LVI SmartGuider 2

LVI SmartGuider 2.

Stand Alone Autoguiding with the LVI SmartGuider 2.
 

* Stand alone Autoguiding with minimum effort
* Small, light and tough, minimum power
* No laptop necessary
* Easiest handling - no PC skills required
* For almost every guideport

The "Stand Alone Autoguider" is the tool many Astrophotographers have been waiting for a
long time. A control box no bigger than your hand, a cable, a focusing eyepiece and a
camera head - all that fits into a small case. But still this intelligent guiding electronics
replaces the function of a laptop with guiding software and camera entirely.
Can you operate your mobile phone? Then the handling of the LVI SmartGuider using the
small hand controller is just as easy.The LVI SmartGuider opens a new era for DSLR imagers.
No extra weight, no enormous power consumption and no problems with shock sensitive
drives, humidity and low temperatures. The LVI SmartGuide completely replaces your laptop. Users of single chip CCD astrocameras that also run on a laptop or PC also benefit from the LVI SmartGuider. Known problems of operating two cameras for guiding and imaging are for example, software conflicts, too high data transfer rates and high power consumption at the USB ports of your computer.

Specifications:
Guiding Camera:
Image Sensor - Monochrome 1/3" Aptina MT9VO32
Resolution - 752x480 pixels, 6 micron
Exposure - Automatic, 0.001 to 2 seconds
Gain - Automatic, 0-4 times
Body - Aluminium with rear panel of polycarbonate
Nosepiece - 1.25" diameter including filter thread
Connectors - 8-pin RJ45
Size & Weight - 65x50mm, 100gHand Controller:
Housing - ABS plastic with off-set handhold profile
Keyboard - Three membrane keys with amber back-illumivation
Screen - LCD Screen 2.5", 128x64 pixel with red display
Connectors - 8-pin RJ45, 12v DC jack, 6-pin RJ12
Size & Weight - 55x96x28mm, 220g
Power Requirements - 6-14v DC, 90-200mAFeatures:
Automatic star search function
Real time star focus status and position displayed on the LCD screen
Automatic axes calibration and permanent saving
Screen backlight and beep sound adjustment
Star trailing threshold, independent on each axis (agressiveness)
Subpixel algorithm to allow the usage of short guidescopes
High precision 2x sub-pixel autoguidingGuide Star Brightness:
60mm Guide Scope - approx mag 7.5
80mm Guide Scope - approx mag 8.0
100mm Guide Scope - approx mag 8.5Field Width and Image Scale:
Scope with FL = 300mm, FOV 51.7 x 33 arcmin - Image Scale 4.13 arcsex/pixel
Scope with FL = 500mm, FOV 31.0 x 19.8 arcmin - Image Scale 2.48 arcsex/pixel
Scope with FL = 800mm, FOV 19.4 x 12.4 arcmin - Image Scale 1.55 arcsex/pixel

From a satisfied customer!

I just received my LVI SmartGuider from Italy and had my first night with it last night, I have to say WOW... I expected allot from it as it was fairly expensive for me as my country has a weak currency (South Africa) so it does not help for any imported products and I was blown away.I have a Sky watcher 300mm (Focal 1500) f/5 reflector on a NEQ6 Pro mount, and bought a Sky Watcher 80mm (Focal 400) f/5 short tube refractor as a guide scope, the focal length was pretty short compared to my main scope so it was advised to use a barlow with the 80mm. Well i thougth no way, i paid good money and was going to test this little sucker to the limit.
My mount gave "Alignment failed" three times in a row as i must have not had it aligned
properly to the south pole as we have no big dipper to use as reference lol, so I though no
issue this guider should correct the scope anyway as that is its function.It was 3/4 moon very bright and very faint sky because of this, a little smog also helps of
course...So i used the supplied eye piece to focus my guide scope, then mounted the guide cam to the scope, manually tracked the mount to a faint area in the sky made sure i was not going to make it easy and use Sirius or something like that, found some stars that were just visible through the 80mm, turned the hand controller for the guide system on and it started to do its thing "locating star" then "adjusting exposure" then "calibrating motors" about a 8min exercise all in all, by now i was wondering if the thing was still focused on a star it could use but low and behold i pressed the "start" tracking button and like an ECG machine the x and Y axis indicators on the handheld screen started beating with life as the unit corrected my mounts position.

So, now we had some action I though ok well not good enough to let it track for a minute or
two so I went into the house and watched an episode of Eli Stone, one hour later i went back
out to see how the little bugger was doing and i was astounded the star was still in the same
position spot on one hour later, on a so so aligned mount "auto alignment failed" on a bright
moonlit night and on dim stars THIS THING IS WORTH ITS WEIGHT IN GOLD.I am so happy with this auto guider and no PC or Laptop needed just you and your mount
and the guider and it powered by the same source as your mount.I would recommend this LVI SmartGuider to anyone. As a further fun test i then moved the
guider to the main scope to see how it deals with reverse direction on the view and no issue
the calibration step showed the unit what was going on and it adapted itself. LVI great job an
awesome piece of technology. AstroFan

You are buying from an authorized Baader Planetarium UK dealer.