ASI120 Guiding Issues

SpaceChef

Hello, I just set up a new OAG with an ASI120 with a Redcat51. While I was able to focus the redcat, I was unable for the life of me able to get the guide cam to show anything of value. I use the same OAG setup with an ED127 and works fine. One thing I did notice is the gain was being maxed out to 100 but on the ED127, the Gain is at 300 and is what works. Im not sure of the disconnect or if its a settings issue. I tried all levels of gain, quick exposures and long exposures. I have a pic bellow of the 120 display as well as the redcat view.

Kevin_A

Unfortunately the 120mm mini is not a good camera for an OAG setup. Tiny sensor plus no very high gain settings. You may need to put the gain up to about 68 to get stars. I use both 290 and 220 guide cams for my OAG setups and use my two 120 minis for guide scopes only.
The chip is so small that on bigger scopes, some areas of the sky lack bright enough stars. 3s exposures should give you some stars but maybe there were little in the area you were aiming at.

SpaceChef

Kevin_A I agree with its limitations, however I was running the 120 on an ED127OAG on the same night and was able to guide fine. That set up allowed a gain of 350but the RC52 topped out at 100. Reading all of the issues with the recent firmware im not sure if its software related or not

Kevin_A

Maybe I am not following properly…. but the main camera higher gain of 300-350 in asiair has no reflection to how the guide camera works. The 120 guide camera gain does not go over 100 and does not care what scope it is used in and will always have a low, med and high setting of 0, 28, 48 gain in asiair. You can overide this and go up to about 100 max i believe. The 120 mini will not go up to 300 gain.

SpaceChef

Kevin_A I was slightly mistaken, my other OAG cam is a 220mini, that gain is being allowed to 600 max

Kevin_A

Ok, that makes more sense. I would try putting the gain at between 68 to 88 in asiair for the 120mm mini and see if you stars seeing any stars. You can even crank it to its highest on the slider bar too.