Hi folks,
I have two scopes that I plan to use in the future. Which one I choose will depend on the target. My main scope will be the Explore Scientific MN-152 Comet Hunter for nebulae and wider fields. The second one is a TS Photon 10" f/5 that I plan to use on galaxies etc.
I am kind of that "set and forget" guy and equipped both scopes with a Raspberry Pi and some basic tools like automatic focusers etc. All the technical things are mounted directly on the scopes. That way, I could set up the software on the Pi to fit the needs of the scope it is mounted to and I only had to plug in 1 power cable and I'm ready to go.
On the Comet Hunter, I use a 60mm guide scope. On the TS Photon, I plan to use a ZWO Off-Axis-Guider which is already installed. The OAG is new and I wasn't able to use it, yet. I also have two guide cams. A ZWO 120MM Mini and an Altair GPCam3 178M. The resolution of the GPCam is three times the resolution of the ZWO 120MM. I was using mainly the GPCam before for my guiding and it seemed to work better than guiding with the ZWO. But until now, I only had one scope and could use the preferred camera easily. With two setups, I would put every guide cam to its own scope and leave it on. But I need help with that decision.
The question is, what camera would theoretically fit which scope better? I may buy another guide cam later but recently I invested in a lot of stuff and therefore want to live with the things I have. Because everything works fine on the ES Comet Hunter, I tend to leave the Altair cam on this scope (it is currently on there). But if I think about it, the ZWO cam with the lower resolution may be a better fit for that scope (because of the shorter focal length it must handle). I guess, that the Altair cam is more sensitive (at least with binning) and therefore may be the better option for the OAG and the 1270mm focal length scope. Am I right or am I missing something here?
What do you think?
Thanks for the help…
Christian
I have two scopes that I plan to use in the future. Which one I choose will depend on the target. My main scope will be the Explore Scientific MN-152 Comet Hunter for nebulae and wider fields. The second one is a TS Photon 10" f/5 that I plan to use on galaxies etc.
I am kind of that "set and forget" guy and equipped both scopes with a Raspberry Pi and some basic tools like automatic focusers etc. All the technical things are mounted directly on the scopes. That way, I could set up the software on the Pi to fit the needs of the scope it is mounted to and I only had to plug in 1 power cable and I'm ready to go.
On the Comet Hunter, I use a 60mm guide scope. On the TS Photon, I plan to use a ZWO Off-Axis-Guider which is already installed. The OAG is new and I wasn't able to use it, yet. I also have two guide cams. A ZWO 120MM Mini and an Altair GPCam3 178M. The resolution of the GPCam is three times the resolution of the ZWO 120MM. I was using mainly the GPCam before for my guiding and it seemed to work better than guiding with the ZWO. But until now, I only had one scope and could use the preferred camera easily. With two setups, I would put every guide cam to its own scope and leave it on. But I need help with that decision.
The question is, what camera would theoretically fit which scope better? I may buy another guide cam later but recently I invested in a lot of stuff and therefore want to live with the things I have. Because everything works fine on the ES Comet Hunter, I tend to leave the Altair cam on this scope (it is currently on there). But if I think about it, the ZWO cam with the lower resolution may be a better fit for that scope (because of the shorter focal length it must handle). I guess, that the Altair cam is more sensitive (at least with binning) and therefore may be the better option for the OAG and the 1270mm focal length scope. Am I right or am I missing something here?
What do you think?
Thanks for the help…
Christian