Does ASIAIR Mini need a guide camera or it can use main camera for guiding?

Constantine

Hi, guys! Can it use only one camera for all processes. Im just wary about weight on my Celestron AVX mount

Corsair

Are you talking about guiding or tracking?

In regards to guiding:
Whether you have an ASIAIR Pro / Plus (32GB or 256GB model) / Mini - in fact no matter what system you have (a computer running N.I.N.A or Sharpcap or whatever) - you need some form of guide camera and guide scope to do guiding.

This could be:

A Guide Scope and Guide Camera; or
An Off Axis Guider and Guide Camera (the Off Axis Guider using your main telescope); or
Using the brand new Duo camera from ZWO which has a guide camera and main camera built into one and both just use your main telescope.

This is done in ADDITION to your main camera and improves the accuracy of your mounts ability track an object over a longer period of time.

Your AVX mount should be able to handle the additional guiding equipment. However, to check, we need you to list all the equipment you will have connect to your telescope and carried by your mount.

In regards to tracking only - with no guiding:
This depends on your mount, main camera and the focal length of your telescope (taking into account any reducer or barlow if you use one).

Some mounts - such as the HEQ5 Pro and (I think - I'm not sure) the AVX mount - are able to do unguided, only mount tracking, astrophotography but it will be limited to short exposures (usually no more than 60 second exposures).

Actually, this is the method used often used by people (such as myself) who do EAA (electronically assisted astronomy) rather than astrophotography since traditional astrophotography usually involves taking longer exposures over a longer period of time - hence the need for guiding if doing traditional astrophotography.

For me - with my HEQ5 Pro mount - I often do 10 minutes, of 30 second exposures, unguided (so mount tracking only) in Live Stacking mode with C8 SCT using a f/6.3 reducer and an ASI294MC Pro camera cooled to 0°C with gain of 121.

A mount such as the AM5/AM3, though, would not do well unguided with a long focal length telescope such as the C8 SCT. So if I had an AM5/AM3 mount - I would probably need to invest in guiding equipment.

Constantine

I mean guiding for track an object over a longer period of time. My mount is Celestron Advanced VX with 9.25" EdgeHD tube. It's a little heavy for AVX mount and Im trying to minimise weight. I wanna do something like: Advanced VX + ASIAIR Mini + ASI533MC Pro with no using one more guide camera with my stock finder for example. As I see autoguiding system can use signal from astrocamera without one more special camera like ASI120MM Mini

Corsair

Constantine
In order to use guiding you need to use guide camera in one of the three ways I mentioned.

You can't guide with just the main camera. If you only have a main camera you are limited to mount tracking only.

Constantine

Corsair Thanks. Ive got you. I just thought that my way has logic and can be realised in ASIAIR

fade2black

Your main camera cannot simultaneously take 3-5 sec images to use for guiding and also take the long exposures required for your image. That's why you need a dedicated guide camera.