Auto-Guider Tutorial - SkyGuider Pro & Star Adventurer (2021 Edition) 

The Bob Ross of Astrophotography...Thank you Peter.

Probably the most intuitive video I've seen on how to set up equipment for deep sky. As much as other youtubers are nice, their videos always seem to be about "this is the equipment I used, and these are these are the shots I've taken". Which has never helped, since there's a lot more involved. Thanks Peter!

I had quite a few questions regarding how guiding works. This video is a gem. Thank you very much for all the info.

Insanely helpful and very greatly appreciated. Kudos to you Sir. My guidescope and cam are in DHL-ing their way to me and thanks to this tutorial I anticipate hitting the ground running with them.

I really appreciate this video Peter. I appreciate your calm, focused manner in outlining the steps one by one. This makes it easy to use this video, almost as a checklist. This video wil help so many in bring the wonder of our world into a better view. I live in a fairly light poluuted area and was mostly trying to use SharpCap to giude and image with my Star Adventurer but it would just never work correctly. It doesn't take long to realize what a steep learning curve astrophotography is and videos like this help make it so much easier.

Got the sky guider pro a few weeks ago and the sv bony UHC eos clip filter. Both work great and I made the decision for the tracker based on your videos as well as Trevor’s from astrobackyard. For months i couldn’t decide so thank you for helping me with that.

This was fantastically helpful! And perfect timing since the exact equipment you discussed (that I ordered weeks ago) arrived just one day after you uploaded this video. Thank you!

Thank you Peter, this is really helpful! Perfect timing as I’m just getting started in autoguiding!😁

I ve been searching youtube and internet through the wholw week to find useful tutorial about autoguiding... this video is the most comprehensive tutorial i ve seen ...you stated all information i need ...i find exactly what i searched for in this video....thank you Peter for this valuable information

Your videos are just too good, you're by far the best guy explaining these details for newcomers like me. Thanks

That’s a fantastic overview of guiding with the Star Adventurer. Thank you so much, it may have cost me £200 but worth every penny. 👍

I bought the ZWO 120 mini and guide scope, followed your video to set it up with my Sky Adv Pro 2 and Laptop, worked perfectly! Thank you!

Great video Peter, thanks. The ZWO mini guide camera and scope are definitely on my upgrade path for my gear.

only video i've found that clears up all the confusion for beginners. You make it so much easier than these 10 year old blog articles from boomers

Im just getting into AP. This one video has been the most valuable and informative. Thanks for taking the time to put it together.

Keep doing it Peter, You are my example!

Thank you, I did not realize I could use a guide camera with my SkyGuider

Thanks, Peter! Your videos are very helpful! I got my setup working because of your videos! Well done!

The best explanation that I need right now, Thank you Peter!

You couldn't have uploaded at a better time! Waiting on my ASI Air Pro and 120mm to arrive. It's going to compliment my Star Adventurer Pro, Redcat 51 and Canon T3i. I opted for the WO guidescope which is the same price as the ZWO, but I thought the WO just looked nicer. Can't wait for it all to arrive!

This was so helpful! Thank you Peter for being so precise on the tutorial!

Thank you so much for this excellent tutorial. Just what I was looking for.

Thank you very much! I had lots of doubts about guiding and now everything is clear.

Awesome tutorial, Peter! Hope I should be able to do autoguiding my SkyGuiderPro mount soon, Thank you for sharing the tutorial.

thanks, i just purchased this with a star guider pro. i get them tomorrow and monday and i want to practice in my back yard . this will help.

This was excellent. Thank You, Peter!

This is perfect i just started doing research on autoguiding

This is a treasure trove of information thank you so much!

Great job, well done! Highly appreciate your contribution. Keep going on!

Fantastic tutorial and teaching style. Thanks for giving so much time and effort like this

Peter, thank you for your video, I have a Star adventurer with a Sharpstar 76 and a ZWO 120mm mini set up like you have in the vid. I had tried several nights to get it to track but it wouldn't. I have worked out that my dec was set to on.. from watching your vid. Its cloudy tonight but as soon as I get a clear night I will be giving it a go. Thanks again.

