Re: [APML]: Anyone Autoguiding a G-11 with a Pictor XT?

[Wil Milan <wmilan@airdigital.com>]

The Astro-Photography Mailing List
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Robert Hoyle wrote:
> 
> And for some people its just hard not to like a lot of things about these little
> units that cost less than $400, fit easily in the palm of your hand, weigh less than
> a reticle eyepiece, require no external control box, connector cords, or software,
> and  -- if one can get past the gremlins of inadequate polar alignment, wind, film
> buckling, etc. -- provide perfectly round little star images, seemingly for as long
> as you want to auto-guide.

Most of those things are true of any autoguider. And the biggest
difference -- the differenc in price, which is what initially
swayed me to go with the 201xt over an ST-4 -- is much less of a
factor now that ST-4s are commonly available for $450 - $475.
Adding in the often-required $100 relay interface (built into the
ST-4 but an option for the 201xt) the difference in price becomes
very small. Considering the multiple and very significant
functional advantages of the ST-4, if I were shopping autoguiders
today that would make the ST-4 a slam dunk. (I hope our
non-American friends will forgive the colloquial Americanism
:-).)

> Maybe this is somewhat of a non-sequitur, but my main point in all this is that I
> think we as film astrophotographers should be more supportive of having Meade enter
> into this field of auto-guiding, that up until now has had only one player -- SBIG --
> and support their efforts *where we can*.  The Meade auto-guiders have a place,
> though they may not be for everyone.  And with a little encouragement they might even
> become better.

I agree with that, that competitors should be encouraged. But an
important component of that is pointing out that Meade has fallen
very short of SBIG's standard in autoguiders, and that to be up
to par they really need to try again.

They also need to star telling the truth, I think. They claim
that the 201xt can guide on 12th magnitude stars, which is wild
fantasy on any typical scope. I think that nothing bothers me
more about Meade's advertising than the wildly overstated
performance claims (such as the claim that the ETX is a match for
an Questar ever made -- I notice they finally stopped printing
that in the ads). 

> BTW, maybe it is a laughing matter, but it is also an interesting point about Jason
> Ware.  Wonder if he's still using an SBIG auto-guider (or do you even need one for
> his new toy, the Meade Schmidt-Camera)?

You still need an autoguider for that, and fact probably more so.
Scopes capable of very high resolution (Schmidt cameras,
hyperbolic astrographs, etc.) require more accurate guiding to
achieve optimum performance, and there's no denying that a good
autoguider can guide better than a human under almost all
circumstances. I'd bet nickels to donuts that Jason Ware does
indeed use an autoguider with the Schmidt camera.


Wil M.      
mailto:wmilan@airdigital.com
Astrophoto web site: http://www.airdigital.com/astrophoto.html
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"When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, 
the moon and the stars which You have set in place, 
what is Man that you are mindful of him, 
or the son of Man that you care for him?"  -- Psalm 8