Alt/AZ Guiding with Field derotator

[eow...@gmail.com]

I have the following equipment 

Planewave L350 mount In Alt/Az configuration

Planewave CDK14 with the IFR90 focuser/field rotator + back end: reducer, filter wheel and camera

I obtain round stars with 5 minute exposures via derotation without guiding. I have not gone longer than 5 minutes as I am a photometrist. But the point is that this rig tracks and derotates  superbly.

I am thinking to put a spectrograph on the scope and do some spectroscopy, the Shelyak UVEX. Guiding is via a Shelkyak guiding module and PHD2 is the preferred guiding software.

The question: Will PHD2 be able to guide a high-precision alt/az mount with a high-precision derotator?  (Given that it can do so without any guiding for at least five minutes for regular imaging.)

The answer is likely to determine if I send considerable funds to buy the UVEX.

Many thanks for your informed answer,

Ed

[bw_m...@earthlink.net]

The best answer, of course, would be to hear from someone who does this.  My answer is that I don’t really know.  I can marshal arguments both for and against so obviously one is wrong. 😊  I think you should do the experiment for yourself.  Find a way to attach a guide camera in place of your usual instrument package, building a new configuration profile for the test.  Then do a calibration and start guiding.  If things look ok on the guiding graph after a few minutes, capture a single guide camera frame using the File/Save Image function.  Keep going until you’ve run as long as you think you need to, capturing additional guide camera frames as you go.  If all the guide camera frames look good and remain aligned and the guiding numbers look ok, then it worked.

 

Actually, I will be surprised if it works but I would like to know for sure one way or the other.

 

Cheers,

Bruce

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[eow...@gmail.com]

Good idea, Bruce. 

The guiding module of the Uvex is "on axis," so I can just configure my existing camera as the guide camera and see what happens.

Ed