On Tue, Apr 6, 2021 at 10:16 PM, Tom & Barbara Coverdale wrote:
Mike et al,
This is a very interesting discussion and I am following?every comment.?But as a noob I often have more questions than answers! The one?question thats nags me thru these guiding and technical discussions is "when does one need to be this technically?sophisticated
with their guiding?" For instance I have a GM-8 and a Stellarvue 102mm and generally do not guide since I?fail in so many ways to get guiding to work for me.I?typical shoot 30sec to 3 min exposures depending on?targets and "seeing" from Atmospheric. I like my images and am learning both the?nuances of imaging but the workflow and challenges of Pixinsight. So at what focal length, exposure time etc does guiding become?truly?necessary??Thanks. Tom
Tom,
Most people use PHD2 or another app for correcting their guiding unless they are very happy with the tracking of their mount. Super steady tracking allows for sharper and rounder stars and can be used for much longer exposure times for your subframes. More advanced astroimagers are willing to pay a premium for the best possible tracking and are willing to buy mounts which can approach $10K or even much more. The tech discussions you see here are mostly centered around squeezing the maximum performance out of the moderately priced Losmandy mounts.? So you will see much about fine tuning the mechanical drive train, or using various software settings to gain the most advantage. The longer the focal length of your scope and the smaller the arcsecond diameter of the astronomical target of interest, the more accurate the guiding needs to be.?
If you are happy with your images, then you are good. The tech talk from all the scientific and engineering folks is more an expression of interest in the topic, and their willingness to apply their talents to maximizing operation. It can be overwhelming and you don't really need to absorb it all to enjoy the basic use of your mount.
John
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