Thanks for posting, just one additional tip is to always orient your optics such that if you drop the allen key, it doesn't fall onto an optical surface. I am always strict about that, you can guess why ....:)
Thank you for watching and yes I agree, great tip. It is something I actually practice all the time now days, collimating or just about anything that needs doing with tools. Too easy to slip and then disaster. clear skies
Sorry Andy lol. Its actually a really worthwhile upgrade for long focal length scopes. Cheaper than getting a guidescope with a focal length that would work as well.
A really quality install! - I keep thinking about one of these ZWO OAG's but I just worry about the prism size even when elevated potentially mechanically vignetting parts of my 2600 sensor. Fantastic overview and tutorial anyhow mate! - Keep up the good work
Thanks Luke. Its fine with my 4/3rds sensor but with an APSC or fullframe ZWO do a M68 version which is compatible for them. It really depends on what FL you are shooting at whether you really need one. For me it was cheaper and a lot lighter than getting a 400mm guide scope
Excellent video with great clarity. The only thing I wish you had described the use of spare accessories that came with the OAG. I am new to it and struggling to set it up. I have a flattener ring adapter on the scope side and ZWO 2600 on the other side. The OAG holder touches the camera body unless it can be raised enough to clear the camera or add a spacer. I have a TAK 100-DZ doublet scope.
Hi and thank you for commenting. Its difficult to cover every aspect but raising the stalk should allow the OAD to clear the larger diameter camera. I also now have a 2600MM and bought the OAG L for that as it bolts on and kind of made to fit that camera. th-cam.com/video/DLsbk2-fp6U/w-d-xo.html
Brill! Thanks mate. That was super useful 🙂My new scope (Edge HD) is 2350mm so really OAG is going to be vital for me. (my frac is only 1000mm, so I've always managed to get away with a piggy back guidescope on that one)
Thanks so much for the vid. I was wondering what to do with my new RC 6 for guiding and this certainly helps. You mentioned a rotating connector between the camera and filter wheel, can you mention what that is? Thanks!
It was a small rotating ring i bought from TS optics. I have since tried to find it for another person whoa asked but they don’t seem to stock it anymore
Great video. However my question is of something I did the other night on my Andromeda run and I just happen to see it very similar in your pinwheel image.....I notice very faint but dark round circles ( like doughnuts) in several places on your image, the ones on mine are more noticeable - what are they and how is it fixed? I too am using OAG, 8" edge hd on EQ6R-pro with reducer - no filters or filter wheel my imaging camera asi533mc pro & guide camera asi290mm mini if that helps..Thanks in advance
They are normally dust motes and removed with good flats. I took my flats a day or so later and so some were left in place as they had either moved or new ones introduced. Best to do flats asap after or before imaging
I aes OAG. I’m surprised you’ve getting good guide stars to choose from at that focal length without needing to move it around a bit with the prism being so small. Speaking of which, my prism dropped off today while I was adjusting mine! The other issue some may encounter is getting the guide cam close enough to the prism to achieve focus. You will probably need a spacer to move the main camera a bit further back because if you just use the filter wheel and then the OAG the light path is too short. James Lamb did a good video on this.
Hi John. I have seen quite a few having issues with the smaller prism on ZWO. I did use the 120mm guidecam normally and they say this is a good match but decided to get the 290mm for the OAG which I think helps. Even at the full 1624mm I have not had any issues at all and really good guiding. The worst I have had is like just 2 stars but it only needs one to work but I do like to have as many as poss especially with multi star guiding. I didn’t need to add any spacers and achieved focus as per the set up I show. The prism falling off is not good, sounds like you got a bad one.
@@Astrobloke good to hear it’s working well for you. Might try it on my edge8 with the 0.7 reducer. You’ve got room in your setup to have the prism to main cam extended a bit by your rotator or a spacer if you wanted. The issue is for rigs that only like 45mm backfocud like my old Explore Scientific field flattener. But few will have this now I expect. It’s a good piece of kit for the price like most ZWO gear. Look forward to further videos.
Nice video.. I've been running one of these zwo oag with my Edge8 and an eq6r and have been getting similar results. Main difference is the guide cam.. I started with a asi224mc but found the sensor to be too small. I swapped it out for a 178mm which perfectly matches the zwo oag image circle. I do bin the 178mm 2x2.
