RobW

With the weather of late ruling out much imaging I decided do some DIY organising instead: https://www.cloudynights.com/gallery/album/25908-storage/ My office feels spacious again now the scopes aren't all up on mounts taking up half the floor space. The RC8 is still mounted. Cupboard space wasn't quite enough, and it's tail heavy which I wasn't totally sure a wooden shelf mounted clamp would take.

So sad to hear - David and I swapped a few emails about custom Dobs, and I very much had the idea of commissioning one from him some day. Came across as a thoroughly knowledgable and professional guy, and reviews and comments online suggested his scopes were the very best. May he RIP.

Lovely concept - not convinced on the $4k price tag though. If you don't have mounts and existing gear, it is all-in-one. If you have some existing gear, a RASA 8 seems a better proposition. Different strokes I guess. Maybe their target market is people wanting more than an S50, but still wanting simplicity with everything in one bundle.

This thread was super helpful, many thanks for this. My version came out very similar - slight difference in the syntax mount and managed so far to use a standard 280mm belt: https://www.cloudynights.com/gallery/album/24645-skymax-180/

Useful - thanks. The main thing for me is f/3.9 - I'm considering moving to a faster widefield scope. So the decision is 290mm FL @ f/3.9 or 350mm FL @ f3.9, since I'd be putting the reducer on either. There's probably a slight benefit of 90mm vs 72mm primary objective ITO resolving power, but that's not so much a factor in my thought process since we're talking widefield here anyway. FWIW - I did contemplate the Sharpstar 13028HNT f/2.8, but my existing filters could be problematic. On paper they're only rated to about f/3.6.

Also interested in thoughts with the reducer - especially pixel scale and whether it's too much undersampled on the 2600MC. Liking the idea of a 290/f3.9 very much - might consider pairing it to a asi294mm pro in bin1 mode for a somewhat better pixel scale match. Alternative would be the FRA500 with reducer, which sits at 350/f3.9

If you're a DIYer and don't mind tinkering (and possibly voiding your warranty) there's some useful tips on the internals of the SA Gti on Cloudy Nights, including how to adjust for RA backlash, which mine was gradually developing. 10 minute fix (5 of which was gently warming, removing and relocating the sticker which covers the adjustment hole). And no backlash. More info on the CN thread (including much more major work on regreasing and adjusting DEC, which I have not needed yet)

Awesome - cheers. Loving this hobby. So much to learn!

This has been a very informative thread to read thanks!. Although I confess, as a newcomer. some aspects go over my head a bit at this stage. Any suggestions on good reading/research links or other sources so I can get a deeper understanding? Very keen to get a good grounding on fundamentals before I add to my existing scopes or cameras.

Yeah - it's not actually hitting, so I'm OK for now. I'm considering an HEQ5 anyway, and the Az GTi does lesser duties on my other scope, so I may just live with it for now.

I'm also on a straight USB connection from mount to PC (an old Intel NUC box). Couldn't see any benefit of ST-4 even though I have the cables, so I went with a simple/direct USB connection. I'm using the fairly standard NINA/PHD2 combo for software. It did take a couple of minutes after installing the ASCOM platform and drivers to figure which COM port it was using (COM3 in my case) and configure that into SynScan. If all else works, have you checked/changed the normal Altitude limit in SynScan - I got caught by that on Andromeda the other everning, which was above the 75 degrees they set by default in SynScan for the mount. I just whacked that up to 90 and all was OK (apart from shaving my tripod leg!)

One thing I noticed last night on the new version is that if I'm connected by USB to my PC I don't seem to be able to connect using WiFi from my phone in parallel. I'm sure I've done that in the past, so maybe it got blocked in this new release. WiFi from phone works fine if the mount is not connected to anything else. It's no biggie, but my PC is sometimes a distance from the mount so it was kind handy for a quick slew to target to save trudging back. Bluetooth is also listed but I couldn't get it to work on Android - I doubt it's something I'd use much anyway, my NUC PC card doesn't have working BT at present anyway (long story!). Those aside, 3.44 seems to be working fine.

Just spotted on Cloudy Nights, that SW have release a new version 3.42 f/ware which is listed on ZWO forums (to fix some issues with ASIair I belive), but the link is only currently on the ZWO site and not the SW site. https://bbs.astronomy-imaging-camera.com/d/15229-asiair-star-adventurer-gti-problems/18

On point 1 - the accuracy of your first star you go to will in part be how good your PA was, but also the accuracy of your home position. I've been battling with this. The GTi doesn't help much with manually getting a good home position because it has no degree scales on RA or DEC. Actually, I need to check that properly - I realise the polar scope has a scale that I may not be properly using for one of those! There's no external scales to use with levels though. Setup for visual with a wide FOV eyepiece, it's no big deal, but it's painful for a narrow image sensor FOV. It's something I need to work on next time out. Possibly your 2i was less of an issue because you only had one moving axis which could be slightly mis-aligned when in home position. Once you've done your 1,2, or 3 star alignment none of this matters - the GOTO caters for any mis-alignment of home. But that doesn't help with getting that first star alignment close enough to be in FOV. BTW - I'm a total beginner, so I could be missing something obvious! As for your (2) I'm too new to advise - but I do recall seeing some configured limits on the mount DEC that may be worth checking out. Possibly also that a mis-aligned home could mean the GOTO is adjusting too much for the DEC axis being too high (or low) and hitting the mechanical limits.

Thanks. Cable is on way today so I'll start out that way.