Astrophotography Guiding Bundle Review | Affordable Guidance!

Getting into guiding shouldn't be out of reach because of price. This affordable guide scope from Astro Essentials and a ZWO ASI 120mm. A small light weight combination that can get you up and guiding in no time.

If you're a beginner and looking for a way to begin taking guided exposures this bundle could be for you. In this video, I review the bundle and let you know my feelings. The equipment was loaned to me from First Light Optics for review - and yet I've now decided to buy it from them to keep it.

If this equipment looks good to you then you can find it here

Guide Scope Suitability Calculator from Astronomy Tools:

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Disclaimer: Affiliate links are in use. If you buy through these links then (at no extra cost to you) I get a few pennies :)

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==== Music ====

Stellaris OST - Faster Than Light

Track: Sparks
Artist: Chael

[AstroFarsography]

I liked this bundle so much that I ended up emailing FLO, throwing some money at them and keeping it myself. Now it rides pride of place on my telescope.

[MrKirret]

Jeez, thanks for pointing out the camera and lens distances to achieve focus! I was pulling my hair out for 2 nights, couldn't get it to focus and then remembered that you had reviewed this camera and had mentioned something about it. And voila!

[MrGChuff]

Cracking review. I have both the 120mm mini and 120mm-s both for mainly guiding but the s is a cracking lunar camera I have to say. A message to the guys at FLO give Ruzeen a bit of sponsorship, he going places!!

[edjones]

Great vid as usual, I have that guide scope (but not the camera yet!) In case anyone is wondering, you can put a spare 1.25" eyepiece into the guidescope and use it as a finderscope!

[simonpepper]

Good review I hear guiding is the way to go. I’m still rocking dslrs so curious what kind of thermal noise are we expecting at say 5 minute subs? What temperature are these coming out? Thanks

[garyrear]

Nice review, I have the 120mm mini on a William optics 200mm guide scope and get great guiding even on my low end eq3 mount.

[southbronxny]

I bought the scope on aliexpress for $55 and the 120mm works perfectly with it. Stars are about 90% sharp with the low quality glass.

[cemoguz]

Question for people I have 135mm lense 250mm and 1000mm telescope and I do not want to buy 2 diffirent guide scope and camera for that. What should I do?

[jonnic]

I've just bought that camera for guiding I'd be interested to hear your opinion on how well the camera is for planetary imaging maybe with 1.25 inch color filters to make rgb captures of Jupiter, Saturn etc

[gixerjas]

Another great review, thankfully validating my recent purchases! I'm blown away by the improvement guiding has made to my imaging. Also, a very useful link to the astronomy tools calculator, any chance of a future vid explaining camera sensor suitability for focal length ranges?

[greenmjg]

great video as always, focal length 128 !, is this after you set it or will it change depending on how far camera in or out and how much unscrew front adjustment !

[brucesobut]

I have the same camera and a scope with similar specs 30mm F4 (120 FL). I didn't seem to be getting very sharp stars (HFD ~4-5) but in your video I saw an HFD # around 5.40. Is this typical with this setup? Maybe I don't have anything to complain about ;)

[Neph-vr]

Great video mate.
I just use a Telrad finder, the base can be 'glued' to any part of your scope as it comes with an adhesive (Just means the base will always be on the scope) The Telrad is the best finder device i've ever used.

[spex]

I know my ZWO guide camera is working in the Asiair app, but PHD2 gives the can't find ZWO camera error.

[timburgess]

thanks for this! you mentioned that using this leave no room for finder scope (without a bit of work), is it not possible to use this guide scope as also a finder scope, by connecting to a PC or something? Sorry if its a basic newbie question.... and thanks!

[JosHendrikx]

Hi Ruz, thanks for the review. I'm in doubt between the 120mm mini and 120mc-s, the latter seemingly being more versatile for planetary imaging due to high fps. Does the 120mm have an advantage in guiding? Could you compare the two for people like me who are starting out and looking for a versatile guidecam + planetary option? What are the pros and cons of these two cams? Thanks for your help!

[paulradford]

Good review again Ruzeen. I have both of these but the Guidescope is up for sale as I've got a William Optics 50mm Guidescope to go with my WO main scope. Never thought of trying the 120 mini for Lunar though 🤔 could be worth a video...

[AMoose]

Would this camera work with plate solving? Does the orientation that the scope is attached have a factor?

Thanks and great video!

[davekemp]

Hi, I have bought a very similar package only the scope is the RVO version (looks identical) and I chose the asi 120 mc so I can use it for planetary as well. My problem is focusing, what capture software do you use while you focus? I tried the ZWO software and had my scope tracking jupiter but could not get anything focused. Everything was just black, lens cap was off and nothing blocking the light path. I tried the camera on the main scope and got great focus on jupiter, placed it back into the guidescope and nothing, So frustrating, pretty much covered the entire focus range trying to sort it.

[easywedge]

Are there any apps you can recommend for using on an Apple MacBook Pro? Thank you.