I’m glad I was able to help! I was surprised that they had a serial cable too. I’m not sure why they haven’t gone to USB yet. Ray Shore

Looks like I need a polar scope for the CGEM! I’m looking forward to hearing the results of your autoguiding trials.

Ray Shore

The reticule actually allows you to align right on to the NCP. I start by leveling my scope, then proceed to the polar scope and rotate the constellation guides to current star positions trying to be as accurate as possible(I shine a red down polar scope to I can see the guides readily). Once I have the orientation with the polar scope I then proceed to adjust mount to be on top of the NCP ocated in the reticule of the polar scope The whole procedure takes about 3 minutes. Once this is achieved I then do the all star align. I did notice that when doing this procedure and having very accurate coordinates on location that when doing aligment routine all of the alignment stars are very close from the beginning of the alignment procedure. I will have a better feel for exposure capabilities when I have a long night out and test out the new autoguiding setup, weather cooperating that is.

Regards,

Jeff T

Thanks for the link. I figured the polar scopes would just have a reticule showing the center of the eyepiece. Putting the constellation on there should help make sure you are aligning on Polaris.

Once you have autoguiding in place, do you think you’ll need to use the drift align procedure or will the All-Star Aligment routine be enough?

Ray Shore

Here is link to the Polar Scope which does fit the CGEM. Within the link their is a pdf owners manual which shows the view through the finder with the constellation guides built in. Works Great! http://www.celestron.com/c3/product.php?CatID=16&ProdID=526

I’m checking with ADM on the best way to mount the Orion Awesome Autoguider system to my ED80. Plus, I need an adapter to mount the ED80 directly to the CGEM saddle plate.

I have a copy of Adam Block’s DVD as well. It is VERY informative! I hope to take my image processing to the next level.

Thanks for the link to the Stark presentation. I have not done any autoguiding so this will be helpful for coming up to speed.

I just sent you an email. Looking forward to some of your work with the DSI IIIC.

Thanks again for all the helpful info!

Ray Shore

Just checked shipping info and the new guide scope arrives this Monday! Not quite sure how the mounting will go I have several ideas to get it mounted to the rings on my Meade 80mm. Will figure it out when it arrives.

Since I am new to astrophotography I had purchased Adam Blocks 1st DVD on using Photoshop and have been reviewing it this week. A great bit of confusion on post processing was answered with this dvd. Most importantly I now fully understand using levels and curves to stretch the images obtained and how the functions correlate. This has been a great eye opening experience the light bulb has finally clicked!

Next time out I plan on setting up and trying out Nebulosity v. 2 which I purchased from Craig Stark. Nebulosity is geared towards controlling my DSIIIC and looks very easy to use to image with. I have spent some time last week reviewing the online NEAIC 2008 presentation by Craig on using PHD and Nebulosity with a great deal of the presentation dedicated to autoguiding, common problems experienced, and imaging on the cheap. This was a great presentation very informative, feel like I gained a great deal of knowledge on the topic. This is available at the following link and runs via online video or I believe may be available for download also
http://www.stark-labs.com/movies/NEAIC08_Guiding.html

Send me a private email and I can send off a few pics. I am really looking forward to raising the bar with autoguiding. I am hoping to be ready to image with the new setup by Tuesday. Hopefully, the weather breaks later in the week, and I am able to capture some new images with the new setup.

I also have to add to my list of to-do’s to make a 6ft. extension cable for the hand control on the cgem. I am worried that the short cable is going to stress the joint where it connects inside the hand control. I believe I read somewhere that a straight through cable will work.

The DSI IIIC has been great to use. My previous setup was the SAC8 which had a very small chip. My experience so far has been very positive with the DSI IIIC, although I think in retrospect that I would have more flexibility by using the DSI III non color with a slide filter or wheel, regardless imaging is much easier with the larger chip.

When I am setup again I will snap a few photos of the CGEM and gear and post to the CGEM group at yahoo.

Regards,

J. Turner

Good post…lot’s of info!

I think I’m going to order the Orion Starshoot autoguider too. I plan to do astrophotography with my Canon Digital Rebel DSLR and ED80. I’ll mount the Orion Awesome Autoguider package on the ED80.

Interesting info on the Celestron polar scope. I didn’t realize they had contellation guides on them.

Very encouraging news that your CGEM is accurate enough to put the object in the center of the imaging chip. This should be the case with my DSLR as well. I have to get an adapter to mount my ED80 on my CGEM before I can start imaging though. I’d like to see some of your results with the DSI IIIC.

I’ve been looking at those Bahtinov Masks and it sounds like they work real nice for focusing. They are only about $30 for my ED80 so I will probably get one. Eventually, I’ll be back into Astrophotography!

Thanks,
Ray Shore