Contains:  Gear
Lost guide star, Tom's Pics

Lost guide star

Lost guide star, Tom's Pics

Lost guide star

Description

My Takahashi FSQ85 sits on top of my 11" RASA.  This scope has an ZWO ASI 294mm imaging camera with 3.5nm narrowband filters and a ZWO ASI1600mm as the guide camera on an OAG.  I was focusing the OAG in the dark and thought I had the set screw and the thumb screw tightened up, apparently I did not.  After my adjustments, I went back inside and seemed to be imaging ok.  I went to sleep and when i looked the next morning, I saw that I lost my guide star around 2am with a target change.  Which caused me to shutdown and close up early.  I thought to myself, I need to figure out why it couldn't lock on a guide star. 

When I went out into the observatory to mess with the other scope, I looked over at the RASA/FSQ and saw the 1600 guide camera hanging by its cables!  OOPS!  (See picture) I will say that I am super glad that I took the time to 3D print cable guides for all my ZWO cameras.  You can see them in the pic, helping to keep the cables plugged in without stress, even hanging there.  For those interested, you can download and print the cable guide from Thingiverse (Thank you Trent!!!).  This cable clamp is for a 1600 which is a common size for most ZWO cooled cameras. I have a 2600 which has a fatter body and found that through some experimentation I could expand the print a couple of percent to make its diameter large enough to fit the larger body camera.  I highly recommend the 3D printed cable guides for all your ZWO cooled cameras!

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Lost guide star, Tom's Pics