MartyT
professor emeritus
Reged: 09/28/07
Posts: 682
Loc: Kansas City
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I placed an order for the KWIQ Guider setup today from KW Telescope (http://www.kwtelescope.com/KWT_KWIQ.htm) in Canada.
The exchange rate is extremely favorable now for US residents - $375CDN works out to just under $300USD - that includes the QHY5 camera and 50mm guide scope.
Hope to get it in about 10 days or so and will post more information when it arrives and I've had a chance to try it out.
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Celestron CGE / C-11 (CGE-1100)
Megrez 90 FD APO / 0.8x FR/FF vIII
QHY8, 350D, DSI Pro, SPC900NC
KWIQ Guider (QHY5)
ETX-125AT
12" Lightbridge
My Astrophoto Gallery
Astronomical Society of Kansas City
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DaemonGPF
Post Laureate
Reged: 03/22/08
Posts: 4035
Loc: New Mexico
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I'd love to see some pics and your assessment of how well it works for you. I'm tempted to get one of these packages but haven't heard any direct experiences from anyone yet.
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-Josh
http://cleardarksky.com/c/AlbuqNMkey.html
My AP Gallery
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karlpenney
super member
Reged: 01/04/07
Posts: 187
Loc: Halifax, NS
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I've been looking at this too. The finder scope looks like the the kind where you adjust focus at the objective end?
I may just get a QHY5 or SSAG and try to use it with an SV F50 finder that I already have.
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Karl
Antares 8" DOB, SV80ED, C8 XLT, LS60THa
Vixen GPDX, iOptron MiniTower, SV M1
QHY8, QHY5, MX7-C
Photo Gallery
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Doug6952
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 07/24/08
Posts: 1115
Loc: West Milford, NJ
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I thought about getting that setup. I decided to get a Stellarvue F50 and a SSAG. To reach focus you have to use a 2x barlow. It narrows the FOV and increases the FL but I haven't had a problem finding a guidestar.
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Doug
Sometimes I wonder......."Why is this frisbiee getting bigger" ...... Then it hits me!
Orion EON 72mm
Celestron C6 SCT
ADM SBS rig
CGEM
DSI Pro III
Orion SSAG
Stellarvue F50
Baader LRGB and Ha filters
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groz
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 03/14/07
Posts: 1288
Loc: Duncan, BC
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I've got one. We've had lousy weather over the last 3 months, combined with a hectic work schedule, I haven't used it much lately. I used it a bunch late in the summer last summer. Here's what i found.
a) The fov is huge, aim it anywhere, with 2 second exposures, have a screen full of guide stars to pick from.
b) You really need to fiddle with phd settings to get it to calibrate, make the calibration pulses much longer than default.
c) The 50mm scope is mounted in a stock 'finderscope' little bracket, and there's a LOT of room for play there. Make darn sure you velcro the cables from the guidecam in place, because, you will get significant shifts just from the weight of the cable changing as it tracks. Far less of an issue if the cables are velcro attached to the little guider mount post first, then down to the telescope itself next.
I bought the combination because I wanted the 50mm finder, and I wanted the qhy5, and the combo was less expensive than the components purchased separately. I no longer use the qhy in the finder, but, may well experiment with that more later. But, the biggest issue after getting phd to calibrate was flexure, and you can reduce that a lot by attaching all the cables to the little mount post so they dont swing freely anymore.
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MartyT
professor emeritus
Reged: 09/28/07
Posts: 682
Loc: Kansas City
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Thanks for the info, Groz - glad to hear that someone other than me has actually taken the plunge on the KWIQ guider.
I ordered a Stellarvue F50E mounting bracket with rings from OPT, as I expected flexure to be an issue with the rickety mount that comes with the KWIQ package. Hopefully it's a little more firm. If not, I'll try to find a set of clamshell rings and fix that problem for good.
