RayWUK

Ah, didn't know the was a LHS/RHS Eq firmware option. There was not choice when i installed the EQMod firmware over a year ago. But i am using the mount in EQ mount mode. Ive looked at the flip setting settings but it only give Auto, off (once) and Forced (once) whatever that means. None of them seemed to make any difference. There's also a 'Trail Point Meridian Flip' whatever that is. Theres also an 'Altitude Limit' in the settings, never touched this so no idea what that is. Upper Go To limit =75, Lower Go To = 0. Location is correct.

Been trying to use my AZGTi in EQMod without the aid of my ASIAIR but having a problem. I manage to do a polar align ok but when doing a two or three star align with stars on either side of the meridian stage things happen. Start off in the home position, weight down, telescope pointing up towards Polaris. Set Betelgeuse as first star and Caph as second. When i start align procedure the RA turns through approx 270degress through the bottom of the mount and eventually ends up with the scope pointing near Betelguese. Then when going to Caph it goes back about 230 degrees through the bottom of the mount again. Surely it should go over the top of the mount. I've tried end to ending the scope on the Dec axis but it makes no difference. Anyone else had this? Should add, it works perfectly with the ASIAIR.

Can anyone recommend a telescope for this mount for Galaxy hunting. My Redcat51 doesn't have the reach once you go beyond M33. I have tried M51 and M81 but I'm really cropping into get a decent sized image

Thanks, I’ll check that out.

Is it possible to Polar Align the AzGti in EQ mode without the aid of a computer/ASIAIR just using the SynScan app say?

Hi All, not been here for some time due to lack of interest over the summer months with al the light evenings. Thought it was time to get back into doing some imaging so powered up the rig this afternoon just to make sure it was still working and the first thing that happened was the ASI Air decided to update itself to version 2. Ahhhhhh another learning curve. Added to that i purchased a ZWO mini filter wheel and a few filters back in the summer so that has to be fitted as well. We've had a few nice clear nights recently but its been much too windy for imaging. Watch this space. Ray.

That's very odd, you haven't got it set for lower latitudes? The peg that the two thumbscrews act against has two positions, one for low latitudes the other for high. In the UK you need it set for high latitudes. It's easy to change, just remove the latitude clamp bolt, move the peg to the other position and reassemble. I think its held in place with a set screw.

Just a tip, start of with the latitude too high, that way you're not trying to lift the weight of the rig with the thumbscrew.

Manage to do a quick process my data of M51 taken during the same period as my M81 photo shown earlier with the new ASI533MC. Only 54mins of data (108x30sec) and again heavily cropped. No filters and Bortle 5 skies.

Nice thing about my Redcat, no Field Flatner required 🤣

I bought 12v Lynx Astro Dew heaters which come fitted with 2.1 plugs and plug straight into the ASIAIR. The leads were much too long for me as my ASIAIR is mounted on the scope so i shortened the leads and re-soldered the plugs on.

I've been watching a youtube video 'Deep Sky Astrophotography with CMOS cameras' by Dr Robin Glover of SharpCap fame. He suggests (if i've interpreted right) that theres not a lot to be gained by long exposure subs beyond the 'ideal' for your 'Bortle and Light Pollution Rate'. Its all a bit techy but if what he says is true and i've got the right numbers in my spreadsheet, for my setup, my ideal sub is somewhere between 20-50 secs (Bortle 4.5) or 10-30 secs (Bortle 5). Hence my 30sec subs. The downside is the longer processing time due to the number of subs to get a decent total exposure time.

Thanks Steve, i'm hoping that i've got the image capture side more or less sorted now but being as this is a new game for me i expert there to be a few hurdles down the line. So i need to focus more on the image processing side and work out what turns an average image into a great image (or not so average). I guess i need to look at some 'pro' images to see what i need to aim at and work out how to get there. When you say slightly overdone do you mean over stretched?

Thanks Lee, yes quite pleased with the first image from this camera. I don't strip down my rig so it sits in the dining room by the patio doors so when i get the chance of a clear night its just a case of picking up the whole rig , through the patio door and onto the patio. I have some marks where to put the legs of the tripod so PA is just a final tweak which is a breeze with the ASIAIR and the WO wedge. Because of the light evenings now its about 10:30 before i venture out which only gives me about an hour of imaging before i call it a night, hence the three nights to get 2.5 hours of imaging. And the ASIAIR takes all the heart ache out of targeting an object. The nice thing with a portable rig like the AZ-GTI, its 'pick up and go'.

