Over the 2021/2022 winter I bought a ZWO OAG. I spent those cold months figuring out how to incorporate this device into my set-up. My post Adding an Off-Axis Guider to my Set-up goes into lots of detail regarding back focus requirements for my two telescopes (Celestron 8” EdgeHD SCT and a Skywatcher BK80ED refractor). It wasn’t until May that I finally got a chance to use my set-up “under the stars”. Don’t let your imaging camera drop to the ground! My post “First Light” using an Off-Axis Guider explains…
Tag: Guiding
Declination Backlash…my story
I use a Celestron CGEM for my mount. It suffers from roughly 50 arc-seconds of declination backlash…which is big. This causes big headaches when trying to autoguide. I have invented a program I call “Backlash Assistant” which dramatically reduces the effect of declination backlash while autoguiding. The program is synchronized with PHD2 Guiding and operates in parallel with PHD2 to quickly move my declination axis thru its backlash such that my autoguiding barely notices what is happening. So… What is declination backlash? Most mounts use motors coupled to multiple sets…