (no rotation), but there is still the need for imporvement and
>the desire for longer exposures.
>
>After reading through past posts in this group it looks like the only
>way to imporve is to get a guidescope or off-axis guider. It sound like
>the guidescope gives you the most flexability, but that it may not be as
>simple to use as the off-axis guider?
>
>I am thinking about buying the meade #777 off axis guider to start out
>with and then go for a guidescope. Does this make sense or am I just
>wasting my money?

To be blunt, it would be a waste of money to get the Meade off axis
guider. It will cause you huge amounts of frustration trying to center a
guide star, and if you ever use an autoguider it will cause you many
magnitudes greater frustration still.


>I have seen a lot about the Lumicon Giat Easy Guider. Is it that much
>better than the meade?

Yes. In my opinion it is the only option for an off axis guider for a 10"
or larger SCT. It works, and it works well. That can't be said for the
Meade, Celestron, or Orion off axis guider.


>Finally, any recomendations for a guidescope? Used Meade ETX90, Orion
>80mm Refractor???

A guide scope introduces several problems that an off axis guider does not.
It adds considerable weight to the scope, you introduce the problems of
differential flexure between the two scopes, and a guide scope can not
correct for the mirror flop problems that are inherent in any commercial
SCT design. I used a Celestron 80mm f/11.4 guide scope for almost two
years until my desire for higher quality forced me back to off axis. The
maximum exposure time using my guidescope was about 20 minutes before the
stars would appear oblong. This was with a very ridged mounting system and
the mirror cell locked down. Without a serious redesign of the mirror
cell, this is about as long as I believe possible with a commercial SCT
like the LX200. For CCD, 20 minutes is often as long of an exposure as one
would do, so guidescopes may work fine, but for film, where 1 hour + is
often necessary, forget using a guidescope for quality work.


>I have learned a great deal reading all of your posts over the past
>couple of months. Thank you very much.
>
>BTW: The Mars Polar Lander thing was all my fault.
>I took the day off from work to watch the landing. :)

Good luck!

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

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