david_taurus83

34 minutes ago, orly_andico said:

What sort of wattage is on those dew straps?

I bought a pair off Amazon (18 quid for a pair! https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09D7FSHBH), not astronomy-specific (apparently the long tele owners have the same problems.. who knew?!) and it's only 10W across both of them (gets power from a 5V 2.1A USB port). I don't know if that's enough given how cold it gets these days...

I don't have theft concerns because I'm on a first floor balcony. Definitely different case if it was a garden. Also, I don't intend to keep the cameras, scopes outside at all - just the mount.

About 5 or 6 watts if they are on full power. I leave the Pegasus power box to control them dependent on temperature and humidity. It's rarely at 80% power under the cover.

I've had my AZEQ6 outside now for 2 years under a TG cover. No rust at all apart from the usual surface corrosion on the counterweight bolts. The trick is to keep humidity at bay under the cover. I use a dew strap turned inside out (warm side facing out) and left running 24/7. No condensation forms on the mount or scopes this way. That's an old picture below but gives the the general idea.

Have you checked it with a multi meter to see if it is delivering 12v at the end of the individual cables powering all your gear? 12v is very susceptible to voltage drop the longer the length of cable used. That's why 13.8v is best to supply.

Yes but what are you using to power the Pegasus unit?

With regards to the camera, you say you struggled to connect it at first but eventually you used the cameras power adapter and it connected fine. Do you mean a 12v power supply that came with the camera? If so, it sounds like there is an issue with your power supply that you use to power everything else. What are you using?

I took a few hours of data on M45 the other side of the full moon last weekend or so. I compared to some subs I already have ready for the stack. I will be throwing away the ones I done last weekend! FYI I image without any filters on my 2600MC.

Another few rounds with the AM5 on the pier and guided via regular PHD2. 

Typical guiding rates of around 0.8"RMS throughout the sessions. I tried both Hysterisis and the PHD PPEC algorithms with not much difference between them both. It certainly never got down to the 0.4" levels usually reported the the ASIAir graphs. I think it's safe to say that my original suspicions of the Air figures are correct, at the very least the in app graph is wildly optimistic. This is not to say the AM5 is a bad mount, it's not, it's definitely up there with performance levels of a SW EQ6 class mount. More than adequate for most of us hobby folk though it prob is limited to focal lengths of less than 1000mm, which is in fact what ZWO recommend.

I did also manage a couple of sessions with the AZEQ6 and ASIAir Mini. I have my Redcat on there at the moment and it does look a bit silly on the AZEQ6 so I will be swapping it back onto the pier next weekend weather permitting. The guiding logs show what I would consider decent guiding for a SW mount even with an OAG but considering I have a 30mm F4 mini guidescope on there so with a pixel scale of 6.45" per pixel I think the typical 0.6"RMS in the logs is also a bit suspect. What I find strange is the logs on the Air report that corrections aren't issued with every exposure whereas on regular PHD on the pier corrections are issued with every exposure so I wonder if this is a factor in the overall RMS score for the Air logs. Both setups are set to 0.1" min move BTW.

The nail in the coffin for the Air graphs in my opinion though is this screenshot I took on Friday evening after I setup the AZEQ6. With 1s exposures as well.

Yeah right!

Prob not the cause buy have you took the cover off the side of the mount and checked the belt? Looks very regular corrections. That said, the guiding part of the ASIAir is a bit suspect anyway. Usually reports better guiding than is typical for the class of mount. I have another thread on this.

Do you mean the focus knob turns 1 or 2mm in either direction before engaging? It's rack and pinion so I can't see how the drawtube moves unless something is very loose. The fine focus knob is a kind of Crayford style mechanism so that can slip but the course focus is direct engagement with the rack so that shouldn't slip at all.

I downloaded the APK from the ZWO website as it appears to be a larger file size than what's on the Google play store so I wonder what/why has the Play store version been trimmed smaller? I seen on the FB site that people had issues with the Play version that appeared to be resolved by installing the larger file from ZWO. If you do go that route then after installing, Play will still recognise it so untick the option to auto update.

Having owned both, I would have to say the 533 is probably the better camera in modern terms as can do both shorter or longer exposures. The Atik is a great camera still but does need longer exposures, 10 mins or so. 

Wow! Dark skies? If I could be a bit critical I would say it would look even better with less noise reduction.

