Care and Storage, Can’t Seem to Find a Guide Star

Course focus height adjustment thumbscrews

Fine focus lock thumbscrew

Prism tilt adjustment thumbscrew

Radial adjustment lock thumbscrew

I Can’t Seem to Find a Guide Star!

Don’t get discouraged if you cannot find a guide star at first. It can be chal- lenging. But once you have focused your imager and autoguider, it will be far easier to locate a guide star. If necessary, move the telescope to a densely- populated and bright star field. An open star cluster would be ideal. This will improve your chances of finding a star through the Deluxe Off-Axis Guider to obtain an accurate focus before moving to the object you want to image.

We recommend keeping the Deluxe Off-Axis Guider focus position locked for future use. You can still remove all the components for storage, but the coarse and fine focus adjustments should stay locked in place. The next time you setup your Deluxe Off-Axis Guider, your autoguider will already be parfocal with the imaging camera, saving you significant setup time.

6. Care and Storage

Be careful not to accidentally strike the delicate pick-off prism inside the guid-

Figure 8a and 8b. Guide star acquisition and focus adjustments are made by these thumbscrews

2.Insert a 1.25" eyepiece into the fine focus guiding adapter. Secure the eye- piece by tightening the socket head setscrew with the provided 1.5mm hex key (Figure 5). Locate a guide star through the guiding end of the Deluxe Off-Axis Guider using an eyepiece.

3.Unlock the radial adjustment lock thumbscrew and slowly rotate the autoguider until you see a guide star. If necessary, you can also use the prism tilt adjustment setscrew to help find a guide star (Figures 8a-8b).

4.If you can see a guide star in the eyepiece but the star is not focused, remove the eyepiece and connect your autoguider. It’s time to focus on the guide star with your autoguider to start imaging! If you cannot find a guide star, refer to “I Can’t Seem to Find a Guide Star!".

5.With your autoguider connected, use the coarse and fine focus adjust- ments on the guiding end of the Deluxe Off-Axis Guider. Do not adjust your telescope’s focuser because that will disrupt your imaging camera’s focus. Remember not to turn the fine focus guiding adapter more than two full turns counter-clockwise, or the autoguider could fall off!

6.Ensure that all setscrews are securely tightened, and be careful not to move the telescope or Deluxe Off-Axis Guider, as the guide star could drift away. Attach the autoguider if you have not already done so. You are ready to begin imaging.

Note: If you cannot get the guide star to reach focus, try to determine if you need more inward or outward travel. You may need to add or remove one of the three included spacers to allow the autoguider to reach focus.

er. If necessary, you may use a cotton swab with clearning solution (approved for multi-coated glass) to gently clean the surface of the prism.

The Deluxe Off-Axis Guider should be treated with care to last a lifetime. Store the Deluxe Off-Axis Guider in its original packaging when not in use.