Rich1980

Another vote for the ASIair, just a cheap v1 will do you (approx £100).

I've used Polemaster (expensive for just polar aligning), Sharpcap (good but needing a laptop out in the field was just too bulky and hassle with cables and power), mounts own polar scope (found rubiks cubes easier to complete!).

The air is user friendly, no need to be technically minded at all. It'll centre on whatever you want to goto and when you add a guide cam down the line it'll run that for you too (as long as it's a zwo cam). 

Technically just before night but waiting for it. 

47 minutes ago, Stuf1978 said:

Brilliant, thank you. Yes I meant without home network.

Were you powering the pocket powerbox from the asiair or using a different power source altogether? 

Powering the asiair from the powerbox. A cable to that from my power tank and a cable to my mount, only two outputs from the battery running everything 👍

40 minutes ago, Stuf1978 said:

That's a lovely M31 😍

I've been ASIair curious for quite a while and have been contemplating ditching the laptop and trying it out. I currently don't have any means to power a laptop, mount, cameras, dew heaters etc in the field and I'm thinking not having to run a laptop would simplify my power requirements. I do have a few things I'd like to clarify before deciding whether I should hit the buy button:

1. Manual focusing - Not having an electronic focuser, could I just run live view on the imaging camera (294MC Pro) and manually focus with a bahtinov mask as I'm currently doing?

2. Can you run the ASIair without a wifi network?

3. Dew heaters - Does ASIair have dew control? Or could I just run my Pegasus Pocket power box from the 12v output of the asiair and leave the dew control to that?

 

Thanks,

Stu

I'll jump in here with my limited knowledge. 

1 - Yes, exactly that. Auto focus is clever but not essential. 

2 - Home network do you mean? If so yes, I used mine out in the field. Just WiFi to phone/tablet and jobs a good un. 

3 - The Pro (and expect plus) has power outputs that with using an adapter can be adjusted to power dew heaters. I think it's 5% or 10% steps but only seems to be manual (unless I'm missing something) unlike the pocket powerbox set to auto. My old original air (which is for sale! ) ran alongside my pocket powerbox perfectly, as pictured. 

I don't receive anything from Zwo (although am open to it! haha) but can agree with what's been said here. I struggled to get everything working together and setting it all up. The original AsiAir solved all that, let me get rid of the laptop too. Working on a tablet over wifi is a joy, yes WiFi can be limited but I find it easier than running a cable over that distance. 

Anyone starting out who is struggling I would suggest buying the Air (original or otherwise) and things will fall into place.

I've bought Polemaster, Starsense, APT & SharpCap and yes they're good at what they do but for simplicity do it all with the Air, for £100 nowadays an original version and a guide cam (£130 ish) and you've got plate solving, polar alignment, goto & guiding. 

I get forum rules etc and agree with whatever is in place there but otherwise anyone with issues on this, I wonder how they sell their houses? 

*and if anyone is selling for ⅔ of new or less than what you paid, please give me a shout! 

Ah right, I'll drop the barlow idea then. I was reading about IR cut filters and have ordered the Baader one, I've a crude dew shield made up for when it's needed. Doesn't look great but does the job. 

I've no issue with this.

We all have a choice where to buy or sell items, for what prices and for what level of security or service. 

Also if I sold my neq6 mount for £250 (as it doesn't owe me any more than that) that doesn't mean the next person selling one has to sell theirs for the same price. 

I've been thinking about adding a EAF to it as I have one on my esprit. The lack of use at the moment has swayed me otherwise though, we'll see. 

Yes the ADC is good, I feel I've still to use it on a great seeing night but for what it costs I'd say it's worth it yes. 

So I've got a 180 MAK and a ZWO224 camera, I've added an ADC and looking to improve my images of Jupiter and Saturn some more. 

I'm now looking at an IR cut filter and Barlow but wondered on people's recommendations? 

Anything else I'm maybe missing too? 

I use my guide cam to plate solve and polar align when viewing. When imaging I just use my imaging camera though on the main scope. 

