AstroNebulee

The camera should hopefully screw onto your FF reducer

I have the 294 mc pro and the amp glow is easily calibrated out, I've had no issues with this. I was like you too with 533 v 294 and there's many threads on it here in the forum but the bigger sensor won me over and I've seen some amazing images with an 80ed and 294mc pro. Regarding my earlier post about the AAP, I belive your looking for easier set up that just works. From my experience with my AAP it's a no brainer. Yep you're tied into zwo but I find that a comforting thing and not bothered by it. Also worth looking in flo clearance offers thread some good discounted items 👍 Cheers Lee

Hi I've been hard at work trying to take on board your suggestions and trying to bumble some sort of consistent workflow for my astrophotography processing and believe I've made sone progress today. Just using the new graxpert gradient software on my linear data then just processing in photoshop cs4, using starnett 2 to stretch the starless version and pasting and merging back in ps. I'm really pleased with how this looks compared to earlier processes. Just finalising the workflow now so I know it well. The blue channel has all the bloat so will figure out how to sort that. I'm fighting the bloat with my zwo ir uv cut filter until I've enough money for the L3. Hopefully you can see the improvement. Cheers Lee

It's a fantastic watch! Great effort 👍

Hi I'm pleased you got it working well now with your eq wedge and everything worked and you had a great session 👍. I do have mine on a WO eq wedge 😊 Regarding the tracking in a mode did the attached screenshot not show on your AAP software. I know mine is in EQ mod mount shown here. Cheers Lee

Definitely asiair pro or plus in my opinion, simple to use, helps PA, user friendly and one system running everything. There are other options but this just works out of the box and controlled via tablet or phone. 👍

Knowing my luck it would be cloudy that day, even up there at L2 😂

I have now sorted this issue tonight. I've just made sure the spring had pulled the worm into contact with the gear and tightened the spring nut and bolt down so no spring activation now, this was how I had it before. (May need to turn the sound up to hear the RA clicking in before video.) RA before.mp4 RA after.mp4

That'll be it. Remember the lower the number the finer (slower) the adjustment, the higher the number the courser (faster) the adjustment. Cheers Lee

Ahh I see, it will be moving thats what the noise from the mount will be. That's because its moving so slowly you can barely see it move. If you change the speed just above the keypad circled in orange, one is more speed one is less speed. Then the speed indicator is circled blue in the attached image. So add more speed when centering your target for alignment (not to much or you will overshoot each time, speeds are 1-9) or to try it now just put to 9 and see that baby turn 😁 Once you get the alignment star in the centre I think the keypad will flash the up and right buttons, so just tap these 2 to proceed to your next alignment star, then repeat. Cheers Lee

That seems strange to me. With the mount switched on and connected to the synscan app you should be able to move the mount with the keypad. What are you using device wise with the synscan app? Cheers Lee

I don't use mine in ALT az mode anymore but what I used to do is the North level alignment. Firstly I levelled the tripod then place a spirit level on my scope and level it. Then I used this compass app on my phone that can be set to geographic North. Do a 3 star alignment, 1st star would be slight off but next 2 would be in fov then just centre them, you have to confirm in the app by pressing the up and right arrows I think after each alignment star. Maybe the firmware needs updating I'm not entirely sure though. I think there's one for the left hand mounting here? Hopefully someone can confirm. http://skywatcher.com/download/software/motor-control-firmware/ Cheers Lee

Yes I used an astro essentials dovetail bar from FLO here. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dovetails-saddles-clamps/astro-essentials-dovetail-bars.html It has a slot on the underside that the bolt head fits into do the dovetail sits flat on the wedge. I attached a bolt on one end to stop the whole thing slipping off were the dovetail not clamped down enough in the wedge. I used some hockey stick tape on the dovetail and this has stuck to the underside of the az gti mount to stop any unessesary rotation. It could probably be shifted a bit more up to be more in line but it is sufficient enough now and is more stable and I can adjust the Dec bolts much easier now.