@@Astrobloke I hear you... the 224mc I had already for planetary use.. The 178mm I have is actually the cool version. It was my first dedicated astro cam. Turns out it does a better job on planets than the 224mc. After getting frustrated with not finding suitable guide stars.. i figured i'd try the 178. Does look kinda funny with a cooled cam sitting on the oag, lol. Even though its a cooled cam.. I'm not using the cooler. One of these days I'll get a proper guide cam... maybe ;)
Need that camera rotator! Can't rotate mine to where I want it - what do you have for rotator and it adds a few mm to back focus? I guess that's okay? I was 20mm too far anyway and had no issues.
Very interesting vid, thanks. Quick question, how do you focus your guide camera? Is there a thread or other mechanism that enables you to finely adjust and hold focus? Thanks.
Thank you. The standard holder just allows you to slide the camera up and down to get focus so can be fiddly. Zwo sell a helical focuser that replaces that. I bought one from Baader. Makes it a lot easier
Thank you for commenting. The minmo stands for minimum movement. This is how much the star centroid needs to move before guide pulse sends a command to correct tracking. When doing a guide assistant these will be adjusted based on the guide characteristics of the mount and can vary greatly depending on the image scale of your guide camera and focal length. With an OAG and guiding at 1200mm those were the recommended min mo settings for my set up
Nice Video mate . I have had issues with mine losing the guide stars even though I have the same camera and off axis guider. Any tips? Its definitely in focus and guides great but then will lose the star sometimes.
I had that the first time I used it but then read that most that use OAG bin the camera in PHD2 to help with that. So thats what I did and so far, touch wood its not had any problems losing the guide star.
It was a small simple rotator by TS optics. I just checked and I am not sure they still sell it as I bought it last year, i was looking for a link for you
I find I only get maybe 4-5 stars on average, It hasn't hugely brought improvements to the oag numbers but they are good at the moment anyway. Most of last night was at 0.4 total rms and it never went higher than 0.5 so very happy with that. seeing was good mind.
The focus changes are very small and i have not found have any detrimental effect on the OAG focus at all. I have been through the whole range of LRGB SHO without any issues.
@@Astrobloke as a curiosity what is the min - max offset your filters. I'm building an RC8 setup myself and I tend to go for guiding with a 80/320mm instead of OAG, my luminance is 0 , IDAS LPS P2 is at +190 offset and HA astronomik is at -220 so my offset is quite high as I use 3 different manufacturers on my EFW
@@crisansor you are not miles off with 320mm (I only had a 240mm guidescope) but OAG should be better and also cut the weight with the RC8. Biggest offset was between L and Ha and thats 427. I have read that perfect focus is not necessary with guide cam and phd2 so there is a fair bit of tolerance it seems
Another great tutorial Glenn. I was a bit put off by the idea of using an OAG. But now it is less intimidating and will go for it when I upgrade to RC8. By the way, what imaging camera are you using with RC8? Thanks and keep up the great work!
Hi Ray. Thanks for the comment. I use an ASI294mm on the RC which has worked really well. The OAG once in focus is great and definitely improves your guiding greatly.
@@Astrobloke Thanks for your reply Glenn. In fact I am currently seeing your M51 Galaxy video where there is reference to it in comments. Another item in wish list :)
Finally getting myself around to installing my OAG - this has been helpful. Cheers mate.
Cheers Simon. Any issues just give me a shout. Can take a bit of adjusting.
@@Astrobloke thanks as always mate
Nicely put together video Glenn looks like your guiding graph is looking super. 👍🔭
Thanks Ollie. Yes much happier with it now. Should have done it ages ago really
Thank you for the very detailed instruction!
Hi and you are welcome. Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment
Very helpful-and much more useful than the ZWO manual. Thanks much for making this.
Glad it was helpful! Thank you for taking the time to comment
Excellent video Glenn. You explain stuff so well
Thank you mate, appreciate that
Very helpful I am going to get one for my 1500mm Mak cas
Glad it was helpful Mark and it should work very well for that long focal length, good luck and clear skies
Thanks Glenn, helpful video as always.
You’re welcome
Thanks for posting, just one additional tip is to always orient your optics such that if you drop the allen key, it doesn't fall onto an optical surface. I am always strict about that, you can guess why ....:)
Thank you for watching and yes I agree, great tip. It is something I actually practice all the time now days, collimating or just about anything that needs doing with tools. Too easy to slip and then disaster. clear skies
Every time I watch one of your videos I end up spending money :-). This is something I’ve been thinking about doing for some time. Great video cheers.
Sorry Andy lol. Its actually a really worthwhile upgrade for long focal length scopes. Cheaper than getting a guidescope with a focal length that would work as well.
Same is happening to me :)
Great video Glenn, with any luck I’ll be setting one up later next week!
Thank you Joe. I've heard you'll need to upgrade to an EQ8 however to carry that Celestron OAG lol
@@Astrobloke Hey man you ain’t kidding, that thing’s a monster!