This is a great tutorial as I have tried some others and seem to make this process rather complicated. Your video is superb in that it clearly walks you through the equipment required for basic guiding. I have a similar set up but have a HEQ5 mount, but should be simple enough to make the necessary adjustments. I will be taking notes from your video and translate them into my first PHD2 guiding session in the near future. Well done :-)

Insanely helpful for a senior Newbie.Great video! I'm on my way!

super helpful and detailed video thanks, used it last night to image Elephant Trunk Nebula with my SWSA and ASIAIR, thanks.

This is exactly what I’ve been looking for

As always, great detail, thank you

Outstanding video! Great work.

Fantastic PHD2 tutorial Peter - Took me back to Mt. Rainier ,Really brushed up on it , As for the question I emailed you about - Sort of found out why I could not get a display on the ASIAIR PRO, I am doing it in the daytime and have been told to cover the top of the guide scope partially with tape - will let you know how that works out

Thank you so much! This will help me tremendously!

Thanks, Peter. You answered a lot of questions I have as I begin doing long exposure photos. Coincedentally I just happen to have the same equipment you are using except I'm using a Canon 80D. I'm looking forward to a clear night to put all this to the test. First targets will be several Messier objects as they're all rising in the east at Astronomical Twilight. Of course I think I just cursed myself and they're be clouds for the next week or two. :)

I use a 24" monitor on one of my setups, that has a privacy screen on it which reduces the side glare from the monitor. Also, there is a PHD2 Beta2 version that supports multiple star guiding.

I already own everything in that video except the AsiAir pro, and I was too lazy because of the fact that I need my laptop with me. Luckily I found an AsiAir pro available and ordered it, it's arriving on Monday, hopefully that will encourage me more to go out.

Thank you very much for making this video. I am very sick and have always wanted to take up photography and astrophotography really interests me so as a bucket list sort of thing I bought a star adventurer 2i, guide camera and scope, modified mirrorless camera, and the ASIAIR Plus. I have been beating my brains out trying to figure this all out but was becoming disheartened. THEN ..... I saw your video. You explain things in a very detailed and articulate way that even I am now looking forward to doing this. Thank you again. I don't know what the cost of your courses are but I will certainly be looking into it.

Thanks for this very detailed and informative informations. Very very useful for me. Thanks again :)

This is a cool video- The reason the planetary camera is USB3 is because the technique for planetary imaging is to capture as many frames as quickly as possible and USB3 makes that happen.

Nice video, this has quantifiable information.

This is a pretty good tutorial! Thanks mate

Very, very helpful. Thank you 🙏

Great explanation! Was looking to see this exact setup which is the same I have, except that I have a 300mm lense

I'm having trouble getting through the video. Your voice makes me want to fall asleep. Just kidding. I picked up a svbony 32mm f4, and a usb camera module. Now I need to print out a holder for the camera. I haven't settled on the tracker quite yet. Was planning on using the svbony for polar alignment to start with.

Thanks for explaining the process!!!

very good tutorial, thanks for posting

Thank you, great info... Clear Skies..

damn dude, you keep your nails really nice and trimmed. Aweseme tutorial

Nice attention to detail!

Just ordered a Classical Cassagrain telescope and it will arrive in a few days from Jan 22/2021 just do visual but may get a planetary camera. Like your videos.

Thanks, that was sooooooo useful....👍🏻

Great tutorial Peter. I find a lot of the time PHD2 looses the star is due to high level cloud appearing that reduces or blocks the guide star for a short period. If the cloud clears then as you say stop and restart PHD2. I also tend to run using pixel setting rather than Arc seconds more but result is the same. I also notice that the Dec line just stops for some reason and the single RA line left by itself..no idea why but it helps with the view.

Very informative video Peter. FYI the latest PHD2 software allows guiding with multiple stars. Cuiv, the lazy geek did a video showing how much better it is.

I have the Star Adventure pro 2i and I use an Astro-Tech 70mm ED APO on it. I have bought all the Arca Swiss adaptors to attach my 50mm guide scope to my L bracket on my 60D. I haven't used ASIair for polar alignment but I have used Sharp Capture Pro with its Polar alignment procedure. I plan on using my guide scope to do the polar alignment with my DSLR.

