From: "doobisary" <tjp314@pacbell.net>

Date: November 2, 2012 8:27:50 PM MDT

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: ONAG Review

Hi Milton.  I haven't read the article yet, but I remember seeing an announcement of the ONAG some months back, probably also in S&T.  I'll poke around, but I think I saw instructions on how to make an inexpensive version of the ONAG, obviously not as sophisticated, on Cloudynights recently.  

I don't think any of the AO units available today are fast enough to account for turbulent motion of a planet.  The only device like that for amateur use that I know of is the AO-2, which came out 10 or more years ago, from Stellar Products (Don Bruns).  Antonio Cidadao used one for planeatary imaging several years ago.  After John Sanford passed away this past spring, his son brought a truckload of his astro gear to RTMC.  John had an AO-2.  I bought it from his son for $100 (they were well over $1K when new).  I fiddled with it some, and quickly found it wasn't sensitive enough to hold Saturn steady in an 8" telescope.  I didn't try anything larger (10-12.5" scopes I have) or brighter (Jupiter, Mars) with it, and I probably should.  I contacted Don Bruns via email, since I didn't have a manual with the AO-2, which is essentially mint condition.  He said he no longer had any copies of the manual and that it was obsoleted by fast frame rate cameras.  So, Antonio graciously provided me a scanned copy of his manual.  

Now that Jupiter's getting higher in the evening sky, I should pull out the AO-2 and see how it does on the 12.5" Cave.

-Tim.

--- In Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com, "milton_aupperle" <maupperl@...> wrote:

Hi Folks;

If you don't have a subscription - pick up the December 2012 issue of Sky And Telescope at your local news stand.

There is a really neat review on "Innovations Foresight's " ONAG (On Axis Auto Guider" product on page 60. Not cheap at ~ $1000, but interesting.

I'd never heard of it before, but it's basically a  "cold mirror" that reflects 350 to 750 nm light and passes all light above 750 nm to the guide camera.  So you can guide on the same  or very close to the same object your imaging with a single scope.

My Grasshopper EXHAD camera with Sony ICX285AL CCS would have about 50% sensitivity at 750nm and drops to about 5% at 1000 nm.

I also wonder if one could use that with an Adaptive Optics units,  for DSO / Photometry but also for imaging planetary targets to remove turbulence.

TTYL..

Milton Aupperle