Thanks for the vid. Got one coming for my 10inch Meade (focal length 2500mm) so hopefully i can get it working ok.
I am sure you will. Makes a big difference
A really quality install! - I keep thinking about one of these ZWO OAG's but I just worry about the prism size even when elevated potentially mechanically vignetting parts of my 2600 sensor.
Fantastic overview and tutorial anyhow mate! - Keep up the good work
Thanks Luke. Its fine with my 4/3rds sensor but with an APSC or fullframe ZWO do a M68 version which is compatible for them. It really depends on what FL you are shooting at whether you really need one. For me it was cheaper and a lot lighter than getting a 400mm guide scope
Excellent video with great clarity. The only thing I wish you had described the use of spare accessories that came with the OAG. I am new to it and struggling to set it up. I have a flattener ring adapter on the scope side and ZWO 2600 on the other side. The OAG holder touches the camera body unless it can be raised enough to clear the camera or add a spacer. I have a TAK 100-DZ doublet scope.
Hi and thank you for commenting. Its difficult to cover every aspect but raising the stalk should allow the OAD to clear the larger diameter camera. I also now have a 2600MM and bought the OAG L for that as it bolts on and kind of made to fit that camera. th-cam.com/video/DLsbk2-fp6U/w-d-xo.html
Great video
Glad you enjoyed it
great explanation 👏
Glad it helps
Brill! Thanks mate. That was super useful 🙂My new scope (Edge HD) is 2350mm so really OAG is going to be vital for me. (my frac is only 1000mm, so I've always managed to get away with a piggy back guidescope on that one)
Glad it helped! When you get to those longer focal lengths OAG is really the only solution
Thanks so much for the vid. I was wondering what to do with my new RC 6 for guiding and this certainly helps. You mentioned a rotating connector between the camera and filter wheel, can you mention what that is? Thanks!
It was a small rotating ring i bought from TS optics. I have since tried to find it for another person whoa asked but they don’t seem to stock it anymore
Great video. However my question is of something I did the other night on my Andromeda run and I just happen to see it very similar in your pinwheel image.....I notice very faint but dark round circles ( like doughnuts) in several places on your image, the ones on mine are more noticeable - what are they and how is it fixed? I too am using OAG, 8" edge hd on EQ6R-pro with reducer - no filters or filter wheel my imaging camera asi533mc pro & guide camera asi290mm mini if that helps..Thanks in advance
They are normally dust motes and removed with good flats. I took my flats a day or so later and so some were left in place as they had either moved or new ones introduced. Best to do flats asap after or before imaging
I aes OAG. I’m surprised you’ve getting good guide stars to choose from at that focal length without needing to move it around a bit with the prism being so small. Speaking of which, my prism dropped off today while I was adjusting mine! The other issue some may encounter is getting the guide cam close enough to the prism to achieve focus. You will probably need a spacer to move the main camera a bit further back because if you just use the filter wheel and then the OAG the light path is too short. James Lamb did a good video on this.
Hi John. I have seen quite a few having issues with the smaller prism on ZWO. I did use the 120mm guidecam normally and they say this is a good match but decided to get the 290mm for the OAG which I think helps. Even at the full 1624mm I have not had any issues at all and really good guiding. The worst I have had is like just 2 stars but it only needs one to work but I do like to have as many as poss especially with multi star guiding. I didn’t need to add any spacers and achieved focus as per the set up I show. The prism falling off is not good, sounds like you got a bad one.
@@Astrobloke good to hear it’s working well for you. Might try it on my edge8 with the 0.7 reducer. You’ve got room in your setup to have the prism to main cam extended a bit by your rotator or a spacer if you wanted. The issue is for rigs that only like 45mm backfocud like my old Explore Scientific field flattener. But few will have this now I expect. It’s a good piece of kit for the price like most ZWO gear. Look forward to further videos.
Nice video.. I've been running one of these zwo oag with my Edge8 and an eq6r and have been getting similar results. Main difference is the guide cam.. I started with a asi224mc but found the sensor to be too small. I swapped it out for a 178mm which perfectly matches the zwo oag image circle. I do bin the 178mm 2x2.
Thanks DSO. I think with OAG mono is advisable. I would have liked a 178mm but was quite a bit more money so opted for the 290mm, cheap skate me lol.
