equipment questions

I currently have a celestron nexstar 8se and have used it as a guider for piggyback milky way photos with reasonable success. What I would like to do is photograph deep space objects using the telescope as the lens. I’ve tried this with limited success and have been told I need a GEM for accuracy. The problem with the celestron is that OTA is mounted to the arm and not easily removed, i.e., no dove tails. So, if I upgrade to a GEM I will need to buy a new OTA. My questions are: will an autoguider solve my problem with my current celestron mount, and if I upgrade to a new GEM and OTA will I still need an autoguider as some websites suggest?

Or, am I missing something and there is an easier way.

Heya,

I'm pretty sure, either way, if you want to do photos, and deep space, you want an autoguider/tracker or some kind. There's just no way to snap a photo of something and get enough light when you can't keep it in the scope's view for more than a few seconds at best, let alone long enough to do an exposure.

Very best,

Is your current scope on an alt-az mount? If so, no amount of guiding is going to help unless you also get a field derotator, because no matter how perfectly you keep the object centered, it's going to rotate on long exposures if the scope isn't turning around the polar axis.

Thanks for the input.

Jim - yes, it's alt-az mount. I've been trying to get my head around the need for a GEM, but it just didn't make sense until you said "field derotator." Then the light went off. I had been thinking in terms of a single star not a constellation or galaxy. Thanks.