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Guiding short focus telescopes

Started by mikebat2k, 04/15/2003 11:47PM
Posted 04/15/2003 11:47PM Opening Post
I am converting my BORG 100ED to the 115mm tube and f/4 operation, for a portable wide field film photo setup. I am wondering if I couple it to a mount like the Takahashi P2Z, should I worry about guiding it at all? The 400mm focal length seems to be short enough not to worry about the 5 arc-sec P.E. of the P2Z mount, at least for film photography. Might not be critical enough for CCD imaging with a ST-10. Not that I am planning that now, but I might want to in the future. The EM-10 is another mount I am considering, and though it has 10 sec PE, it also has dual-axis guding capability, where the P2Z only tracks in R.A.

Is the Takahashi polar finder as good as everyone says it is? For film I would want to have alignment good enough for at least a half-hour tracking. For CCD probably a minute or two is adequate, I guess. Is the polar scope capable of this accuracy, or should I prepare to spend time drifting?

What do you all think?
Posted 04/16/2003 12:11AM #1
even at 400mm, you will absolutely want to guide it. I had a 300mm telephoto that I used a guidescope on. The Tak mount is very smooth; but why take the chance?