Best guide camera on the market?

[Ed M]

I am in the market for the best guiding camera available on the market.  My goal is sub-pixel guiding.  My main focus is getting great SNR.  Beyond that wide field and sensitivity is important.  Can someone please recommend a camera?  Thanks.

[mj.w...@gmail.com]

It's easy to recommend cameras with great SNR/Sensitivity, but will they match your equipment ?

Which mount ?

Which OTA ? Focal Length ?

Which imaging camera ? Pixel size ?

Guidescope ? Focal Length ?

Or Off Axis Guider?  8mm x 8mm or 12 x 12mm prism ?

After the best guidecam pixel and sensor size have been calculated,  you can then look for best SNR, if you think that is important.

Michael

Wiltshire UK

[Ed M]

Thanks.  Here are the specs of my equipment:  Mount = Planewave L-500.  OTA = Planewave CDK20.  Focal length = 3454 mm.  Imaging camera = Apogee U230.  Pixel size = 15 microns.  No guide scope.  Off Axis Guider = Astrodon MOAG, 12 mm x 12 mm prism.  Please let me know if there is any other information you need.  Thank you.

[Ed M]

By the way, my current guide camera is the Starlight Xpress UltraStar Pro.  I do not know if this would give the best sub-pixel guiding or not using PHD2 (which is what I need).  I also have a second question that just occurred to me..  Would you recommend I set PHD2 to subtract Darks or not?  Starlight Xpress recommended that I should not subtract Darks, but I am not sure that their reasoning is correct.  Thanks.

[bw_msgboard]

IMO, you already have the best choice, by far.  At that focal length, you will need to bin the camera, you don't want to drop below 0.5 arc-sec/px for PHD2 guiding.  With the L-500 mount, you may also want to do low-frequency (e.g. low cadence) guiding - just issuing small guide pulses every 5-10 seconds to deal with slow drift.  When you are ready to do that, let us know and we'll give you some coaching. I'm running a 12.5" PlaneWave scope in a remote observatory and I spent no time thinking about alternatives to the UltraStar.  I've never regretted the choice and I've never encountered any kind of problem with it.  You should have no trouble guiding and imaging at the limits of the seeing conditions.

 

Of course, if you'd prefer to spend lots of time fighting with flakey camera drivers and having to reinstall them every few months, you can shop for other products... :-)

 

Just my 2-cents worth, of course,

Bruce

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From: open-phd...@googlegroups.com [mailto:open-phd...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Ed M
Sent: Saturday, October 09, 2021 12:10 PM
To: Open PHD Guiding
Subject: [open-phd-guiding] Re: Best guide camera on the market?

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[Ed M]

Thanks Bruce.  It is good to know my current camera will do a great job.  I appreciate your help.

[Brian Valente]

Hi Ed

>>>>Mount = Planewave L-500.  OTA = Planewave CDK20.  Focal length = 3454 mm.  Imaging camera = Apogee U230.  Pixel size = 15 microns.  No guide scope.  Off Axis Guider = Astrodon MOAG, 12 mm x 12 mm prism.  Please let me know if there is any other information you need.  Thank you.

I have nearly identical setup, The only differences between our setups is mine has AP1600ae vs L-500, and i have Proline 16803 vs your Apogee. same OAG, same OTA. 

We had to borrow an UltraStar in a pinch and so far it's worked great. We originally ordered an ASI174mm mini and we still plan to go with that, but can't complain about ultrastar

Brian

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/open-phd-guiding/ED389E25F7A3406A8AF2AC93E1441CF1%40HomeDesktop.

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Brian 

Brian Valente

portfolio brianvalentephotography.com 

[mj.w...@gmail.com]

I have a LodeStar II and 8mm x 8mm OAG, works well.

But if you didn't already have the UltraStar, I would suggest a camera with a larger sensor than 8.98mm x 6.71mm, to take advantage of your 12mm x 12mm OAG prism.

Michael

Wiltshire

[Ed M]

Thanks Brian, It is good to know the UltraStar worked well with PHD2.  At the time I bought the UltraStar I did not know what guiding software I would be using with it.

Ed