Funny a little perhaps, but I've never used the nosepiece for my ASI120MM-S with the ZWO Mini Guide Scope, because it will screw directly onto the scope's threads after removing the wide angle lens. The nose didn't seem to fit, so I thought was was doing the right thing, but being more persistent with the nose today, it does in fact slip into the guide scope if you wiggle it a bit to work it past the tension bands. Then, focusing is achieved strictly using the fine focusing tube of the scope, not requiring much effort to focus. The scope was on a ball mount so I could position it to point wherever I found best, but sometimes the cable ports weren't positioned as I preferred and I was just wishing I could rotate the camera body a little. Well, nose to the rescue, now I can and there's no concern regarding focus because I can fully nest the nose to bring the camera flush to the back of the scope, set focus again using the fine focus adjustment, then leave it set for all use thereafter.

Fantastic video. You showed and talked about exactly what I wanted to know. Except for one thing: does the mobile app need to stay in foreground for the entire duration of the guiding? Or can it run in the background? (with the ASIair PRO)

The PHD recalibration is needed whenever you use ST4 cable instead of letting PHD itself to fully control the mount. It is because ST4 doesn't allow the application to know where you are moving between targets. In other case you don't have to recalibrate.

thanks for this very interesting video

Awesome video. I am a Newby to Astro photography, and you have helped me past several challenges already. I was wondering what issues you had with the guide scope being mounted to the hot shoe? I have the Canon D250/SL3 , and nobody seems to have an L bracket for that model. Thank you again for all your help and excellent videos. Subbed.

I've been trying to buy an ASI Air bundle for my SW SA for weeks now. No one has the 120 mini in stock. No one. UPDATE: I stand happily corrected! A bundle of joy is now on the way...

Damn! Glad to see this is a new video! I've watch others and they are helpful. I had a question about the 120s. I do have this. When I remove the wide angle lens and ring I am able to screw the camera directly to my guide scope. Is that an option, screwing the camera onto the scope, instead of using the adapter and locking screws?

Thanks Peter. Just a question, the autoguider setup, can it be still used for wide angle astro? Can they be used to polar align with sharpcap or only PHD2 for tracking?

such amazing videos!! how much you want to bet that pro is a arduino !!! I am thinking of having a giant solid concrete block poured out back and setting up my camera on that. surround it with "gym matt" so me walking around is isolated from the ground a little and that giant multi thousand pound concrete block should provide some good inertia. just got to save up for the goodies!

Another great info vid!!!! Now you talked about once this is going, not to touch the camera again due to vibrations. So I was wondering, when using a DSLR, would the vibration from each timed exposure cause an issue with this tracker, due to the vibration?

Nice. I have the Star Adventurer and got the SkyWatcher EvoGuide 50ED. I would love to get into autoguiding. I've looked up this setup online and it seems i only need a guide camera and software to run it. The general consensus seems to be around the ZWO ASI 120mini mono camera, and PHD2. Is there anything else i would need, or can i just take it from there?

Very helpful video Peter, as always! Can the ASIAir polar alignment routine be done using the guide camera and scope? I plan on purchasing the ASIAir guiding kit and using an intervalometer for imaging with my unsupported main imaging camera (sony mirrorless with Z61ii)... Would i need to select the 120mm mini as main camera first for the polar alignment, and then switch it back as guide camera for the guiding? Would this work?

This is a great presentation, thank you Peter. One quick question, what mode are you putting your Sky Adventurer in. In the App mode it does the calibration perfectly. However, when I start the capture program the Sky Adventurer no longer responds to PhD2.

Hey Peter - Thanks for all the helpful videos. Do you have anything on doing a polar align with the ASIAir Pro and the Star Adventurer specifically? I'm using those two with the ASI120MM Mini and when it completes the first step of plate solving, it says to click 'Next" and that the RA will rotate 60-degrees. It *seems* like it's supposed to happen automatically (I don't have a "rotated" button to indicate that I've rotated it myself) and yet nothing happens. Not sure how the Star Adventurer is supposed to be set for this to happen. Thanks!

I think the wide angle lens that's included is for using it as an all-sky camera.

Peter, this is a great introduction to Phd2, ZWO 120 and the corresponding ZWO guide scope. I'll be setting up and using it in a couple of nights. A few questions though. First, there's an IR cut off filter for the ZWO camera. Do you use it? It would add protection of the camera sensor and maybe allow a little better focusing because of the removal of unwanted IR. I wonder if the guide scope could be focused before starting up Phd2. Maybe using Sharpcap and have a live image. And maybe use a 30mm Bahnitov mask then. I don't know if this could be purchased online but in my case, I'd use my 3d printer and make one like I've done for my other lens and telescopes. Also, the Star Adventurer support has an additional mount capability where the guide scope could be attached. This could eliminate the added counter weight and give the ability to point the guide scope to another part of the sky.

