Celestron NexGuide Autoguider testing result

This picture was using Meade DSI Pro II mono, used auto stack, 5.7 seconds each, totally 998 seconds. I did not use ENVISAGE alignment to correct rotation to see what happend on guiding result.

Currently the result is positive when found a brighter star as a guiding star.

When the sky with light pollution and visual magnitude only can see Polaris...then don't switch on, it is nothing to do...guider will not function properly due to light pollution and high noise.

I also set up PEC to HEQ5 but seems HEQ5 only can tracing without problem in 1 mins by itself. Start from 80 sec can see the delay on photos. But find a brighter star and switching on NexGuide Autoguider can have a very accuracy results even 998 seconds is still pinpoint stars.


My testing comments as below:

1. Menu is simple to understand

2. Auto Cal: faster than PHD guding, it takes around 2 to 3 mins. Normally , brighter star may down to 2 mins or less for auto cal.

3. Noise setting: read the handbook very carefully on Noise setting method. You need to reduce Noise lower to prevent guider confuse and miss guding. Adjust exprosure time and Noise to find a low noise then start guiding.

Well, hope you enjoy the accuracy guiding, this is my final testing result.


Above testing equipment:

SkyWatcher ED 80 F600

SkyWatcher A80 F400 guide scope
HEQ5 mount

Meade DSI Pro II mono CCD

NexGuide Autoguider

NexGuide Autoguider測試結論

為了測試這台導星儀，前幾天上了合歡山，但是...算了...遺憾收場，因為去住了一個沒有北極星的民宿，而且事前自以為可以利用其他的漂移法對準，所以沒到鳶峰停車場去...所以...失敗



這幾天白天的天氣實在不錯，但是天上總是有薄薄的雲與我們為伴，所以也是沒機會測試。昨夜因為雲層稍微薄了些，只能用極望看到北極星，目視根本看不到，所以想當然爾一定是光害嚴重囉! 只能拿這超亮的群星中隱約還看的清楚的牛郎來當引導星。



這張照片是使用Meade DSI Pro II mono所拍攝的，採用自動疊合，每張5.7秒，總共998秒的結果。ENVISAGE的設定放棄使用內部可以校正旋轉位移的方式去疊合，主要是要看導星的準度。目前亮星的導星成績是:很準

至於有嚴重光害的地方，基本上是無法使用，個人感覺是有光害的地方，僅適合肉眼觀測，所以導星啟動的目的不大，使用赤道儀本身的自由追蹤就夠用了。



昨天另外把pec 也設定進去HEQ5，不過自由追蹤看起來HEQ5似乎還是只有一分鐘的準度，超過八十秒左右，HEQ5會開始拉線，但是上了NexGuide Autoguider之後，998秒還是完美星點。



希望颱風走後可以有機會測試一下暗星，不過先下了結論給大家參考



1. 操作難易: 簡單



2. 導星初期校正: 快速，約2~3分鐘內可以完成，通常大約兩分鐘內，可能與接收到的影像強度有關



3. 需要注意的部份: Noise的設定要仔細看說明書上的解釋，基本上Noise的設定與曝光時間的配合要調適合宜，noise太高的情況下，很容易誤判，所以看到太多noise時候，要減少曝光時間來配合。



希望大家使用愉快囉! 測試文章應該就此結束。


以上測試使用設備:

SkyWatcher ED 80 F600 主鏡
SkyWatcher A80 F400 導星鏡
HEQ5赤道儀
Meade DSI Pro II mono CCD
NexGuide Autoguider 導星

NexGuide Autoguider testing review

This is English version of testing result to share with my friends.

I was quite happy to have NexGuide autoguider on last Friday but quite disappointed the weather was so bad on Friday night.

Saturday night waiting until mid night around 12 oclock for first time testing it.
Very afraid the weather like yesterday , let me thought someone using Doraemon's tool to made so much cloud in the sky.

Not very accurate to do polarize and used 1 star alignment on HEQ5. Although, I read the manual in advance at least three times but touch the real NexGuide is another story. Got some trouble on the first hour to operating it.

Look at the hand control...it's cute..



You need select and lock star before select guiding. Due to my guidescope is not parallel with main telescope, I spent coule mins to adjust it and finding the
brightness star for auto cal.

I believe my DSI pro II is more sensitive then this one. I spent much time to finding star...May be I need to fine tune some parameter to improve it.


No other experience to compare with other standalone guider, so I can only share with the experience when I using PHD guding. It is more faster then PHD guding. In the period of testing, some of auto cal only spent around 1 mins. I did auto cal many times yesterday. Longest time around 3 mins on auto cal.

The most important point is ...find a brightness star....



When found the guide star, you can move it to center of display or just leave it on
original position. NexGuide can calculating the X and Y Axis and show on display panel text area which is on leftside.

You can also see the delta R, delta D real time.

First couple photos were failed due to my legs touched tripod or touched scope. Only choise these three for your reference.

These three photos were tooking by EOS 350D. 1 and 2 was 300seconds, 3rd was 200 seconds.

I will share more in future for longer exposure time and share it next time.

NextGuide Autoguider測試

週休二日的第一天等不到星空的感覺真的還蠻失望的，雖然是搶第一個發表使用心得，不過使用上還是需要點時間吧! 昨夜好不容易熬到半夜12點左右，雲稍微少了些之後，搶在雲隙間粗略的極軸對準，然後就用快速的一顆星校對之後，匆忙的開拍，深怕這老天不知道會不會又像昨天吊足人的胃口，瞬間又好像用的哆啦A夢的雲製造機做了一堆雲。

剛開始用的時候，真的還不知道怎樣做才是正確步驟。先前有仔細看過說明書的每一頁，雖然那原文都不算難懂，不過拿到東西實際操作還真的是不太一樣的感覺。

看看這控制手把的樣子，通過電的樣子在暗夜中，顯得有點可愛耶!



