Bigskyjim

Hi all, apologies if this is in the wrong place... (if so, mods feel free to move to somewhere more relevant)🤔 Long time lurker here... I've recently been trying to get into astrophotography after migrating from a manually powered SW EQ5. After some careful thought (and a lot of saving up) I invested in a whole new setup, including a ZWO AM3 mount. Wow! what a steep learning curve. Miraculously, on the day of its arrival I got a perfectly clear night, and managed to test it out on my balcony... But I ended up with more questions than I started with, and I'm hoping you more knowledgeable folks can help. Before I begin, here is my current setup: - Mount: ZWO AM3 Tripod: ZWO TC40 Scope: William Optics Zenithstar 73 Main Camera: Canon D250 SLR Guide Camera: ZWO mini ASI120MM Guidescope: SVbony 165 Computer: ASIAIR mini Interface: Apple Ipad Power Supply: Apertura Portable Telescope Power Supply - 155 Wh Lithium Battery I have so many questions, particularly relating to the AM3 mount. the instructions provided are fairly lacking. If you kind folks could solve any, or all, I'd be much better placed to continue trying to get to grips with my astronomy journey. Here goes... 1) I performed a semi-decent polar alignment down to less than 15 arc seconds, (which was a joy compared to my old SW). Then chose nice and easy Arcturus as my first ever 'go to' target. Arcturus appeared in the camera view finder, but was not centralized. What could be the reason for this? Is there also a way to 'tweak' or refine something in the app so that the mount then 'learns' where the target actually is and can make further go to tracking more accurate 2) My power supply isn't the greatest., and I think i may have been undergunned. Towards the end of my (fairly short) session, the mount started beeping constantly. This was accompanied by a small 'voltage' warning at the top of the app. I assume this is because the power supply dropped below 12V in the cold. Can anyone give me some good suggestions as to the best way to power my mount more effectively? I'd much rather buy a complete unit than mess around with lithium ion batteries and crafting my own battery pack (I'm not very electronically minded, and live in a country where it can be difficult to source items required). Any and all suggestions to power the mount (with a battery, I have to drive to a dark site to see anything at all) would be appreciated. 3) The Focus mode in the ASIAIR was very difficult to use. There was significant lag between the images being taken and them arriving on my screen to the point where I couldn't really tell which change i'd made to the focus had produced the image). Is it better to just use the DSLR view finder with a Batinov mask? 4) Does anyone have any good suggestions as to a good place to mount the ASIAIR mini? I stuck it to the side of the mount body with a velcro dot, however I did find that at certain orientations the mini came very close to making contact with the lower part of the mount, and it also led to my cables becoming snagged on the DEC axis adjustment handle. 5) can anybody point me in the direction of a good tutorial to use the app with the mount? While it is fairly intuitive, other areas are quite technical and I don't understand what to do (and the time to be working it out, isn't when i'm in -5C in the middle of nowhere 🤪. I appreciate I've asked a lot of questions there. The main issue (worry) I have is actually powering the mount properly. It cost me a lot, and I don't want to damage it with an unsuitable power supply), I'd be particularly keen for power supply suggestions. Thank you and clear skies!