RayWUK

10 hours ago, TerraC said:

Hi Lee

Previously using a 50ED guidescope to image and also prior to that a Startravel 102.   Moved up to a 72ED Skywatcher.  I have a 2" field flattener and a Canon 550d attached.  I have the AZgti in EQ mode with counterweights.  Balanced the rig on a table with the pencil/iron bar trick to get a good balance on it.  Using external power source 7ah Skywatcher tank to power GTI and a 10,000mha mobile phone charger and dummy battery for the Canon. 

Recently updated to new synscan pro app and flashed the mount with the latest 3.37? firmware.  

I'd hoped to add a guide camera for help to polar align with sharpcap or something like that.  I have a Pi400 I can attach and use astroberry maybe to try platesolve and guiding. 

It's just so frustrating.  I went through a phase of getting aligned up and on a target within 10 mins.  Now I can flounder around for 2hrs and not even see a trace of it. 

Ray

 

I don't know about Astroberry, but the ASI Air Pro was a game changer for me. Instead of spending what seemed like hours trying to find and centre a target I can now carry the rig out, PA, slew to target and be imaging in 10-15 minutes. I don't bother with SynScan app. Bought mine S/H off eBay.

6 hours ago, AstroNebulee said:

Whilst on a day off waiting for a new fridge freezer to be delivered (as mine went bang at the weekend) I decided to sort the backlash and meshing of my RA(az) motor. See video clips. I had previously done this with my Dec (alt) motor. I also re-engaged the spring mechanism for the RA motor to see if this can tweak the performance for the better, as I did have the worm and gear permanently fixed before. 

The backlash wasn't as bad as the Dec motor was though. If the re-engaging of the spring has made it worse I shall fix the worm and gear back again. 

Gave it all a good regrease with some white lithium grease. 

Cheers 

Lee 

 

How did you adjust the meshing?

On 30/03/2022 at 01:18, Pile of Jam said:

Hi everyone,

New to this forum and have found this thread an excellent resource.

I have recently bought an asiair plus to use with my az-gti in alt az mode but have had trouble with alignment. I perform 2 star alignment through the Synscan app which works fine. Then in the asiair app (connected as Eq mod mount), I select a target and it slews far away from where I want it. On checking the RA/Dec co-ordinates between each app they don't match, so it seems to be a problem syncing between the apps. Any ideas on how to resolve this?

Attached pic of M51 taken after I'd given up and gone back to Sharpcap.

Taken with an Evostar 72ed, 64x30s frames, no calibrations (it was late and I was cold!)

 

whps-DeNoiseAI-clear-low_res-scale-4_00x-gigapixel.tiff 185.83 MB · 10 downloads

I thought that 'EQ Mod Mount' in the ASI AIR assumes the AZ-GTI is mounted on an EQ wedge. I may be wrong but if that's the case it could be the route of your issue if using in the AZ-GTI in ALT/AZ mode. Also ditch the SynScan app, it just confuses things when using the ASI AIR.

16 minutes ago, AstroNebulee said:

@RayWUK @bomberbazhere are my quick screenshots of settings for tonight.

 

Thanks Lee, the one standout difference from my settings is the Guiding rate. I'm currently using 0.5s so will give 0.9s next time I'm out. Oh, and your aggr for RA and Dec are lower. Time for a play.

13 hours ago, AstroNebulee said:

Just got in from grabbing 2 hours worth of data on M101 tonight, so pleased to be back out under a moonless, windless, clear night sky even if the transparency was rubbish. Couldnt really make Virgo out atall and Leo was washy. 

And quick couple of screenshots, guiding was very good too using multistar guiding. 

Hoping to grab more data on it moro night if it stays clear. 

 

What camera were you using for this? I'm thinking of selling on my Canon 600D (Mod) and getting a dedicated camera. Only thing stopping me at present is which one, 183MC, 553MC or 294MC. They all have their merits, i kind of like the square format of the 553MC. That guiding you have is something i can only dream about at present. Would you mind sharing your settings?

4 minutes ago, AstroNebulee said:

Gorgeous Ray and lovely colour in the rosette and stars 👍, if you can reduce the starsin processing it'll make the rosette pop even more. 😊

I'm working on it, still getting to grips with StarTools.

First attempt at the Rosette Nebula.  Only managed 70subs of 120secs over two nights as its getting low in the sky now by the time it becomes visible from my backyard.

