Product Review

The Orion-designed Mini 50mm Guide Scope is a complete and compact guide scope solution designed for use with the Orion StarShoot AutoGuider (sold separately) or similar small-chip CCD autoguider devices. The Orion Mini 50mm Guide Scope is ideal for guiding long-exposure astrophotographs with imaging telescopes up to 1500mm in focal length. Thanks to the high level of guiding accuracy offered by modern autoguider devices such as the Orion StarShoot AutoGuider, astro-imagers of today can use guide scopes with much shorter focal lengths and smaller apertures compared to the large, bulky models used in the past. Using a more optically fast refractor as a guide scope can save astro-imagers time, space, and money, but will still provide the unrivaled accuracy that only auto-guiding can bring to long-exposure astrophotographs. Although modern dedicated autoguider devices allow small, optically fast guide scopes to be used with excellent results, there is an unfortunate scarcity of quality offerings available. That is, until now. Our new Orion Mini 50mm Guide Scope brings auto-guiding into the realm of affordability for any astro-imager, and brings the guide scope to a position that was previously occupied by a telescope finder scope.