vlex

Got it! I'll dig through the manual how to use the hand controller to get the mount to guide on its own, since I knew from the get go I'll be using a computer and didn't retain much of it. I'll keep in mind the suggestion abt the off-axis guider Yes.

I might be a bit daft, but how does one go about using "the mounts RA sidereal rate"? I did try a shorter focal length with my wildlife lens @400mm just to give the RPi in ASIair and the plate solver better fighting chance by increasing the FOV from less than 1 degree to more than 4. That said, perhaps I don't understand the reasoning behind your suggestion? Do you mind explaining a bit more what we're trying to prove with this?

I tune it until the last stage ASIAir thinks it's "good enough" which is within 5 arc seconds. That said, usually the total error is more like in the range of 2-3".

Hi there, I recently got a long Mak OTA and an EQ5 Pro and shortly thereafter got myself an ASIair Plus, asi120mm-mini and a 30f4 miniscope bundle as an upgrade. Long story short I'm not sure where to poke at this issue, but my guiding doesn't work. Here is my workflow: Set up the tripod and mount Perform PA through the mount's eyepiece Set up and balance the OTA with the ASIAir and the guide scope Power up the ASIAir from a AC power supply (the ASIAir powers the mount (12V barrel jack) and the guide camera (USB)); The comms between the ASIAir and the mount is through an USB2.0 A-B cable to the mount controller directly and it connects fine at baud 115200; Move the OTA to point at some bright star (ideally Polaris) and swap eyepiece with the DSLR Focus the OTA in preview with a bahtinov mask to ensure accurate plate solving Perform PA through the app (within 5") Choose a target and go to it. Here the first issue becomes evident - the mount goes to the desired DE/RA but then during the center confirmation it starts doing fine adjustments and usually slews continuously to the target over, and over, and over until it eventually fails, though sometimes it confirms the target had been centered so this is more of an intermittent issue. Go into guiding, loop, select star (if needed) and calibrate (delete older calibration data if needed). Here the second issue becomes apparent - even though ASIAir claims to be guiding, the mount doesn't move (I get star trails on exposure longer than a few seconds and the distance just grows and grows) s. video below. Video on Streamable (valid for 48hrs) Then confirm everything works again in Preview and go into Autorun where I set my lights, darks, flats, etc. And after the first image I see the star trails. Theories: When I first got the setup the RA motor wasn't always moving the mount and had the seller mesh the gears better, so my first thought was that the mount might be still at fault (haven't refuted that yet). My second theory is that ASIAir doesn't talk well to the EQ5Pro over USB (as I know there's some driver issues with some of the SkyWatcher mounts). However, had that been the case I assume the GoTo wouldn't have worked either, not only the guiding. I'd like someone to confirm or deny that assumption before I spend 50 quid on a EQDir cable. I suppose I could try using ST4 (if the mount is compatible and I figure out whether I need to set anything up in ASIAir or the mount, that is..) My third and last theory is that this could be because of the focal length of my OTA (1800mm) and that the rotation of the planet is just too significant at this magnification that by the time the camera (Nikon D500 whilst waiting on my OSC to arrive) takes a 1s exposure, ASIAir plate solves and confirms orientation the target had moved away, but I later refuted this theory when I took my Sigma 150-600/5-6.3 Sport set it @400mm on a vixen dovetail and got an L-bracket for the guide scope and attached it onto the body and that rendered the same result, so the length of the OTA shouldn't be the issue here. Any suggestions and wisdom would be appreciated. Cheers, V