happy-kat

^ it's really great to use and quick, it's the second project I've used it for the other is a raspberry pi project.

Found the lens

Needed a housing for a stripped inexpensive webcam, Lego gave a quick solution even an adjustable foot, now to find where I put the lens.

If you already have one why not use your guide scope

DSLRs can have a sweet spot for ISO, could look up what your camera is and use that, if a canon it might be either 800 or 1600.

With your DSLR and the lens that came with it, with a static tripod you can take startrail images and using starstax create a composite to show the rotation.

On 08/08/2022 at 19:49, happy-kat said:

Just used a virtuoso v1 and synscan dongle. Connected and aligned the mount. Want to skysafari 4 plus and connected. The map updated to where the telescope was pointing. I then undid a clutch and moved manually the telescope and the skysafari map dynamically updated moving as I moved the telescope. But synscan after soon bombed and lost alignment. For freedom find to work with the synscan dongle in advanced settings I had to turn on auxiliary encoders. I've got a newer release of skysafari I'll try that.

Edit 1: need to use synscan pro app, auxillary encoders are not an option in the other version.

Also I used one star alignment twice as minimum to align first. I use this option as the mount goes to where it thinks the star is, of I use 2 star alignment the mount doesn't move and waits for me to direct it.

Edit 2: skysafari 5 pro behaved the same but didn't automatically move the map view to keep pace with the manual adjustments I made (might have been a setting I missed) unlike skysafari 4 plus.

Edit 3: to get around the dropped connection when in skysafari select ok at the prompt go to synscan pro and reconnect, select again auxiliary encoders, back to skysafari and connect. Alignment was intact.

Edit 4: changed the WiFi channel in the synscan app to 13, this was behaving better than the default 6 for me but it did still drop quite a lot but it's quick to reconnect again. Tonight's play and both 4 and 5 of skysafari did slew the map as I manually moved the mount but this wasn't all the time, though it's easy to pan the screen by hand to find the current position. I have a visible box for where the telescope is currently pointing as I've got a camera as my selected device in equipment so easy to see.

Edit 5: I'm using Android and synscan pro 2.0.6 with the synscan wifi dongle on the latest firmware and a virtuoso v1 mount.

Your mileage may very.

I'm hoping the update today to the synscan apps fixes Edit3.

it is a small windows program (not by Microsoft) which helps with lining things up

Hi

What version of the azgti firmware are you using?

You might find this owners thread handy

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/387014-skywatcher-az-gti-mount-owners-thread/page/1

^ Ditto 

If you are into DIY you could make a barn door tracker for your 18-55 lens. 

I use DSLR controller with either an Android phone or 7 inch tablet. First install the DSLR remote app (by the same developer) as you can test easy if your Android device and canon DSLR communicate before getting DSLR controller. The app is great and has a built in intervalometer.

The canon I use doesn't have wifi

can you have spherical aberration on a parabolic mirror?

All's collimation aid is a great tool for checking concentric circle alignment, your C70 is much more aligned than mine and perhaps the camera needs to be totally square to know if alignment is true, I'll use a webcam with the tool to check mine.

Some have found wrapping PTFE tape around the focuser will take up any movement there might be, I've also seen photo of one wrapped with insulating tape to make for a very snug fit. I haven't found it essential to do on the heritage 130p I use so haven't got round to trying.

What sort of budget range. I wonder if a mirror less DSLR would fit in your flange-focus distance range. 

If you have one you might try just using your 224 with an IR pass filter, a sort of mono experience. The atmosphere might just have been bobbing boiling around on the nights you've tried so far.

From when I had read about the C70 when stripping the back off was that there were three push and three pull screws, I'll see if I can add a link to what I'd found before. There's a post with picture of screws on CN. Mine is still waiting for collimation as it's a bit out from my fiddling, just to say the mirror coating is very delicate as I've scratched mine when flocking it.

Excellent photos. The outer covering on my C70 was  stuck with glue in places so didn't peel off as cleanly as yours

It's a great telescope I've enjoyed the views in mine. I also enjoyed using a 16mm lens.

If the trip out is as much about the company then I'd think about how easy or not different options are to setup and get imaging with. 

Just re read and you're using an ASI camera so you weren't meaning the camera auto focuser like with a DSLR, but I guess it's handy to know if you had been.

When I use a modern lens I use manual focus as I want to control focus and not have the camera and lens decide to adjust focus mid capturing

If you focus using a star where a third intersection is will even out focus rather than using a star in the centre.

I apologise in advance if I've muddied and not helped, sorry

If the EQ mount is manual then being polar aligned allows using the ra slow mo handle to track the star across the sky. A mount with motors on both axis still has a core movement of the head on it's axis, if the setup is not aligned on Polaris (or specifically the North Celestial Pole for exact accuracy) then the core movement of the mount head won't follow and track a star across the sky with the telescope following the right amount of rotation (an issue if imaging). Altaz follow a star by tiny left right up down keeping the object in the field of view but the target is rotating and smearing if imaging.

Edit: corrected for NCP accuracy as pointed out below

Have you seen the thread on the 585 it looks interesting from a flexible angle

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/397896-zwoplayer-one-imx-585-sensor-image-showcase