What is an off axis guider?
What is an off axis guider?
What is an Off-Axis Guider (OAG)? An off-axis guider (OAG) sends starlight to your guide camera using an internal pick-off prism that collects light running off of the telescope axis. An OAG allows you to utilize your primary imaging camera and telescope for autoguiding, without the need for an additional guide scope.
How do I install Zwo OAG?
Setup Guide
- Calculate the correct distance for your imaging train.
- Take off the guider prism part from the OAG and attach the OAG body to the telescope.
- Insert the prism back into the OAG body.
- Mount the guide camera.
- Screw the T2 or M48 adapter on the imaging camera according to your cameras mounting type.
Why do you need a guidescope?
The guidescope is a small refractor or even a modified finderscope that is mounted along with the imaging telescope and camera and its job is to capture an image of a single star using its own small camera and then to analyse the movement of that star in the field of view using guiding software.
Do I need a guide scope for astrophotography?
No, there is no need. Guide cameras usually guide on stars at or near the center of the field of view where the image is good enough with just about any guidescope.
What size guidescope do I need?
As a rule of thumb, the focal length of the guide scope needed to be at least 1/3 the focal length of the imaging scope when guiding visually.
Where do you mount a guidescope?
A popular guide scope mounting configuration is to “piggyback” the scope on top of the main imaging scope using a dovetail rail mounted on top of the primary imaging telescope.
Is 30mm guide scope enough?
With more sensitive (and more expensive) CCD or CMOS-based guiding cameras, as mentioned below, flyweight guide scopes with apertures as small as 30mm can work well when guiding images with short focal length refractors as the main scope.
What is good guiding RMS?
Guiding error is most of the time given and reported from most software by its RMS (Root Mean Square) value, the average deviation from nominal. There is a link between the FWHM and the level of RMS guiding error we can afford to keep the RDN below the 0.1 (10%) threshold.
What focal length is OAG?
Now if you just don’t like OAG’s then the general rule is to choose a guide scope that is at least 1/4 the focal length of your imaging scope. For instance if your focal length is 2032mm you want a guide scope with a focal length of at least 500mm.
What is the best off axis guider?
ZWO Off Axis Guider. This slim and lightweight piece of hardware presents a beautiful profile to begin with- but it’s far more than just a pretty hunk of 16.5 mm thick metal. It is a highly effective and efficient Off Axis Guider, a great choice for those looking to avoid weighing down their setup too much with the additional component.
How does the off-axis guider work?
Celestron’s Off-Axis Guider addresses these challenges by: Providing a large 12.5 mm prism that can be adjusted to move closer to the center of the telescope’s focal plane, depending on the size of the imaging camera. This results in brighter guide stars, with the help of the large prism to fully illuminate the autoguider sensor.
What is the Celestron off-axis guider?
The Off-Axis Guider is an essential astroimaging accessory for long focal length telescopes that require the most accurate guiding possible. The Celestron Off-Axis Guider uses a prism to intercept a small portion of the telescope’s focal plane (outside the field of view of the main imaging camera) to locate a guide star.
What are the main challenges with off-axis Guiders?
Off-Axis Guiders have been around for a long time, but typically pose three main challenges: 1 Finding a guide star from the far edges of the telescope’s focal plane can be difficult, considering the small field of… 2 Getting both imaging camera and autoguider to reach focus with one another is time consuming and sometimes requires… More
