AstroNebulee

Absolutely stunning image, I'm in awe.

I can relate, very much the same as here in Cornwall. For the first time since 13th October I got the scope out last night, couldn't image much with the near full moony, so just some quick lunar imaging and the double cluster, clouded over by 9.30pm then. But after 2 months I was just pleased to get any opportunity for astronomy with my scope.

Hi @Elp just an addition to any advice I offered, when choosing your guide star choose one that when it shows you the little box with the guidestar in that the peak of the triangle graph is visable. You want a clear point to the peak ^. Hopefully my poor doodle on your screenshot shows you.

Although it's not on the skywatcher website I have 3.36 on my laptop I can message to you moro hopefully, though 3.37 should have the benefits of 3.36 already.

My spelling is awful, my fingers to fast for the keypad and don't check what I write haha. It should be 'another' and not any. Good idea to sort the guiding first before dithering, I do dither now and makes a significant difference to the final image. Let us know how you get on with your guiding. 👍

I did take mine apart and gave it a good regreasing and used cuiv the lazy geeks guide on the backlash, but can't remember now if I fixed the worm gear or not. I'd definitely upgrade the firmware though and use a eqdir cable to do it.

Hi, great news to hear you had a great night with your az gti, what set up do you have? I guide in both RA and dec with my sw 72ed AzGti Canon 600D eq mode asiair pro. Though I use the watered-down version of PhD2 in my asiair pro. Also what firmware version are you using?

Hi @Elp I have looked at my notebook and I use 50 gain on my guide cam with 2 sec exposure. My dec aggression is 60‰ and RA is 40‰ these can always change but generally it stays around these levels depending on how the graph is looking. In the guiding settings my guiding rate is 0.9x and I have set max Dec duration to 500ms and the same for RA. I always keep a notebook of my sessions so I can look back to see wgat settings I used, firmware, target, how many frames and times, so I good tip is to keep a note of each session. My settings are ones that work for my set up so hopefully it'll give you a base to work from, these were all using 3.36. Like I said before try the new firmware first but definitely change the exposure time and gain of the guide cam and change the aggression on RA and dec to lower values and see where you go from there, any question is do you dither? Clear skies

I do a fresh calibration every session. As I only image one target per night and successive nights if possible, to build up my integration time. My workflow if I remember rightly is (it's been a long time since I had the scope out imaging) I have a mark on my focus draw tube so I know when I'm roughly in focus, then set up and polar align. Then do my final focus on bright star with bat mask. Then slew to my target and plate solve it so its nicely centred. Then I will calibrate my guidedscope (which are aligned so it matches my scopes view) I choose a star myself to guide on, one that's not to bright and not to dim. I may not be right in this but it always works for me.

Before you do anything else I'd definitely try 3.37 (when possible with like you say this beautiful weather) it should hopefully cure the runaway mount as I think the later firmware I can't remember when had a fix for the runaway issues. When I get home I'll post my settings I use, it'll only be a rough guide to you. With my sw 72ed, zwo asi120mc-s guide cam with zwo mini 30mm guidescope, Canon 600D, asiair pro and 2 star adventurer weights comes to very similar to the weight of your set up. I have the star adventurer tripod with extension pillar but I never extend the legs of the tripod to give me a sturdier placement and lower centre of gravity to help it as much as I can. I have increased the pulse rate and altered the RA and Dec aggression and also choose my own guidestar. I also have the guide cam at 2sec exposure time. Yours looks to be on 4secs which is I think to long to guide on with the az gti and the RA and Dec look to aggressive. I will check my gain settings for my guidecam. Like I say try the new firmware first and I'll add the settings when I'm home later.

Definitely the best plan, though I'm rather envious of your 4 weeks of cloud, last outing with my set up was 13th October 😢

Yes the dreaded post sale remorse, I think we can all relate to that indeed. If I lived somewhere with a garden and had a bigger set up I would still keep my az gti and have it as a quick observing setup. Real pleased your enjoying the thread and that it could rekindle your romance with the az gti 😍

It's such a stunning little mount. I wouldn't be without mine now, I'd obviously love a larger goto mount but the practicality of living in a first floor flat means weight and portability is key.

Love how compact you have managed to stow everything in there, perfect for taking on holiday 👌

Thank you @Ags, your mount is proving very versatile there with many combinations on it, love the use of your planetary camera and lens,and a proper back garden to use it from, very jealous indeed, clear skies 😊

Hi @SuburbanMak, thank you, just thought that us proud AZ GTI owners should have a thread to show off our mounts or any issues and help that can be given in one place. Your sure have a great scope there and such a special one too. Hope you have clear skies 👍

That's a nice osc, I'm holding out for a zwo asi 294mc pro as it'll give me a bigger FOV with my sw 72ed, else I'd of gone for the 553. Totally agree with you on the weather being rubbish, I've not had my scope out since 13th October and not looking good anytime sdoon, at this rate my target of the witches head nebula and HH nebula will be gone. Let's hope you get clear skies soon. 👍

What firmware version we're you using prior to the 3.37 update? I found the 3.36 one to solve mine. I haven't updated to 3.37 as of yet. I did also take apart my mount and grease everything up too. What do you have set up on your az gti?

Thank you for posting your az gti image. That's a really nice compact travel case and a very nice scope indeed. What osc do you have there?

M31 & IC1396. Because its still chuffing cloudy, I'm continuing the reprocessing train using Star tools, topaz denoise and photoshop. Taken using sw 72ed AzGti Canon 600D in EQ mode, asiair pro. Hopefully the cloud gods are having Xmas off soon. Dispite my little mount not being recommended for astrophotography is sure does give a good account of itself and not the baffoon behind the lens.

Thank you Mick that's very kind of you. It was back in August I imaged it and the first time I started dithering. 👍

Since buying Star tools and Topaz denoise. I've been reprocessing some more of my old data (and because of the relentless cloud, not been out imaging since 13th October) so here's my reprocess of NGC 7000 5 hours of data at 800 iso using my sw 72ed AzGti Canon 600D in EQ mode with asiair pro. There's a little high pass tweak in photoshop too. Hopefully the clouds will part soon so I can image The Pleiades, witch head nebula and HH nebula 😔

I have the az gti mount but don't use synscan or windows, I use my asiair pro to PA & plate solve in EQ mode. How is your set up is it alt az or eq mode and which firmware are you running on the mount, also how are you powering the mount. I can't offer any advice on the reason why yours is not aligning in the west but I think some one will be able to help with more info.

I think mine has a red constant and red flashing and then on the white 2 brightness levels and 1 flashing. Perfect for my needs and the aaa batteries last ages. The angle adjustment is great too.

Plus 1 for this head torch I also have it and is brilliant.