Thanks a lot lol, i just spent ages trying to calibrate till you told me in vid, that dec guide must be off

This doesn’t seem as hard as I once believed. Thanks. Now I need to blow more money. You’re going to have the wife side eye me.

Damn I hate our crappy dollar at the moment, just under $700 for this setup. But still a great and informative video Peter, thanks :)

Great ! What connection did u make (@12m50) from the sky watchers L to the lenscollar ??

The included wide angle lens is included for AllSky use.

very helpful

Thanks for fantastic video. Just a quick question. ZWO 120mc -s I've heard opinions color camera is not good for guiding. What do you say to that? Tia

For folks that want to use the software on a Windows system on an Android emulator, ASI recommends using the free Bluestacks software. I've played around but not got everything running yet but it lets you run the app on a laptop which is nice.

hi, love your videos. in this video you mention of using PHD2 for the guiding, can PHD2 be used for capturing images as well? Or we should use a different software for capturing the images. like NINA?

Have the Star Adventurer 2i and just ordered the same ZWO Guide set up, but connecting to the 2i states that you can only use ASTRO Mode, where App Mode allows the remote operation of DSLR, Does Guiding not work in APP Mode ??

Does the guidescope need to be pointed the same way the telescope/lens is (parallel to it)?

hold up, let me sub real quick cause you just added to my shopping cart lol

That "night lite" feature caused me a good deal of trouble until I disabled it. Setting it to "on" doesn't mean it is on but that it will turn on automatically according to a time schedule; the default was 9pm. When it self activates, some graphic applications seem to respond badly to it by causing the screen to flash and flicker annoyingly. The main application I had this difficulty with was Davinci Resolve but I believe any application that does its own color management would have this problem. By default, night light was scheduled to begin at 9pm. If I was using Resolve before 9pm, right at 9pm the screen would begin flickering and flashing and wouldn't stop until I closed Resolve and restarted it. Once I realized it was the night light feature causing this, I disabled it and have not had the problem since.

Great video! So to be clear, once I am done shooting one object, say a galaxy, and move the camera to another object, do I need to run the calibration again, or just let PHD2 pick another star in the new sector I am working in?

Just purchased and setup this auto-guider camera (ZWO ASI120MM-S) +scope for my SkyGuider Pro. I thought this guider camera+scope might also double as a finder scope but it displays images on PHD2 software similar what to my Canon DSLR displays with a 600mm lens. I’ve seen pictures of similar auto-guiding setups where an additional ball head was affixed down by the counterweight to hold it. I suspect this allows for pointing at just about any nearby place in sky that might have a brighter star to track.

Thank you for the tutorials. I have a question, the auto guiding with sky guider pro only can do if we already have good polar alignment, right?

I guess the days of hand guiding and Tech Pan film are long gone....LOL

Nice video. One question. I have bought stellarmate and I want to connect my ioptron skyguider pro to it. So I can make adjustments only in ra axis. Should I use usb cable or some other cable

Can the Skywatcher SAM function with auto-guiders like the ones you mentioned in this tutorial? Thanks!

Okay, this video is an absolute life saver. Thank you!! Quick question: why is it bad to be pointed up to Polaris? Sorry, that might be kind of a dumb question lol!

I enjoy your videos and manner of presentation very much. I recalled that you had the ZWO 120mm mini as a guide camera, but recommended the 120mm-S largely due to the USB-3 interface. On that recommendation I purchased the 120MM-S, but now I can't focus it properly on my William Optics Uniguide 50/200. I'm stuck. Any suggestions?

hi Peter, nice video. I'm trying to make your recommendation, I have a Sigma 150-600, Nikon Z5, FTZ Adapter mounted on top of my Star Adventurer, and I add the guide camera just like you do with the L Bracket. My problem is with the weight distribution, this is with a decline towards where the guide camera is, I can't balance it. How did you manage to prevent it from swaying to one side?

Excellent video Peter, Thank you. I am about to decide which autoguider to use on my Star Adventurer Pro; this looks perfect at the cost, but I only have an Ipad; is there a compatible app that you know of?

Does the auto-guider also help with polar alignment? I'm in the southern hemisphere so if it does this would be very helpful.