9 minutes ago, AstroNebulee said:

On e you got the hang of it it's definitely worth dithering, makes a huge difference to the subs. I know my set up is different scope and camera but my 294MC pro I use gain 120 and normally do 180 sec subs and dither between each one. I haven't tried longer subs yet as I find a good balance in guiding and images with 180secs. 

I'm sure on the charts for your camera it will have an optimal gain to use. 

I'll have a look. 

How long do you have to allow between subs when dithering? I only tried it once and the guiding failed after each dither and took ages to lock on again. I was wasting almost half my imaging time waiting for the guiding to settle again.

3 minutes ago, OK Apricot said:

While I'm here, is this sort of "twitchiness" normal during tracking? 

 

I'm no expert but at that magnification i would say yes.

17 minutes ago, AstroNebulee said:

It's brilliant Ray, well done, I expect the breeze would account for the differing rms, I'd be proud of your image and nice round stars too 👍 bit of green in the image but can be processed out, can't remember which processing software you use, but I'm still learning too 😊

Thanks, i'm using AstroPixelProcessor for calibration and stacking and StarTools for post processing. Being colour blind doesn't help 😀

Out again tonight, although guiding not quite up to last nights effort. 1-2RMS. I did tweek some settings which i thought may have improved it over last nights 0.8-1.5 guiding but it didn't pay off. It's a bit breezy tonight so that might account for it. Anyway here's my first attempt at the Orion Nebula from last night. Although its getting a bit low in the sky now i'm quite pleased with the result. 60x120sec subs. Still a lot to learn especially with processing.

8 hours ago, Elp said:

Decent guiding figures I think

Over 2 hours it seemed to hover in the range 0.8-1.5 with the occasional excursion out to approx 2. The RA axis seemed to take a bit longer than the DEC to recover so i might tweek the max RA timing from 500ms to 600ms and see if it improves.

Ah, i bought one of these from FLO 'Astro Essentials Vixen-type Photo Dovetail Bar' they come in different lengths, mine is about 13cm long and does the job. 

I think having a bigger knob without addressing the imbalance will put a lot of strain on the threads and may eventually strip them. Better to balance the load IMO.

I had exactly the same problem. The solution i found was to move the plate carrying the mount further up the wedge so when in the 'home position' (pointing towards Polaris) the mount and scope balances more over the centre of the wedge. Makes altitude adjustment a lot smoother and less strain on the bolts.

At last a nice clear still night, a good chance to see if the stiffness in the mount is affecting the guiding (previous attempts were all quite breezy and non conclusive). So far looking good (i think). 

On 03/03/2022 at 14:10, Elp said:

Bit stumped really, the LED panel is flat isn't it with no bowing in the centre? Your lights seem to be filling the frame so I wouldn't have thought it was camera related.

I'll have another go with flats with a different light source, I also have another DSLR that will fit to my scope (although not the ASIAIR) so will try a few flats with that and see if i get the same problem.

Looks like it might be clear for a bit this evening so will try and get some more subs of the Heart nebular.

2 hours ago, Elp said:

Visually your bias frames should look similar to your darks. Your screenshot above looks more like a flat to me. Are you taking the bias the same way as a dark? (Cap on end of telescope, shortest exposure).

Yes the above frame is a bias frame with the lens cap on @0.001 sec.

Below is a dark frame @120secs. 

Yes, that's what i thought, the LED panel well covers the scope and using the auto flats exposure on the ASIAIR gives a histogram peak at the halfway point on the graph (32000).

The other thing is the level of the bias frame at around 8200 (0.001sec exposure) which seems high to me, but i don't know if i should be expecting anything lower.

1 hour ago, Elp said:

The stars look fairly round so it's done good tracking I think. You'll struggle taking flats now as they're supposed to be taken whilst your setup is still out as if you were taking light frames as the camera temperature, orientation, focus position, any dust on lenses filters etc all have to be the same and unaltered. Did you also take bias frames?

Yes, i did take bias frames along with the flats. Looking at the jpg of the flats makes me think there's something wrong with my setup for this. I have a small LED panel that i placed on the end of the scope and let the ASIAIR do its auto exposure for flats but the results have a distinct gradation down both sides.

But this is nothing to do with the AZ-GTI so i might post something on the Beginning Imaging section.

@powerlord here it is. I didn't manage any further subs as it turned out too cloudy. I made use of the time to shoot off 50 more dark frames this time at the same temp as the subs. I'm also not convinced my flats are up to much either so I'm going to redo them as well tonight.

