I have a QSI 6120 with the guide port and have been using an STi. I have had some issues with guider camera disconnection that I think are hardware (STi) related. I may have to repair or replace the STi. So…
Wondering what guiders any of you have used on the guide port of the QSI self guide filter wheel and what you would suggest other than SBIG.
Thanks!
I used my Lodestar X2 with my QSI 6120 without any issues. Worked perfectly.
Ultrastar is another good candidate and I replaced my sti with it. Sti was not a very good camera, and I had to have the power board replaced the first time I used it. Next, the shutter was problematic. Enough of that. Starlight Express was the solution for me.
If you really want to go the full monty, check out the IF ONAG. New software is also in development to allow full frame autoguiding and autofocusing on the fly. Really is amazing. The AstroImaging Channel just had a presentation on this with the inventor. It is rather expensive for the system though. For me, it was a great investment. Gaston is a real gentleman and provides good customer support.
Thanks for all the inputs. I have come to a similar conclusion. The STi has been a problem for me as well as a buddy that has one. I have always liked SBIG but am not so sure anymore.
The ONAG does look great but I would like to see better integration with SGP before I consider that and this guider would be for a secondary remote system anyway. Reliability is therefore primary and the Starlight guiders seem to fit that bill from the feedback I have had…
I was using an IF ONAG last year for several months with my RC12 + SBIG8300M and it worked fabulously well. I was getting the tightest stars I have ever gotten. I would still be using it except for one problem: I run 2 scopes on the same mount, so the autoguiding has to work well for both scopes. It really only works well for the scope it is attached to. Most of the corrections it makes only affect the scope it is attached to since it is rotating it’s corrector plate and not making the guide corrections to the mount. The mount must receive all corrections to be effective for both scopes. The only time corrections go to the mount is when the guide star moves outside of the guide box. To minimize this effect I reduced the size of the guide box to 12 pixels. This helped a lot but is still not ideal. I did not find it useful for actually improving the seeing. The real benefit, according to @Andy is it makes the corrections much more responsive and immediate that sending them through the mount. Which I think it true.
For OAG, if you have a large prism and the guide sensor is close to it - which I think it is in the QSI - then there is a big benefit having a large guide sensor to see a larger patch of sky and therefore more stars. For that reason I use a qhy5iii-174 for guiding. The sony 174 sensor is 11.3x7 mm compared to a tiny 4.8x3.6 for the sti. This would make a huge difference as long as there isn’t too much vignetting - and I don’t think there would be. Even if there is, you end up using as much of the field from the guide port as possible and it isn’t limited by the camera.
As for reliability the qhy is fine for me - but there are other sources for the 174 sensor, including ASI. You just need to make sure it can physically mount to the port and be close enough that you don’t need an extension on the imaging side.
And any camera with the 174 sensor will have multiple uses other than guiding - such as planetary work.
Frank
Well, I have ordered the Lodestar X2 after reading the numerous feedback. The main reason may seem silly but I will be using it with SGP and PhD so it (the Lodestar X2) will talk entirely to PhD:
Andy Galasso, the PhD developer, has the same Lodestar X2 and likes it. It seems there is no better way to insure proper function with the software than to use the same thing that the software developer uses!
I plan to send my STi back to SBIG to be checked out and repaired if needed and then sell it.
UPDATE: I have been using the lodestar X2 for a couple weeks now and it has been perfect. The problems i was having with the STi were clearly either hardware or driver related.
Interestingly, the guiding itself seems better, don’t know why that would be unless maybe the shutter on the Sti was introducing some slight vibration - perhaps.
I will agree with Frank on the 174 sensors from the standpoint of price comparison and larger fov. Unfortunately, I’m still researching the cmos cameras and really not sure whether they will suit my needs. They hold great promise and I can see the day when ccd sensors go the way of the Dodo bird. I really hope this doesn’t happen, since it’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks, but Sony appears to be shedding their manufacture. Whether others will take up the slack, I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
For what it’s worth, I have a Celestron HD11 (FL = 2,800) with a Celestron OAG. I’m using the QHY5iii174 camera for guiding and it works very well for me. I have the camera as close to the prism as possible. I’ve been using this setup for about 6 months and thus far have not had any issue finding a guide star. I use a CGE-Pro mount and I typically guide between 1.5 and 2.5 seconds depending on the seeing and target location.I have bump it up to 3 seconds once in order to find a guide star.
Mark