Karl - I don't know how the finder focuses, but it really doens't matter, as the guide camera is mounted such that it's always in focus. Though perfect focus is not necessary for PHD to guide accurately - it just needs to be able to find the brightest point in the star, whether that's a fine little dot or a fuzzy blob.
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Celestron CGE / C-11 (CGE-1100)
Megrez 90 FD APO / 0.8x FR/FF vIII
QHY8, 350D, DSI Pro, SPC900NC
KWIQ Guider (QHY5)
ETX-125AT
12" Lightbridge
My Astrophoto Gallery
Astronomical Society of Kansas City
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Tazzz
sage
Reged: 02/24/06
Posts: 334
Loc: Cambridge Ontario
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Hey guys I have a very simular setup and to adjust the focus i just turn the lense on the end of the finder scope, lock the ring in place and that's it..
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Dennis Rowe
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8" Newt
SkyWatcher 80mm
SkyWatcher Pro 80mmED
GSO RC 8"
Canon 350D
DSI Pro W/Filters
QHY8
LXD75
EQ6 PRO
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AlexN
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 08/09/08
Posts: 1201
Loc: Brisbane - Australia
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I've heard from a couple of people using the KWIQ guider with 10" SCT's and getting good results. They've told me that PHD settings are crucial to success, but once you've got it right, its set and forget.
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Custom Made 10" F/3.8 Newtonian Astrograph
EQ6-Pro
SBIG ST-8300M
FLI CFW 2-7
Astrodon 5nm NB Filters
Astrodon I series LRGB
OAG + QHY5
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MartyT
professor emeritus
Reged: 09/28/07
Posts: 682
Loc: Kansas City
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Thanks for reminding me about this thread...
I got my KWIQ guider a couple of weeks ago, but the weather has been worse than rotten since then so haven't had a chance to check it out. Might get out for a little while in the next several days, as it's supposed to clear up.
On first look, however, I'm quite unimpressed by the mount that came with the KWIQ guider - it's your average cheap chinese-made finder scope mount - the kind with a rubber o-ring at one end and 2 plastic thumb screws plus a springy gizmo at the other end for aligning it. "Rigid" is not a term that comes to mind when you look at this thing and if I were to use it, I'd be plagued with flexure until the end of time. So the mount is going in the junk pile and I'm replacing it with a set of Stellarvue 50mm guide scope rings. Waiting on delivery of the right Stellarvue base, as I've ordered the wrong one twice now...
Another observation is that the finder scope looks to be identical to the 9x50 straight-through finder that came with my C-11 -- in fact, I was able to unscrew the eyepiece end of my C-11 finder and I think the threads on it match the threads on the adapter that goes between the finder and the QHY5 guide camera. So if you have a Celestron finder and an Orion autoguider, you could probably buy just the adapter from the folks at KW Telescope and be in business. I didn't completely put that configuration together so can't say for sure, but it looks pretty identical to me.
I'll give another update once I've had a chance to try it out.
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Celestron CGE / C-11 (CGE-1100)
Megrez 90 FD APO / 0.8x FR/FF vIII
QHY8, 350D, DSI Pro, SPC900NC
KWIQ Guider (QHY5)
ETX-125AT
12" Lightbridge
My Astrophoto Gallery
Astronomical Society of Kansas City
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jgw12936
professor emeritus
Reged: 03/28/07
Posts: 630
Loc: The Woodlands, TX
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I got mine about 3 weeks ago, haven't had a night to even try it out, until tonight.
I agree that the bracket is not great, I replaced mine with the Stellarvue 50mm bracket. I got it focused and wow, what a wide view, tons of stars to choose. I am using PhD to guide and set my calibration setup to 1750 and it calibrated perfectly and quickly. A few test 5 minute frames and it is working great! I am going to take some M42 shots tonight, I'll post later how it does with a night of imaging.