Another test a couple of nights ago. Same as the first night, an average of around 0.8"RMS. It was OK before a meridian flip but later in the night there are large deviations. I am hoping it was due to passing cloud but as it was unattended I can't be sure. The weather hasn't justified setting the AZEQ6 up to see what the Air reports on that.

An uncooled 533 would be a good shout but most people think they need to be cooled so selling on might be an issue. I would look for a second hand 533 cooled version.

8 hours ago, knobby said:

 

ps  - that must be the strongest coffee tin I've ever seen !

 

Lol its full of concrete! I just couldn't stomach the £200 or whatever it was for the ZWO extension. Might sound a bit daft considering how much I paid for the mount and camera last year but I promised myself I was done with astronomy purchases this year. 

I have started a new topic on the guiding of this mount and the ASIAir so as not to let this go too far off topic.

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/415062-asiair-am5-guiding-results/

As already mentioned in a previous thread, I have long held the belief that the ASIAir shows somewhat optimistic guiding results. I am a newcomer to the ASIAir when I first purchased one (Mini) when it was released around this time last year. It went hand in hand with the AM5 mount that I also purchased around the same time. It made an attractive proposal for a small, lightweight but very competent setup for my Redcat but with the opportunity to also put larger scopes on there if I fancied a change. I was surprised with the AM5's reported guiding figures as reported by the Mini. Typically it would show an average of 0.4 / 0.5" RMS with occasional dips into the 0.3" range. Very impressive considering I only use a small 30mm f4 guide scope with a pixel scale of 6.5" per pixel, though I did take with a pinch of salt.

Recently I decided I was going to swap over the AM5 onto my pier. Out came the AZEQ6 which guides at a typical 0.6" /0.7" RMS which is the norm for the EQ6 range. I have had better guiding when the seeing permits but it tends to be for shorter spells and the average is usually the typical. Yesterday I mounted up the AM5 using my homemade pier extension and we happened to have a few hours clear spell in the evening. 

After polar aligning and calibrating in PHD i ran a guiding assistant. It shows a peak to peak PE of around 30" over 7 minutes. Similar to the SW though thats over 10 minutes I believe. I wonder if there is need for short duration guiding at all looking at the PE curve. 

I left the mount guiding away for about an hour anyway on 1 second exposures to record its first session. The seeing probably wasnt great last night but the mount still managed a fairly run of the mill average of 0.8"RMS. Not too bad but certainly nowhere near as low as 0.4" at any point. Will be interesting to see how it performs if i try 2 or 3 second exposures. I will also look to use my AZEQ6 with the ASIAir to see how that reports its guiding. If im right it will be an improvement over the norm.

Is the "chasing the seeing" argument really relevant anymore considering that we use multi star guiding now?

The C11 definitely has the edge over the Tak. Picks out just a bit more detail if you pixel peep.

C11

Tak

Well I have swapped things around now so just need a clear night to try it out. Though the AM5 can easily manage without a counterweight i felt a bit uneasy about having nothing on there and considereing its just held onto the pier with a 3/8 rod i put the extension bar from the AZEQ6 on there and a 5kg weight for piece of mind. I was mistaken about EQMod though, the PC uses the ASI Mount driver. Connected and tested out without any issues.

Only thing now though is my portable setup isnt exactly portable anymore..

27 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

Hi David. That’s very helpful. A small piece of rectangular bar, that’s what I couldn’t think of, but can see how its obvious now for holding the eq6 onto the disc. Thank you!

No problem. Like I said, if you want the spare disc your welcome to it. I can even drill it for you if you can let me know the bolt pattern on your pier.

@tooth_dr Here's some pics. The PCD pattern on the flange on my pier isnt divisible by 3 so the 3 bolts are unequally spaced but its not an issue. I just made a template over the flange and put onto the disc and marked the centres before drilling. The bore of the disc is 65mm which is perfect for the AZEQ6. Not sure if the NEQ6 is the same. I also had to drill and tap for the North peg. An M12 bolt underneath then with a metal plate to bridge the recess in the disc holds it all down.

A few breaks in the cloud here. Managed 10 mins with the Heritage 150.

I'm taking my AZEQ6 off the pier and putting the AM5 on there to see if it guides better so will send you some pics tomorrow of how the AZ sits on there.

59 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

Was there a specific disc you used David? Is there any chance of a photo of the underside?

I think it was for a Golf. I searched for one that had a centre bore just large enough for the bottom of my AZEQ6 to fit into. What mount did you say you were going to use? I can send you the spare disc if you want it. I owe you a favour after all.