Off Axis Guiders

What are people's opinions of this OAG?
www.taurus-tech.com/mini-tracker.htm
Thanks,

Looks pretty good, the only real differance I can see between this and the Lumicon OAG is that the OAG can move the entire tracking barrel towards and away from the scope to center the guide star in the guider, where as here you actually tilt the mirror to center the guide star, the optical axis doesnt remain square with the guider.

I'm not sure if excessivly tilting the mirror would further reduce the guide star quality even further, due to the fact that its on the edge of field of view already.

You'll just have to go look for a user review and see what they say.

Seems expensive... What about a piggybacked skylux with an LPI or even a webcam?

Or is this OAG a manual thing?

You should see the price of the lumicon OAG!
I'm in two mnds what to do. I'm not sure what's the easiest or best to do. Both have pros and cons. I went the piggyack route I'd need to buy a scope and mounting rings along with a few extra counterweights. The OAG might end up cheaper.

Skylux 70 wouldn't cost much and I'm sure you could get an LPI or even a modded webcam inexpensively. I made my own mounting bracket for the ETX 70 - cheap, easy and solid. Though it attached to the C8 tube rings. You don't have tune rings I guess...

With the mass of the skylux or the ETX, and an LPI or webcam, I'd be very surprised if any counterweight was required. And I'd be very surprised if the outlay got anywhere near the price of the OAG...

And there is one major bonus - you can image through the guidescope and take nice widefield shots. You essentially have two imaging scopes!

Of course, I've yet to implement this setup myself :oops:

Cheers

Dave

I have a couple of toucam pros and an lpi so no probs there. A skylux will be approx 70euros. Mounting rings will be over 100 euros so the cost difference is little. However, as for widefield shots, I'd need a very good quality refractor, which would increase the price again.
I think I'l try and work without an oag/autoguider for the mo. I'll get accurately olar aligned and train the PEC. After that, I'll see how long an exposure I can take without an autoguider.