First light with my new ASI533MC Pro and the AZ-GTI, M81/M82 (Bodes Galaxy). 320x30sec subs taken over three nights, guiding mostly around 1-1.5 arcsec. Quite a small target for my focal length (247mm) so cropped in to about 1/3. Just a quick process with APP and StarTools to get something out, im sure it'll clean up a bit with some more work.

Cloudy here last tonight but i did manage 3x1 hour sessions on M81/M82 and a 1 hour session on M51 all with the new camera (ASI533MCPro) over the last few days. They're a bit small for my focal length but hopefully should get something worthwhile out of the data. All need processing now.

I have the Celestron PowerTank LT which is the smaller version, when i used the Canon 600D i would get about 4 hours running two 12V dew straps, AZ-GTI, Guide camera and ASI AIR Pro. Now i have the ASI533 MC Pro i suspect that will be reduced to about 2-3 hours as the cooling takes an additional 0.5 amps at -10deg. Having said that now the evenings are warmer i'm not using the dew straps so might still get 4 hours. BTW i've advertised the Canon 600D (Astro Modified) in the Sell/Swap section if anyones interested.

If you can afford it, get the WO wedge. I've used both, the SA wedge is ok with a light setup, but a pain to use compared to the WO wedge when loading up with a few kg of imaging equipment.

I presume that a Windows PC application. I'm a Mac user myself so i'll see if i can find something similar for the Mac. If not i have an old Windows laptop i could probably get it onto. I think a lot of people get hung up on guiding accuracy and the need to spend all your money on a decent mount, as far as i'm concerned (and i'm no expert on the subject) if your guiding is less than the image scale of your imaging equipment then it should be possible to do reasonable length exposures (1-2min) without running into problems. My image scale with the Redcat and DLSR was 3.54 arcsec and now with the ASI533MC Pro its 3.1 arcsec. So as long as my guiding is less i should be ok. Thats my theory anyway which seems to be borne out by the images i'm currently getting.

I think most of us on here started out with the Star Adventure and progressed to the AZ-GTI. I would say the AZ-GTI is every bit as good as the SA performance wise (if not better) but with the added go-to ability. My imaging equipment is the same as yours so you shouldn’t have any problems there although I am pushing the load limits. Still others here push it even further and still get good results. As for the Star Adventurer GTI, if you can wait and can get over the double price tag of the AZ-GTI then I’d go for it. For me it doesn’t offer anything more than I already have so I’ll be sticking with the AZ-GTI until I feel the need for a bigger scope. But then the SA GTI wouldn’t forfill that requirement anyway.

I started out with the guiding rate at 0.9 but found that I was getting a lot over overshoot in the corrections, reducing it to 0.5 seems to have smoothed it out a bit. I guess it’s one of them things you can fiddle around with and still get reasonable results whichever rate you choose. Ill be downloading all my images and calibration files for the last two nights from the AAP this evening so will have a look at the guiding log. I’ve never opened a log so don’t know what I’m looking for, any pointers?

OK Baz (Steve), here's some screen shots of my guiding settings, hope this helps.

I'm hoping to get out again this evening so will do a screenshot of my guiding settings for you. Subs were 30 seconds, no dithering as yet. Last time i tried it took too long to settle between dithers so gave up but i didn't really know what i was doing then so will give it another try in the coming weeks. Theres just so much to learn with all this new kit but its all fun 😀 Another addition today. I was never happy with the SW vixen clamp on the AZ-GTI so i've substituted it for a Williams Optics clamp, another eBay purchase.

A few updates to my rig in the last week or so. Firstly the ASI AIR firmware updated to the latest Version (1.9), Secondly I sold my Star Adventurer so had to find a substitute for the 1kg counterbalance weight i was using on the the AZ-GTI in the form of a 32mm length of 40mm Dia. steel bar with a 6mm hole in the centre to bolt on the end of the counterbalance rod. Lastly and most excitingly a new ASI533MC Pro camera to replace the Canon 600D. I had to re-balance the RA and Dec axis using the method shown on here a few pages back. First night out with the new rig to night, polar aligned, focused and guiding on M81 within 15mins, the ASIAIR is brilliant and a real game changer in this respect. Managed and hour of imaging before i had to call it a night as i have an early start in the morning. Guiding was below 1.0" for most of the session and the previews of the images look promising. Here's a sample 30sec sub from the ASIAIR. Hoping to find time to process them tomorrow.

If the dollar price equates to pounds as usual then I think there are other options to look at especially as it doesn’t offer any higher payload capacity than the AZ-GTI.