Mgen2 and Mini Guide Scope good enough for a esprit 120?

QHYCCD Mini Guide Scope Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro Equipment Equatorial Mount Guiding
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Anderl avatar
Anderl avatar
Hey, 

until now i used a mgen2 together with a 130 focal length mini guide scope to guide focal lengths up to 300 mm paired with a 5.7 pixel pitch camera. 

I bought a esprit 120 recently and want to get a dedicated mono camera that will be guided with a off axis guider on a eq6r. 

do you guys think mgen2 and mini guide scope will do the job until i upgrade to a dedicated camera with off axis guider? 

my image/guiding ratio using this setup would be something like 5.15
DEiMiC avatar
DEiMiC avatar
I think that's absolutely no problem! I had a 1:6 ratio and it works great…
wsg avatar
wsg avatar
Yes.  I ran my AT130 and AT92 with an MgenII for a long time with a Sony a6500 and then a ZWO asi294MC.  I still have the Mgen as a permanent backup on the pier.

scott
Flogus avatar
Flogus avatar
until now i used a mgen2 together with a 130 focal length mini guide scope

Hi,
I use MGEN2 with the 9x50 finder to guide my SW 80ED Evostar on an EQ6 mount.
A few weeks ago, I started building a new and lighter setup based on a Star Adventurer mount.
I ordered a mini guide scope (with the same 130 mm focale length as you), but I can't reach focus.
Can you show a picture of your MGEN guiding setup on your 130mm guide scope ?
Well written Respectful
Anderl avatar
Anderl avatar
until now i used a mgen2 together with a 130 focal length mini guide scope

Hi,
I use MGEN2 with the 9x50 finder to guide my SW 80ED Evostar on an EQ6 mount.
A few weeks ago, I started building a new and lighter setup based on a Star Adventurer mount.
I ordered a mini guide scope (with the same 130 mm focale length as you), but I can't reach focus.
Can you show a picture of your MGEN guiding setup on your 130mm guide scope ?

hey, 

you focus by screwing the front element in and out, after reaching your focus point you fixate it with the red ring. 
is it possible that until now you only tried to focus by moving the mgen in and out?
Flogus avatar
Flogus avatar
I screwed the MGEN camera at the rear of the scope and moved out the front element from 0 to up to 6cm.
So I fear the focus is reached only if the sensor is within the scope (so that scope might only be used with mini camera like the ZWO Asi 120MM).
Anderl avatar
Anderl avatar
I screwed the MGEN camera at the rear of the scope and moved out the front element from 0 to up to 6cm.
So I fear the focus is reached only if the sensor is within the scope (so that scope might only be used with mini camera like the ZWO Asi 120MM).

no Problem at my side. 
can you show me a picture of how you attached the mgen to the scope?
kuechlew avatar
kuechlew avatar
You have to consider the ratio of the image scales of your guide scope and your imaging scope.  For details see chapter 3 of this article:
Selecting a Guide Scope and Autoguiding Camera for Astrophotography (agenaastro.com)

MGEN III Camera has 3.4 micrometer pixel size, I assume it's the same for MGEN II. So according to the formula in the article you should be fine with any mono camera with similar pixel size (or larger). Mono cameras like ASI 183 with very small pixels will get you close to what is considered the reasonable limit with the Esprit 120.

Clear skies
Wolfgang
Helpful Concise
Flogus avatar
Flogus avatar
can you show me a picture of how you attached the mgen to the scope?


Here is how I attach the MGEN camera to the mini guider scope : the camera is screwed directly to the scope via the M42 0.75mm (T2) thread.

Flogus avatar
Flogus avatar
no Problem at my side.


Can you show yours ?
Anderl avatar
Anderl avatar
no Problem at my side.


Can you show yours ?

Flogus avatar
Flogus avatar

Thank you.
You gave me ideas to explore.
If the materiel is not the problem, I think it's me.
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