@@Astrobloke I hear you... the 224mc I had already for planetary use.. The 178mm I have is actually the cool version. It was my first dedicated astro cam. Turns out it does a better job on planets than the 224mc. After getting frustrated with not finding suitable guide stars.. i figured i'd try the 178. Does look kinda funny with a cooled cam sitting on the oag, lol. Even though its a cooled cam.. I'm not using the cooler. One of these days I'll get a proper guide cam... maybe ;)
Need that camera rotator! Can't rotate mine to where I want it - what do you have for rotator and it adds a few mm to back focus? I guess that's okay? I was 20mm too far anyway and had no issues.
The rotator adds about 4mm. I bought it from teleskop-expess. But since buying this a couple of years ago I have not see one since.
Very interesting vid, thanks. Quick question, how do you focus your guide camera? Is there a thread or other mechanism that enables you to finely adjust and hold focus? Thanks.
Thank you. The standard holder just allows you to slide the camera up and down to get focus so can be fiddly. Zwo sell a helical focuser that replaces that. I bought one from Baader. Makes it a lot easier
How would you spin the oag when a telescope is attached? Doesn’t make sense unless it really spins independently
It ends up turning the filter wheel and camera also which could spoil framing. I have added since the video a rotator to counteract this issue
Great video, thank you. What does MnMo mean in Phd2? You have set those at really high values.
Thank you for commenting. The minmo stands for minimum movement. This is how much the star centroid needs to move before guide pulse sends a command to correct tracking. When doing a guide assistant these will be adjusted based on the guide characteristics of the mount and can vary greatly depending on the image scale of your guide camera and focal length. With an OAG and guiding at 1200mm those were the recommended min mo settings for my set up
Hi, can you tell me what rotator you use with the ASI pro camera?
I bought it some time back from Telekop-express through ebay. I have since looked for another and cannot find it anywhere.
Nice Video mate . I have had issues with mine losing the guide stars even though I have the same camera and off axis guider. Any tips? Its definitely in focus and guides great but then will lose the star sometimes.
I had that the first time I used it but then read that most that use OAG bin the camera in PHD2 to help with that. So thats what I did and so far, touch wood its not had any problems losing the guide star.
hello, great video, do you remember which rotation adapter this is?
Hi. I bought it some time ago from TS optics. They don’t seem to stock it anymore though which is a shame as its quite useful
Nice video. What are you using to rotate the main imaging camera @6:53?
It was a small simple rotator by TS optics. I just checked and I am not sure they still sell it as I bought it last year, i was looking for a link for you
Does multi-state guiding matter with OAG?
I find I only get maybe 4-5 stars on average, It hasn't hugely brought improvements to the oag numbers but they are good at the moment anyway. Most of last night was at 0.4 total rms and it never went higher than 0.5 so very happy with that. seeing was good mind.
What's the rotator thing you've got behind the filter wheel?!
Hi Dennis. Its just a very simple rotating ring that I found on TSOptics via ebay. I tried to find a link but they don't seem to stock it anymore.
Another great video, congrats. Did you have any issues with the OAG getting defocused due to the offset between filters in the wheel?
The focus changes are very small and i have not found have any detrimental effect on the OAG focus at all. I have been through the whole range of LRGB SHO without any issues.
@@Astrobloke as a curiosity what is the min - max offset your filters. I'm building an RC8 setup myself and I tend to go for guiding with a 80/320mm instead of OAG, my luminance is 0 , IDAS LPS P2 is at +190 offset and HA astronomik is at -220 so my offset is quite high as I use 3 different manufacturers on my EFW
@@crisansor you are not miles off with 320mm (I only had a 240mm guidescope) but OAG should be better and also cut the weight with the RC8. Biggest offset was between L and Ha and thats 427. I have read that perfect focus is not necessary with guide cam and phd2 so there is a fair bit of tolerance it seems
Can ask how many pixels you dither cheers
Hello, the settings for dithering is at 5px, hope that is helpful
What rotating ring do you have to rotate your camera?
It was originally sold by TS optics but they don't seem to stock it anymore so unable to provide any links, sorry
👍
Thanks
Another great tutorial Glenn. I was a bit put off by the idea of using an OAG. But now it is less intimidating and will go for it when I upgrade to RC8. By the way, what imaging camera are you using with RC8? Thanks and keep up the great work!
Hi Ray. Thanks for the comment. I use an ASI294mm on the RC which has worked really well. The OAG once in focus is great and definitely improves your guiding greatly.
@@Astrobloke Thanks for your reply Glenn. In fact I am currently seeing your M51 Galaxy video where there is reference to it in comments. Another item in wish list :)
Not screwed on?
Are you referring to the OAG L which is screwed with 4 bolts onto the EFW. The original OAG can only be fitted as shown
Really good demo, thank you for doing this 👍🏻
Glad you liked it!
👍
Thanks