david_taurus83

Oops. I've just checked again. It's possible you may have caught it north of Mizar, not to the left like I suggested.

Hi. Your pointing at Mizar in that image with Alkaid to the left of frame. M101 is just out of frame a little more to the left.

This is also true. You can take an image from the home position and platesolve and sync that to give the mount a true starting position. It still remains key that you start EQMod first while still in the home position.

Your EQmod coords look like your still in the home position, weights down and scope pointing north. You need to start EQMod from the home position, issue a Goto command to your chosen target, THEN take an image and platesolve. It wont sync if you are too far away from where EQMod thinks you are pointing.

M101 is very faint. You'll need longer exposures and higher ISO to reveal it. It's not an easy object to begin with. You probably did everything right in regards to platesolving and aligning. Can you post an image?

I also have a UGREEN 15m repeater cable that works great. Had my ASI1600 connected to the laptop indoors and it didn't drop any subs. Quality.

Hi. The ASI120 is a good camera. Will work well on planetary and the moon. You'll struggle to do DSO though with that scope and mount. Not impossible but definitely not easy.

Is this first light John?

I've heard good reports of the TS flatteners. Altair advertise a 3 element 3" 0.79 reducer for the 102 ED-R but it's not in stock. TS do a 4 element version and quote the same backspace requirements. It also looks identical. Also a 2" filter drawer to put my IDAS LPS into the system and something I've been after for ages. A TS slim camera rotator. It's a lot sturdier than pictures suggest. No rocking or tilting once its tightened up. Well engineered. Can even remove the camera quickly from the train.

I've ordered the 3" TS 0.79 for my 100mm Altair Starwave. Glad to see some positive reviews. Fingers crossed for a flat field!

Lots of rain! But lots of dark skies up West!

Altair version is a bit cheaper. https://www.altairastro.com/Starwave-102ED-FPL53-Refractor.html I have this scope and I'm very happy with it for observing. Jon @parallaxerr also has one and he is a more experienced observer than me so be interesting to find out how he finds it?

None of those links show the mini ball head? Is that a separate purchase?

It don't need adjusting like a RDF?

How do you adjust it?

Not really a shot in action but it spends more time in this position than anything else! Changing things up from this: Some difference! To this! 102 EDR is ready! Chance of less clouds later. Hopefully get to do some testing. What's the chances of the flattener working straight off the bat?🤔

I use a WO GT71 420mm F5.9 triplet. I think the Hotech spacing is dependant on focal length more so than focal ratio. Alan's works at the quoted 55mm. Explore Scientific do a flattener for your scope. Have you considered that?

I have one of those. Yes, you can thread 2" filters into the nosepiece. Spacers, you'll have to experiment. Start at 55mm and see how you get on. It's not enough for my current setup. Its somewhere between 70/80mm for me. Still working on it!

How much input is needed to setup the SM? Is it easy to use? This is coming from someone who's only ever used Windows. Do you need Linux to run it? I have a laptop here that's in the drawer unused...

The ASIAir supports DSLR now and works off a tablet or mobile phone. No PC or laptop needed whatsoever. It has internal guiding and platesolving. Basically plug and play. But definitely tailored more to ZWO products. If it would support my autofocuser (DeepSkyDad) and offered more control over guiding and dithering I would be all over it. Don't think I can give up the functionality of APT for it just yet. The Stellarmate is probably much more functional with wider support options but it needs a bit more user input to setup, (from what I gather as I've never tried it) and I'm not sure whether you still need a PC to control from your 'warm room' side of things! So if you want a fully mobile setup and you have ASI or a DSLR cameras, I would say the Air is the way to go. FYI theres a very good group on FB for the ZWO ASIAir with plenty of support. I've joined it to keep tabs on development. The Air is not without its bugs and niggles but ZWO themselves are active in the group and do take stuff onboard. That said, even with a laptop the hobby isn't without its bugs and niggles...

Yes definitely a USB traffic issue. For ages I thought the issues with my 1600MM were because I use a Startech USB2 to CAT5 extender. It had a quirk where the 1600 wouldn't download images unless the 120 was looping frames in PHD!!! Every now and again it would also just give the dreaded BUSY message in APT and could stay that way for hours until I stopped the image plan and restarted it. Very infuriating as I couldn't take my eyes off it while imaging. Well, since moving to a modern laptop it works brilliantly. Downloads quicker and hasn't skipped a single frame. But then the 120 wouldn't work properly. It gives a split frame effect in both PHD and Sharpcap. Googling brings up results from CO and ZWO forums where it's a known issue for some. ZWO say they didn't anticipate such issues with USB3. As you have said though, the USB3 versions of the 120 and the new Minis have addressed the issue. I could have just swapped for one of those but it's nearly my birthday 😁

My 120MM works great in my old Win 7 USB2 laptop but I had trouble with the 1600MM. That's fixed now with the new laptop but the 120 wouldn't work!

New guide camera. The ASI120 is incompatible with my new USB3 laptop 🤷‍♂️

Yep. My routine is: Setup in home position Polar align in Sharpcap Take first image in home position Platesolve and sync Use the drift align tool in PHD to slew to meridian and celestial equator Calibrate Slew to target, platesolve, sync and repeat until on target. Run autofocuser Run image plan. Watch clouds roll in.

Thanks! I already pay for it! The reason for the demo version in the screenshots is because I wanted to do a fresh install of everything from scratch!?