選了畫面的鎖定之後，按下Guiding就可以鎖定所挑選到的亮星來當成導星，剛開始因為導星鏡的軸並不平行，所以還花了不少時間對焦並且瞧了半天才調整到接近的星空附近比較亮的星。

不過看起來這個導星儀，應該感度還是比不上我原來在用的DSI pro II的感度，因為不太容易找到星星去導，加上感光晶片面積有點點小，所以更不容易。不過這也可能是我還不夠熟悉吧!



導星校正的速度比平常用的PHD guiding要快很多，校正的時間會出現上面的畫面，中間那個TMR A 出現後，不久會有另外一個TMR B出現，等兩個都校正好之後，就出現下面的畫面了。
這時候就開始導星。下次我來拍個簡單的操作示範影片好了，不過先等我弄清楚所有技巧吧!



當抓到導星校正好之後，如果參考星的位置有移動到中心點，看起來就是這樣。如果沒有移動到中心點，當它算出與中心位置的差異數字，並不會把十字標放進導星，而是直接顯示XY座標在畫面上。就是在dR dD那邊會多XY座標出來。

因為實在有點累，可能極軸也不是很認真的去對，所以剛開始的好多張都拉線嚴重，也讓我頭上出現了三條線...幸好應該都是操作不正確的關係，挑選了以下三張，都是300秒，最後一張200秒。其間我最高有弄到700秒的照片，但那幾張中途應該是設備碰到或者被我打瞌睡給動到，都有流星狀星點拖線，所以就沒貼出來了。等下回有機會做更仔細測試，再貼出來分享。

這三張都是單張使用EOS350D拍下的原始照片，給各位前輩們參考囉!

NexGuide Autoguider - open box

This is English version of open box to share with my foreign friends.

This morning, UPS called to my office desk phone and requested to sending a stuff which I ordered from US.
There were two small box inside and I using my mobile phone took some of photos.

Let's look at these two boxes.!

I believed most of you knowing what the filter wheel can do for us. And it is a very convenient tool for
astrophotography. And we don't have to worry about filter lens falling and broken on ground in the dark night. Hope you are
not facing such trouble in future.

Today , the most important thing is this guider..

I ordered it around mid of July and got a lot of trouble on the credit card payment due to vendor's system problem at a short period. And I found this stuffs on Celestron on the same day when they published on official web page.

Of course, many astrophotographer said it is cheaper than most of similar productions in the market, they wish to look at the testing result then see what happen. Of course, the reason why I tried this one due to tight budget.. :-)

I believe most of astrophotographer know what is the filter wheel can do, I only put some of pictures for your reference.

Ok, let's back to autoguider. Following is manual for it.

Hand controller and some of cables. And they also gave a RJ45 connector. I thing it is for protection on the socket. Nice and kind thinking.

The size is more smaller than my expectation. You can compare the mouse size, it is quite compact

for traveller. But I still worry about the guiding result... :-)

If the result is not so good....I think...I will..I must be.... very hard and let everyone know.... :-)

the display panel is quite small but seems the star displaying zone on right hand side is enough for

tracking star when the first power on I saw.

Actually, only comments is the ugly battery box... I really don't like the design. I should make a new one by myself in future.

Ok, good luck to me in the night for testing. I will share it later when I have chance to do it.

Back to me later on...

Cheers my friends...

新導星道具-NexGuide Autoguider開箱

早上UPS早早就來公司，打電話找我送東西來。來了個小箱子，裡面有了兩個小盒子。
這恐怕是個人最有耐性的一次網購，早在七月中就已經訂購的產品，今天才姍姍來遲的從美國寄過來。 為了搶第一開箱，打破個人向來低調不發開箱文的習慣，希望這是台灣地區的首發...我就自己先來當白老鼠吧! 因為沒帶相機出門，所以就用手機拍囉!

先來看看這兩個小盒子內的東西吧!

相信很多老手都知道這道具的用途，除了拍攝星空好用外，行星觀察時候，也很方便。至少不必擔心黑漆嗎烏的星空下，濾鏡不小心掉到地上慘遭踩破的情況...我還沒發生過，但是如果不小心，相信很快會發生。

今天的重點是這個名叫NexGuide autoguider的道具了。

其實說巧不巧，剛好Celestron在官網發表這款的當天，剛好上去看他們的產品，發現這東西的價位真的很平民化，比起SBIG系列的真的天差地別，不過人家的東西有一定的評價，這東西那麼便宜不知道效果如何? 其實也有點冒險啦!

因為大家對濾鏡盤的了解較多，所以就簡單幾張照片帶過囉!

回到導星玩具上面，這是完整的說明書

控制手把與附上的接線，還有RJ45接頭，我猜應該是保護接點用的。算他們貼心!

實體大小比我想像中來的小很多耶! 特別把滑鼠放在旁邊比較...體重也很輕...

不知道效果如何....(小小擔心) 如果日後測試效果不好....我一定要努力的大大的...

用力的...非常用力的批判Celestron一番!

配上這小小的螢幕，好像也是比我預期的還小耶....這部分真的有點詫異!不過LCD應該也不算便宜的吧! 而且還有影像功能....要是效果不好....我....絕對...不....放...過...Celestron的啦.... :-)

不過整體看起來真的比我預期的要美多了....唯一不滿的就是這個醜醜的六伏特電池盒啦!

真的醜爆了~我自己做的都比較好看...改天來發篇電池盒DIY好了!

先說到這邊囉! 等天空狀況好了，一定補發測試結果與各位前輩們分享!

希望大家每天都有美好星空可以看哦!