AstroNebulee

Beautiful set up Stu, pleased to hear the mount work perfectly 👌

As @StevieDvdsays all done via the eq mod cable now. I have an asiair pro with my set up and really simplifies astrophotography I found, you can be all running, PA focus and plate solved onto your target and guiding in around 15 mins in my experience, but I am a baffoon. Good luck with your set up, keep us up to date 👍

Nice image indeed. I used to do deep sky imaging with my 600D and never bothered with darks. Just lights, dark flats, flats and bias. All very quick to do.

Brilliant Ray, I hope the az gti performs well for you. Let us know how you get on here with it, be very interested to hear 👍

True enough I think Laurence, if it was I'd put a mak on instead of my 72ed as this really isn't good enough for lunar or planetary imaging really, just could do without the hassle of taking the 72ed off and all wires to it as I know it's set up, balanced, wired ready to go for deep sky astrophotography which is my passion and what I do mostly apart from the full disc lunar images. I'm going to save the pennies to get another az gti set up eventually with a 127 mak, don't think my sw wedge would appreciate a 127mak on it haha. Hope that makes sense. But I could be completely wrong too. And I just want another AzGti to add to the family, I think I've got a case of AzGti-itis 😁

With my az gti eq set up I leave my scope on the tripod when I bring it in, keep the caps off to let air dry it, cover with a thin cotton sheet until morning then replace the dust covers and caps. But as my refractor usually dries out pretty quickly, with keeping my dew heaters on a little while longer when indoors. It's light enough and we'll balanced to leave on the tripod as all the weight should be traveling down the centre of the tripod. When I had my 127 mak in az mode I did take it off the mount and left caps off as they are dew magnets . If you've a counterweight attached with the Mak in az mode just level it and leave on tripod. The weight should be distributed through the centre of the tripod. This is just my opinion though.

I have considered the same to Laurence. Eventually I will buy another az gti setup with a 102 or 127 mak to use in az mode as for me I don't want to take my set up apart with all the wiring where I want it now. Then I can hopefully have 2 set ups my 72ed for eq astrophotography and my az mak for nice lunar and planetary imaging (when funds allow haha)

It is great and I was just thinking so myself when I saw the pages, views and posts building up. Hopefully it's providing a one stop place where all us owners can get together to share advice, ask for help and share images. Great to see it gaining momentum. Thank you to everyone so far who have posted here so far 👋

Thank you, I've never really thought about the use of the mount you suggested. Good tips just what this thread needs. 👍

Good to hear you eventually had a good time with your new set up Stu. I havd thought about the 3/8 "steel one to but as ii don't extend the legs on my Skywatcher one and only image it meets my needs as quite stable. The legs filly extended do add a tad wobble especially with a 127mak as I found when I had one on it but settles very quickly. Good luck with the ios app on your next outing.

Brilliant Stu, pleased you got it sorted. Enjoy those clear skies tonight your mak is going to give you some cracking views of moony tonight. 🌕

Thank you. If you are in alt az mode the 127 mak will be fine as they are sold together in a package. I used to have a 127 mak on my az gti mount in at az and was lovely. I'd be a bit dubious of it in EQ mode though, it's a heavy beast on a star adventurer wedge and when you add a camera on the back will add more weight along with the cw and bar. The long focal length of the Mak needs some stability, not sure its ok for eq mode, a 102 mak msy suffice. I know nothing of taks (my pockets are already bare as it is haha)

Hi and welcome to the az gti owners thread. It's a stunning little mount. What scope are you going to be putting on it? I use a regular star adventurer wedge for my eq setup and is suffcient enough for me atm and whilst the WO wedge is the mutts nutts is more expensive (but on my wishlist 😉) If you want to run in EQ mode you can mount a polar scope on it via an adapter you can get from Ali express where I got one from (see attached picture, yes the az gti is mounted wrong for eq in the picture) but I never used it as I thought it wouldn't be accurate enough and went to using sharpcap for PA then to an asiair pro that does my PA now so much easier and uses your main imaging camera for PA.

Definitely more data helps. Maybe altering the colour balance to less red over the whole image may help. But as I say I know nothing of mono imaging. The dslr comparison sounds good, I'd be interested in the difference. Good luck in grabbing more photons on it👍

That's seems odd to of defaulted to southern hemisphere. I wonder if the alignment needs resetting. Think you go to alignment and reset alignment. I know there used to be a issue with android over version 11 and synscan but like you say shoukd be fixed. Can you try the synscan app on another device? @Ags can hopefully offer better advice. I've found the synscan app manual if any use. enmanual_20200721.pdf

It's looking great and for a first time using mono and filters, you've got your target and nicely framed. I know nothing of using a mono camera and the filters. Maybe in processing can the red channel be lessened. Someone with more knowledge on mono imaging with filters will have a better idea. 👍

Thank you that's great to hear, I'll purchase a 1.25inch one. Thank you for your help again 👍

I've tried to image IC 434 properly for the first time. I live in North Cornwall and I was using my sw 72ed AzGti eq mode and it was my first light with my new zwo asi294mc pro. Processed in Startools and photoshop then a slight tweak in denoise it's 180secs guided subs at 120 gain - 10° for a total of 2.5 hours of data over 2 consecutive nights under a 70-80 % lit moon sitting right above Orion on 11th and 12th January. Calibrated with 30 darks, flats and dark flats. So washed a lot of nebulousity out, but still so happy to get anything like this on my first attempt. I'm hoping to add more data to it soon. If you've ever seen my first attempt with IC434 this is a billion times better. So so pleased.

Thank you, I've read about vignetting on the 294 mc pro with a 1.25inch filter, when it's mounted with the adapter close to the camera sensor is there vignetting?

Thank you Mike, that's very kind of you. I have certain parts of the image a high pass filter, then gaussian blur, followed by darkening in levels in photoshop as it was overtaking the HH, then denoise with topaz.

It's my attempt at IC434, I've posted in the deep sky imaging section. Here's a link to save me typing it out again or duplicating threads. https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/389312-ic434-imaged-over-cornwall/?do=findComment&comment=4198190

I've tried to image IC 434 properly for the first time. I was using my sw 72ed AzGti eq mode, first light with my zwo asi 294mc pro. Processed in Startools and ps, 180 sec subs totaling 2.5 hours of data over 2 consecutive nights under a 70-80 % lit moon sitting right above Orion. So washed a lot of nebulousity out, hoping to add more data to it soon. If you've ever seen my first attempt this is a billion times better.

Good luck with your clear skies, look forward to hearing how you get on 👍

Congratulations, it's a beautiful set up you have there now. Good luck and clear skies

Thank you for the advice on a ir/uv filter, would it be a 2 inch one? Or could I fit a 1.25inch one direct to the 294mc pro? Yes I hope to achieve focus, I think I will have to get the focus tube in a little bit more than without the rotator in. I'll let you know 👍