IC1805_Heart_Nebula.tiff

I had a reasonable imaging session the other night as it was the first clear night i've had since purchasing the AZ-GTI. I was hoping to image Orion Nebula but it was going to be obscured from garden for a few hours and as i didn't want to waste imaging time i elected to image the Heart Nebula. I got just over 2 hours in of 66 x 120secs subs. Guiding was mainly ok at about 1-2 arcsec RMS which was within my imaging scale of 3.5 arcsec using the Redcat and Canon 600D.

However after stacking and a quick post process i was a bit disappointed with the result. It all looked a bit noisy. Still i'm very new at this game so i'm hoping there's more to be had once i get my head around what i'm supposed to be doing.

Looks like it might be another clear evening so i'm thinking of collecting some more subs of the same image rather than trying something else.

First clearish night for god knows how long and its blowing half a gale. ☹️

Hoping to get a good session with the AZ-GTI on Orion nebula before it disappears. Tomorrows weather looking less windy and clear (hopefully).

6 hours ago, Ouroboros said:

Glad you got it working @RayWUK.   I managed to make it work some time ago, but actually haven’t used the two together very much if at all. I found it a bit fiddly and I now can’t recall exactly why. I have tended to just use the search and slew features provided in the ASIair. This is adequate for setting up for imaging. Although having said that, I will be pleased if ZWO ever includes a planetarium feature in a future upgrade.  If I want to use SkySafari at the same time I view it independently on my phone.  

One use i can see is using the 'Field of View' options in SkySafari. Theoretically one should be able to 'see' the target in SkySafari as i would appear in your images.

I've set this up for my equipment but waiting for some clear sky to try it for real.

On 13/02/2022 at 15:45, Adreneline said:

Hi Ray,

Sky Safari connects to the mount via the ASIair but you have to ensure the two are on the same network.

I control my ASIair from my iPad so once the ASIair has started up I go to Wifi in my iPad Settings and choose the ASIair wifi network/hotspot - so the iPad is connected directly to the ASIair.

Once that is done I start up SkySafari and connect to the mount. You need to ensure the settings in SkySafari are set up for the mount type and I have to input 10.0.0.1 as the IP address and port 4030 for my iOptron CEM25-EC. For my SW AZ-EQ6 the IP is the same but the port is 9624.

For reasons that are way beyind me I also have to set SkySafari to use a Meade 200 Classic as the mount type and not a SW - that requirement comes from a pop-up that appears on the ASIair. The ASIair itself is set to use EQMOD Sky Safari from the available mount types. Weird or what?! Took me a few goes to get it all working.

The connection between ASIair and SkySafari has only ever failed me once and that was on the first night with my AZ-EQ6 and may well have been my fault anyway. With the iOptron it is rock solid.

The ASIair has the Search/GoTo function but sometimes I want to slew to a nearby star to check focus with a BM and then SF is a real bonus.

HTH and makes sense!

Adrian

 

Hi Adrian, many thanks for that. All working now, had to use Port 9624, other searches i made all suggested 4030 as for your iOptron but that never worked for my mount. Wish manufacturers documented these things.

Ray.

I've been playing with the AZ-GTI-ASIAIR-SkySafari setup and after a lot of head scratching and surfing I think i've cracked it.

The problem (or maybe not) i was having using the SynScanLink within SkySafari (as Suggested by LaurenceT)is that it uses the SynScan app to connect to the AZ-GTI and the AISAIR also connecting to the AZ-GIT. So there seems to be some conflict when switching between controlling the mount via the ASIAIR and SkySafari. It sort of works but gets confused occasionally.

So the setup I have now connects SkySafari to the ASIAIR and the ASIAIR controls the mount. Theres no need for the SW SynScan app.

To do this the ASIAIR needs to be connected to the AZ-GTI with a EQMOD cable. In the ASIAIR app under the mount settings select 'EQMOD SkySafari' (instead of EQMOD). If you use Station Mode in the ASIAIR you will also need the IP number from WiFI Settings - Station Mode - Info

In SkySafari - Telescope - Preset - Add Preset. Mount Type - Equatorial Goto. Scope Type - Meade LX200 Classic. Next - IP 10.0.0.1 (If Using Station Mode the IP from ASIAIR above). Port Number 9624. Next - Save Preset

SkySafari should now connect by tapping 'Scope'.

It's all pretty seamless, SkySafari will follow any GOTO selected on the ASIAIR and vice versa. A nice feature of SkySafari is the FOV box you can setup in Observe - My Equipment and Scope Display.

Hope this helps anyone else going down this route.