Well the remaining adapters for the TS Optics Off-axis guider arrived so it was time to check the setup and see if it would work. Prevously, the Canon Camera was too close to the side turret and kept hitting the guide camera so there was no way it would work in that configuration.

What was needed was some additional adapters which would increase the distance between the guider and the camera. And yes, they worked just fine, allowing focus in the both the guide cam (neximage and starshoot autoguider) and imaging camera (Canon 500D) at the same time. No spacers were required for the nexImage, but for the Starshoot I needed to put a 15mm T2 spacer on the guiding side.

The crucial test was when adding the Celestron f/6.3 focal reducer. The image in the guide cam was severely distorted by the focal reducer, making it virtually impossible to guide anything. Only solution to this would be to move the focal reducer after the off-axis guider (which is only 9mm wide).

You guessed it, another adapter (T2 to SCT) will be required for that. Luckily I already have one of those - rule 1 - you can never have enough adapters.

(Note: I have tried a similar setup with the Celestron Off-Axis guider and it worked flawlessly, so I suspect it has something to do with the dimensions of the pickoff prism and its location for the TS Optics)

Will have to wait for another day before I try it out.

Seeing conditions were not too bad. The previous night there were thunderstorms and rain, which did a reasonable job of washing away some of the atmospheric dust. Usually the Unihedron sky meter gives a reading of around 15, last night it hit 17 for the first time (still equivalent to moderate/severe light pollution though).

So it was up to the roof of the apartment block and just gaze around in the 9x50 finderscope (that is one cool finderscope from Celestron). My dear wife came across a site on the Internet which gives a star map for your city - http://www.astroviewer.com which is kinda neat, if you dont have any planetarium software.