Orion #52098 Autoguiding, Using the SSAIO with ASCOM, Primary Telescope/Main Imaging Scope, Mount

The 8mm focal length F1.0 wide field lens gives a Field of View of approxi- mately 30 degrees (Figure 20).

Using the SSAIO with ASCOM

ASCOM platform 5 or later and the included ASCOM driver must be installed to use the camera in PHD Guiding. The ASCOM driver must also be installed if you wish to use anoth- er imaging program other than Orion AstroCap such as MaximDL.

1.Install the native camera driv- ers and device hardware per the installation section of this manual.

2.Install the provided ASCOM driv- ers from the CD Launcher menu.

3.Using supported ASCOM compat- ible software, such as Nebulosity or MaxIm DL, select ASCOM for the camera type.

4.From the ASCOM Camera Chooser, select Orion All-In-One Camera. Adjust the gain if neces- sary & turn ON or OFF 12bit mode via the properties.

Figure 20: The Orion Nebula as seen through the Digital finder.

Figure 21. The SSAIO setup for guiding using the Orion Mini guider with helical focuser.

Primary Telescope/Main

Imaging Scope

Your main imaging scope will be used with your main astro-imaging camera. The main imaging scope can be virtu- ally any scope suitable for your CCD or DSLR camera.

Guide Scope

You will need an additional telescope for guiding, referred to as a guide scope. The guide scope is mounted on top of, or beside the main imaging

scope. Adjustable guide scope tube

rings (available from Orion) are rec- Figure 22. PHD Guiding software. ommended and allow you to move the

guide scope around without moving the main imaging scope. The guide scope is adjusted in the same fashion as a finder scope.

Because of the high resolution and accuracy of the SSAIO, you do not need a large guide scope; any small refractor will serve well for this purpose. Separate refractor optical tube assemblies, such as the Orion Short Tube 80, make excel- lent guide scopes.

The only exception to using a guide scope is to is use an off-axis guider, which is typically made for Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes. The off-axis guider uses a prism to intercept a small portion of the light path in front of the camera, thus allowing the camera and guider to use the same telescope. Off-axis guiders require a large amount of inward focus travel which is why they are only suitable

Note: If using PHD guiding turn OFF 12 Bit mode.

If using MaxmDL the capture will be in RAW format. To convert to color for- mat first select Color->Convert Color. Next choose Generic RGB in the Select Camera drop down menu. Next change the offset to X=1 and Y =0.

The white balance should now be set to complete color conversion.

Autoguiding

The SSAIO is also a fully functional autoguider (Figure 21). The autoguider out- put is on-board the camera, allowing the autoguider cable to connect directly from the camera to your mount’s autoguider port.

for Cassegrain type telescopes.

Mount

An equatorial mount with dual axis motors and a RJ-12 autoguide port is required. Just about any equatorial mount equipped with an autoguide port will work with the SSAIO. The SSAIO is “ST-4” compatible which uses the same pin out config- uration as the first generation CCD autoguiders. Most computerized goto mounts also have this autoguide port. For short exposure deep space photography (typi- cally 45 seconds or less) the SSAIO can successfully guide with a computer- ized altitude-azimuth or fork mounted telescope, popular among computerized Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes.

However, guided exposures longer than one minute in an altitude-azimuth mount will cause field rotation to occur in the image.

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