Off Axis Guiders

Maxpoint is free for evaluation over 30 days. After that its $150

Also, you really need maximDL to get the best out of it. That sells for $399.

However, with precision polar alignment and PEC recording/playback, I'd say you could get exposures of 2 mins plus - possibly a lot more.

Roland Christen of Astrophysics reckons the 1200GTO is acurrate enough, once aligned and PEC'd, to take 15 to 30 minutes ( :shock: ) unguided exposures. I'm way off that level yet but I'll get there.

It does take a lot of hard work though Michael and on any of the few clear nights we get, its very tempting to observe rather than polar align. I went through an incremental process - one hour a night for about 4 nights. I will repeat this whenever we get clear skies again... As it happens, AP are currently designing software for their mounts that will alter tracking rates depending on where you are pointing. I hope its free!

As a suggestion, concetrate on the polar alignment first - get it as tight as you can. Then do the PEC - you don't want to record alignment issues into PEC.

Cheers

Dave