Jim
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Jim
APM/TMB 80/480
Takahashi FSQ ED 106
AP 155 EDFS
AP 900
FLI Proline 11002M
Starlight Xpress SXV-H9/H9C
http://jimwood.smugmug.com/
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jgw12936
professor emeritus
Reged: 03/28/07
Posts: 630
Loc: The Woodlands, TX
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I imaged all night with the Kwiq Guider autoguiding and took 10 min subs with no issues. Works great with Phd and the calibration setting I mentioned above. Light weight, I can switch it to my SCT, big or small refractor with the quick release bracket. Love it.
Jim
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Jim
APM/TMB 80/480
Takahashi FSQ ED 106
AP 155 EDFS
AP 900
FLI Proline 11002M
Starlight Xpress SXV-H9/H9C
http://jimwood.smugmug.com/
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kcgolden
super member
Reged: 04/01/07
Posts: 181
Loc: Austin, TX
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I saw this guider a while back and realized I had an 8x50 finder I wasn't using as well as a DSI Pro lying around. I followed this guide and made a finder guider.
The only issue I think might come up with a KWIQ guider is I think that the focus does vary with temperature. They claim that it's "always in focus" but I don't know how this could possibly be true. I have had to adjust my homemade finder's focus from night to night.
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Kelsey
Eyegloo Observatory Homepage
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MartyT
professor emeritus
Reged: 09/28/07
Posts: 682
Loc: Kansas City
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Thought I'd dredge this thread back up now that I finally got a chance to use my KWIQ Guider.
It was fairly easy to set up and use - though I did replace the mount that came with the guider, opting for a set of Stellarvue 50mm rings. It took me several different orders to get the right combination of dovetail shoes to let me mount it on my C-11 and on the clamshell rings of my Megrez 90, but I'm now able to easily move the KWIQ guider to either platform with just two thumb screws.
I dragged the CGE mount and my C-11 out last night for a test run, didn't get a very good polar alignment (that's a story for another thread; I was testing out the new "All Star" polar align routine) but figured I'd try out some imaging anyway just as a test.
Previously, I had the Megrez 90 mounted piggyback on the C-11 and used the Megrez and a DSI Pro to guide with when imaging through the C-11 typically at f/6.3. My results were consistently horrible - very elongated stars after just a 4 or 5 minute exposure, all of which I originally blamed on mirror shift but which I now think was just differential flexure between the Megrez 90 and the C11.
Fast forward to last night. I fired up PHD and the KWIQ guider on the C11, focused the KWIQ guider (easy to do), then mounted my QHY8 ccd to the C-11 at f/6.3 (focal length of about 1750mm) and focused it with my Bahtinov mask.
Once PHD finished calibration (I had to abort the initial calibration run and change the calibration step size to 1200 or else I would be there all night waiting for the calibration to finish), I gave the scope a couple of minutes to settle in and then fired off a short sequence of 5-minute exposures aimed (roughly) at the Rosette nebula.
Much to my surprise, I came out with nearly perfectly round stars, at least in the center of the field (there was some field rotation on the edges, owing to the poor polar alignment).
So I'm jazzed now about imaging with the C-11 at longer focal lengths - my previous experience left me thinking I'd never be able to get the flexure problems worked out well enough, but with the small, light, easy to use KWIQ Guider, I'm pretty confident that I'll be able to produce some nice images soon (after it warms up a bit, I can't stand the cold out there!)
I didn't have any trouble finding a guide star either - the field of view on the KWIQ guider is huge and there are always a few stars available to choose from. The QHY5 CCD (same as the Orion StarShoot Autoguider) seemed to be plenty sensitive for finding stars, and I could have increased the exposure time in PHD if the stars were really faint.
So the bottom line is that, other than the crummy mount that came with the camera, I'm quite happy with the KWIQ guider. If any issues come up as I spend more time with it, I'll be sure to report them here, but at the moment I expect it to become one of those things that "just works" and you don't have to fight with all the time.
