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INDI Library v2.0.6 is Released (02 Feb 2024)

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

Guide Scope Offset

  • Posts: 91
  • Thank you received: 5
I would appreciate an option to set an "offset" for the guidescope. The idea behind this is, that I use my guide scope on a regular basis to align my scope. The FOV of my guide scope is >100 arcminutes compared to 23 arcminutes of my primary scope with DSLR. If I use a planetary imager, the FOV becomes even smaller to the point where I can not use my primary scope for auto alignment. In addtion, a 1 sec exposure of my guide scope is often sufficient ot extract 50 - 150 valid sources or even more compared to mostly 10 sec with the DSLR. A valid solver solution is than found with the guide scope almost instantanously, whereas the solution with the primary scope may take a couple of secs longer.
Now, I have the FOV of my guide scope physically aligned to the FOV of my primary scope, but that alignment is prone to change over time and with mounting / dismounting, etc. So the idea is to have an alignment option via software, where you first auto align your primary scope with your main camera and than do a second align with the guide scope and guide cam. The difference (RA,Dec) is stored as an offset and could be updated quite conveniently in comparison to fiddle with the screws of the Guide Scope fixture.
The same thing is being done within the Celestron Starsense. I don´t use this device and they certainly had different reasons to use software calibration, but the idea of a storable offset sounds good to me.
Anybody else interested ?
Cheers
Dirk
3 years 7 months ago #58302

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  • Posts: 437
  • Thank you received: 31

Replied by Paul on topic Guide Scope Offset

Dirk,

I don't really see a need for this, you really want to ensure your primary camera is aligned correctly, regardless of where your guide camera is pointing.

If you use the guide camera for alignment any misadjustment over time will cause any setting you have to be unpredictable and unreliable.

Paul
3 years 7 months ago #58304

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