Which guider?

Hi. I bought a Meade 10" LX200 recently, and have been very much enjoying the views. I want to try my hand at CCD imaging. I bought a beginer CCD camera and software package(Meade DSI) and I'm getting an f3.3 focal reducer. My dillema is whether to buy an off-axis guider, or a flip-mirror device. I understand the design differences between the two, but I don't know which would be better to use. The off-axis guider requires the use of a T-adapter, whereas the CCD camera mounts directly onto the flip-mirror. But the flip-mirror interupts the light going to the camera, whereas the guider does not. I would welcome any guidance here, as well as any sugestions with CCD imaging in general. Thanks and clear skys! :S

Ron,
Welcome to the world of imaging. I might suggest not guiding at all to begin with. With my LX90 I can get up to 45 second images at f/3.3 (but with vignetting) and 30 seconds pretty consistently with a 6.3 reducer (far less vignetting) using an MX716 camera. I stack these for the final "long exposure" image. I have found that it helped my learning curve by letting me focus on image acquisition and not worry about the added hassles of guiding. One step at a time. With your LX200, you should do even better than with an LX90. Pretty much all the Messiers and thousands of NGC objects will easily be within your reach without having to go into multiple minute exposures. The only downside is the number of images you'll wind up working with--and you do want lots of time on all but the brightest DSO's, easily an hour or more. Sometimes much more! But there's lots of software that make even hundreds of images easy to align and combine.
Anyway, keep asking questions and go out and have fun!
Larry

"I'm using A/Z mode. I didn't get a wedge because I was told it would effectively disable the GOTO capabilities of the scope. Is rotation noticable in 30 sec or so exposures? "
Hi Ron,
I shoot with a 12" LX200 on the Meade Super Wedge and the goto functions are just as good as in alt/az, so I don't know why someone would tell you this...Maybe I'm just not reading your statement right..
I don't think a guider would be of any use in alt/az mod, as field rotation would be showing up in a matter of minutes, so like others have said, 30 to 45 second shots would be good. My suggestion would be to go ahead and practice with your setup as is, but get a wedge as soon as possible. With a good polar alignment (using the iteration and/or the drift method), you should be able to get at least 2 to 3 minute exposures unguided, even longer if you go with an off-axis guider (Lumicon's giant easy guider has built in focal reducers) or an independant guide scope.
I hope this helps,
Don Spencer