- connect the MGEN camera to the hand box using the 8 PIN cable. Take care that the cable
has slack and does not pull on the camera at any time. If you use a 9x50 finder as the guide
scope, sling the cable once loosely around it's base.
- connect the hand box to your mount using the ST4 (6 PIN) cable.
- connect your DSLR or CCD to the hand box using the proper 3,5mm jack camera cable.
Though not a prerequisite, we recommend that you use the MGEN to control your camera.
Note: By following this order, there is no danger that you will accidentally plug the ST4 cable
into the wrong port, which could damage the connectors.
- switch on the MGEN hand box by pressing ESC.
- enter the date and time using the cursor
buttons and SET, (only necessary if you want to
have a time stamp on your guiding file which
you can upload it to PC later on to see how well
your guiding has worked).. Press ESC to
proceed.
- open a new file if you want the MGEN to
write a guiding file (not necessary in the
beginning).
Focusing using live view
In order to get the system up and running it is a good idea to first point the guide scope to a
bright open cluster, like the Pleiades (Subaru) or the Beehive so that you have plenty of bright
stars in the field of view. This will make it easy to get the MGEN camera nicely in focus so it
will later be better able to find suitable guide stars. Make sure your mount's tracking is
switched on.
Place the cursor on "Guiding" in the main menu and press SET to enter the guiding menu.
First mark "guider setup" and press SET. Your guide scope's focal length and the
auto guiding speed of your mount should be entered here (approximately), and set CCD
binning to 1x1. Standard values are 180mm for a 9x50 finder, and 0,5x for most Goto mounts.
Go back to the guiding menu by pressing ESC.
