Thanks for the note, Guy. I do have an LPI and I agree, it does a fine job. Recently I ordered a SBIG gizmo that will guide or image, but not both. I'm planning to try it as a guider with a film camera, and as an imager while it's being guided by the Meade LPI. When I tried the LPI its quality wasn't so hot as an imager but it did an OK job as a guider. The SBIG 204 should take better images (though I think it has a narrow field of view, especially compared with a film camera). Meanwhile, the LPI does a good enough job autoguiding that it should allow the SBIG take nice photos -- it should stack as it makes images, compensating for shifts due to imperfect guidance. Anyway, that's what I'm going to try. Best wishes, Joe
Joe,
Meade has a web cam type imager called the LPI for capturing great shots of the planets and the brighter deep sky stuff, and I know that the LPI isn't very good for the more dimly lit objects. The pictures I've seen so far, on other sites, taken with Meades DSI ranged from poor to excellent. Don't give up on using the DSI as an imager just yet. You might just have to experiment a bit to get the hang of it. Can't wait to see your pictures when you do.
Guy
Quoting Joe Bauman <bau@desnews.com>:
You can use it to guide and take images at the same time, but when I tried to get a view of Saturn the picture was so awful that I decided I wouldn't bother with the DSI to take deep-space pictures directly. Instead, I used it as a guider and let my camera take the pictures.
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