Looking good George. I will say like I said to David in a previous post that your az gti mount could do with moving in the direction of the red arrow so the top of the mount is in line with the main pillar in your tripod. The reason I say this my setup was the same and I had awful trouble adjusting the Dec adjustment bolts as the were really hard to turn even with the clutch off. The top of the mount should be inline with the orange arrow, then it balanced better on your tripod too. A longer dovetail bar will help with this. 👍 Have you managed to get your redcat to be looked at and fixed?

Similar to what I do Steve. One power cable to AAP. Then power cables from AAP to az gti and 294mc pro. USB slots are :USB key for storage, 294mc pro (both in USB 3 ports) , eq dir cable and 120 mcs guidecamera (both in USB 2 ports.) 👍

I tried this last night but I can't zoom in close enough with my 294MC pro in video mode and asiair pro. I did try the smallest roi but still not close enough. I'll think again. Thank you though,the L3 is the answer when I've the pennies 😊

Yep, I'm going l back in the mount at the weekend as its cloudy for the foreseeable. Will check mine out, like I say just going to disengage the spring as I had it before. 👍

Really looking forward to your results Ray, as you say maybe a bit small a target but really worthwhile to try, M51 is a real beauty 👍

Thank you. Yes I've watched both videos before and previously I had the RA worm and gear meshed thus not using the spring I thought I'd try with the spring engaged but was worse so will go back to how I had it. That's great you got out with your scope and remembering to remove the L-Enhance. Hopefully you got some good data 👍

It's great 😊 I also say it's a hard target to image and get any real detail. I think it's more for the appearance of how the galaxies are grouped in the curved chain formation that makes the image special in its own right 👍

Well first time tonight in getting the scope out since 24th March. Testing the adjustments I made in meshing the RA motor gears together and re-engaging the RA spring here. https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/387014-skywatcher-az-gti-mount-owners-thread/?do=findComment&comment=4230370 There's a bit of play in RA in the mount now and when I tighten the RA clutch and move the mount there's play and I can hear the spring. 🙁 This was causing some unusual guiding in RA for me so I shall revert back to disengaging the RA spring and meshing the worm and gear back together to stop the play. So got another job tinkering at the weekend. I'd say the meshing of the motor gears is ok though. Just had around 10x120 sec subs on M13 & M3 to check. Early start in the morning and overtime, roll on Fridays and Saturdays when it's a clear night. Hope everyone else is having fun tonight.

Sorry, earlier I should of said I set my flat darks on the dark plan in autorun still 2 seconds long at same gsin as flats, but dfirsny make any difference. Cheers Lee

I just take my flat darks under the bias autorun section, keep the same exposure time and gain as my flats and put the cap on the scope. I don't use the asiair auto setting on my flats, I take 2 second flats and flat darks. This on my flat brings the hump on the histogram around the middle mark. I use a homemade flat tracing panel box and worked out how many sheets of paper I needed to use to get the histogram where it is based on 2 sec exposures. As long as they are the same exposure time and gain each all is good., 👍

I generally do 30 of each. My flats and flat darks are done at the end of every session and don't take long to do. I don't use bias frames. I have reused my master dark files I've built in a library since getting my camera in January so only used about 3 times 😂, regarding the degradation, is it because the osc can change a bit over a long period of time, so say take darks once a year maybe? Someone with better knowledge will be along shortly. Cheers Lee

That will explain that then haha, thank you for the link and advice. 👍 I wish I could remember and it's been a while since I processed anything and I am a baffoon and unique 😂 but if I remember rightly the issue starts to arise once I do a star reduction in shrink then after using fringe killer the issue becomes more noticable when using superstructure module. (I like to clear a lot of the smaller stars as possible, probably causing my issue) I shall have to do my basic Startools process and save the log file. I have been practicing in other forms of software, but struggling to find time atm. Thank you that's a very handy tip. Will this throw my focus off quite considerably or not really noticable? Cheers Lee