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Celestron CGE / C-11 (CGE-1100)
Megrez 90 FD APO / 0.8x FR/FF vIII
QHY8, 350D, DSI Pro, SPC900NC
KWIQ Guider (QHY5)
ETX-125AT
12" Lightbridge
My Astrophoto Gallery
Astronomical Society of Kansas City
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groz
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 03/14/07
Posts: 1288
Loc: Duncan, BC
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I've also re-mounted ours into a set of rings instead of the flimsy little thing it came with. We now have it atop the williams 80. It's a match made in heaven me thinks. With the nikon d-50 in the williams, and the qhy5 in the kwiq, they have an almost identical field of view. After fussing a bit to get the kwiq aligned perfectly with the williams int he guide rings, it's actually good for setting up framing on a shot too.
I have had issues with the stability of the driver software for this beast tho, but we seem to be thru that now.
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Poochpa
professor emeritus
Reged: 02/12/05
Posts: 523
Loc: Buffalo Burbs, NY
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Marty,
Thanks for the detailed report on the KWIQ Guider. Hope you don't mind some questions. Is the camera coupled to the finderscope adapter by the camera's t-thread or a 1.25" nosepiece, or is the camera permanently mounted to the finder? If not permanently mounted, does the package also include the camera's 1.25" nosepiece in case you wanted to use the camera with other scopes? With the 50mm Stellarvue rings, is there enough clearance to move the finder around a bit if you needed to hunt for or center guide stars? Thanks.
Mike
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Televue NP101
Vixen GPDX/Skysensor 2000PC
Meade 8" LX200GPS
WO Zenithstar 66SD
Modified Canon Rebel XSi
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karlpenney
super member
Reged: 01/04/07
Posts: 187
Loc: Halifax, NS
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Mike, I just received mine the other day. The QHY5 is coupled to the finderscope by the camera's t-thread. The package doesn't include a 1.25" nosepiece. I also have the 50mm SV rings and there is plenty of room for adjustment if needed.
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Karl
Antares 8" DOB, SV80ED, C8 XLT, LS60THa
Vixen GPDX, iOptron MiniTower, SV M1
QHY8, QHY5, MX7-C
Photo Gallery
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MartyT
professor emeritus
Reged: 09/28/07
Posts: 682
Loc: Kansas City
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I thought some photos might be helpful, so uploaded a few to my PBase account.
http://www.pbase.com/martyt/kwiq_guider
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Celestron CGE / C-11 (CGE-1100)
Megrez 90 FD APO / 0.8x FR/FF vIII
QHY8, 350D, DSI Pro, SPC900NC
KWIQ Guider (QHY5)
ETX-125AT
12" Lightbridge
My Astrophoto Gallery
Astronomical Society of Kansas City
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Poochpa
professor emeritus
Reged: 02/12/05
Posts: 523
Loc: Buffalo Burbs, NY
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Karl and Marty,
Thanks for the info and pics. The KWIQ Guider is better looking than I thought from the ad. Are the SV rings removable from the dovetail? I presently have an ADM setup with 100mm rings (the smallest size ADM has), which I would replace with the SV 50mm rings to reduce the chances of flexure with such a small diameter guidescope. I think the ADM rings mount to the rail clamps with 1/4-20 bolts.
Mike
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Televue NP101
Vixen GPDX/Skysensor 2000PC
Meade 8" LX200GPS
WO Zenithstar 66SD
Modified Canon Rebel XSi
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karlpenney
super member
Reged: 01/04/07
Posts: 187
Loc: Halifax, NS
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The SV rings are removable from the dovetail. They are attached with 5mm screws.
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Karl
Antares 8" DOB, SV80ED, C8 XLT, LS60THa
Vixen GPDX, iOptron MiniTower, SV M1
QHY8, QHY5, MX7-C
Photo Gallery
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Poochpa
professor emeritus
Reged: 02/12/05
Posts: 523
Loc: Buffalo Burbs, NY
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Thanks Karl for the info on the SV rings.
Mike
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Televue NP101
Vixen GPDX/Skysensor 2000PC
Meade 8" LX200GPS
WO Zenithstar 66SD
Modified Canon Rebel XSi
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