Autoguiding...

Hi Mark,

Anything I can do to help just feel free to ask. The 300D mod is not nearly as scary as you might think.

If you havent already seen it I have written a review of my mod experiences here

As far as autoguiding is concerned I normally just focus visually knowing that a bit of de-focus is a good thing. I strongly recommend the use of a modified webcam (or other camera capable of at least 1 or 2 second exposures). Although you can autoguide in real time with a non-modified webcam the same issue of seeingthat Mark mentions comes into play as the star is scintillating all the time. The one or two second exposures allows the high frequency seeing to be averaged out.

My 4"mak arrived today. It's a bit more solid than I expected, especially considering the money. It comes with an integral sliding dew shield an has a helical focusing action. here are a couple of pics:



The total length of the main tube itself if only 22cm. It weighs 2.2kg. Focusing action is nice and secure which is exactly what I hoped for
It also came with a carry case and three full aperture filters for daytime use: UV, Green and Orange. Seee link:
www.telescope-service.com/maksutovs/MTO/MTO.html#MTO1000

Very nice Michael,
Looking forward to seeing it, will you have it at Galway?

hmm nice, Like Dave L, I look forward to seeing it in Galway, if your bringing it!

Yea, I'll bring it to Galway so and you can all have a gawk!

Hi Guys and Gals

After I purchased a NexStar 8SE about four months ago I decided to go the auto-guide route, after a little bit of research I decided to purchase the Yankee Robotics “Trifid Nugget” camera, it came in a self purge impact resistant case with drivers on CD format. Included was a RJ-12 cable that plugs into the camera which then plugs into the auto-guide port on the NS8 mount, there is also a USB cable that plugs from the camera to the PC, no additional power cable is required (runs off the USB cable). In addition I purchased a StellarVue F50M finder that would compliment the Nugget camera for auto guiding. I downloaded “Guidemaster” software with the additional “Trifid Nugget” plug-in software.

I am just wondering if anyone else out there has a “Trifid Nugget” camera for auto- guiding and what experiences they have had with it. Initially I couldn’t get anything to work thanks to Windows Vista (in fact I couldn’t get a lot of things to work thanks to Windows Vista ) but I am now 90% there regarding compatibility issues. I have tried the autoguide setup (indoors) on a different laptop running Windows XP (SP2) and there does not appear to be any problems. All I need now is to actually test it fully in the field under dark starry skies.

Trifid Nugget Camera: www.yankeerobotics.com/Nugget.html
GuideMaster: www.guidemaster.de/index_en.asp
StellarVue F50M: www.optcorp.com/product.aspx?pid=9755&kw=f50m&st=2