Interesting is that, conditions maybe make most sense yes. I'll take notice more in future and see if anything similar happens. As I say I never really sit and watch satellites so much. Will report back if there's a next time and get more info. 

Thanks everyone. 

On 19/08/2021 at 08:45, Barry Fitz-Gerald said:

On the wobbling - can you expand on what degree of wobble you saw - fast/slow, how wide was the deviation from the straight line (amplitude), abrupt change of direction or smooth and like a falling leaf or more like a zig-zag?

A less technical answer than maybe the question deserves but more wave like I would say. Very similar to the ISS link earlier in the thread

Although I would say slightly more noticiable than that and slower but very similar in pattern. 

16 hours ago, MKHACHFE said:

To be honest, that's something I never thought of and although it seems unlikely to me, it's more likely than anything else ive ever come up with

My sighting was very rythmic in speed an position changes which I guess a bird could do, although I've never seen that (no that that means much).

I'd be interested to hear what the OP thinks of this theory.

It clearly wasn't satellites or planes, I'm sure there is an explanation.

 

Thanks for your input.

My main doubt of a bird is how is it reflecting light around 1am?

12 hours ago, Shimrod said:

I have updated the link in the original post, and also here

Thanks for that, now I would say that gif is very similar to the behaviour witnessed but a little intrigued given the temperature at night. Feel we may be on the right lines though. 

As a side not there were plenty more satellites that night that weren't affected. 

There was never enough cloud that you couldn't see stars behind it but I wouldn't say it was crystal clear. 

If I'd have thought it was an aircraft at such height I'd also question the behaviour of the flightpath, it just didn't appear normal for either. 

The iss wobble link doesn't seem to be complete sadly. 

Yes 3 of us saw the same thing. Everything about it looked like a satellite until the strange movement. Could passing behind some faint cloud maybe alter the appearance of its path? 

2 hours ago, Astro Noodles said:

Hi Rich

I have noticed this phenomenon a couple of times now. I wonder if it is something to do with spatial orientation, or something vision related.

Were you using a telescope or binoculars or just eyes?

 

 

Eyes only last night. We sat there for a while trying to come up with a theory but absolutely nothing came to mind. Interesting to see though, I wonder how common it may be? To be honest I rarely track a satellite for more than a few seconds but will do from now on. 

Hi everyone, 

We were out last night on meteor watch and saw what we assumed was another satellite, must've seen thousands over the years but after around 15 seconds of a normal consistent path it began to what I can only describe as 'wobble' and slow down transitting the sky. I've never seen anything like it before though. Anybody any serious suggestions on it?

Location was South West of York and time being around 1am.

Another one for braided cable sleeves, the odd velcro strap and small cable ties. 

Thanks guys, 

Yeah mainly planetary and lunar stuff really. I'll try it out with the 224 on it next time. 

Will see about plate solving at that field of view. 

I'll report back after the next trip out, thanks again. 

Hi, 

I had my first night out with the 180 last night. Had a good look at the moon along with jupiter and saturn using a 23mm eyepiece. The 10mm eyepiece was fairly dark and struggled to get focus bang on. I do have a skywatcher fine focuser on it. 

As far as barlow or powermate options go, is 2x the most realistic choice to go? Are the benefits of a powermate over a barlow worthwhile? 

I will also be doing some imaging through it with my modded Canon 550d and adding a ZWO ADR at some stage. 

I have a ASI224 I use for guiding (and polar alignment and goto via the ASIAIR too) through a guide scope, I aligned this with the 180 at the beginning of the night but on some targets it didn't seem aligned. Would this potentially be because it is mounted by the guidescope foot bracket? Are there any better options to counter this issue? 

Finally, is attaching the ASI224 to the 180 worth a try too? 

Thanks in advance, 

Rich. 

Thank you too, will have a good read of these tonight. Much appreciated. 

That's great, thanks for the link 👍

1 hour ago, chiltonstar said:

Certainly excellent for planetary, the Moon and double stars, but no slouch on DSOs either, although it is only 180 mm. For the latter, a 28 mm or so wide field eyepiece is useful.

Chris

Ah right, I'll add a few to the list and see how I get on. Thanks.