AstroNebulee

I have images of my mount when I took the covers off if it's any use to you David.

I'd definitely upgrade the firmware to 3.36 as this ironed out a whole heap of issues with the AzGti. What is your dec and RA aggression settings when guiding? I have a skywatcher 72ed ds pro on AzGti mount in EQ mode, with an asiair pro and my Canon 600D, guidescope is the zwo 30f4 with my zwo asi120mc-s for guiding. I have my dec aggression to 60% and RA to 40% but this can depend on each night but its a rough figure I work from and I set the dec duration to 500ms and RA to 500ms (this really helps the settle time after a dither for me) and combined with the 3.36 firmware update, I've so far gone to 3 mins guided perfect round stars and probably easily go longer, just haven't tried it yet. Guiding is a dream with it now. But definitely update the firmware. I did also take my mount apart and regreased it all and checked the worms and gears. If your confident enough. I focused my guidescope during the day to save time, it doesn't need to be perfect though, as good as you can get it is enough. I guide at 50 gain and 2s exposures mainly. When PA with Asiair pro I generally go to the 3rd time the circle increases (zooms in) if you know what I mean and get to total rms of around 0.38"with PA (I think) or lower if possible. This mount and scope have been brilliant for me lightweight and easy to carry from my first floor flat. The below rms figures are the best I've had but normally around 1.5"

I think it's something to do with the settings in the app. I remember a few other users a while ago having this issue. I can't remember how to resolve it yet but I think you have to input new time and intervals or something on the app as it's set to how it was from the factory. I'll try and see if I can find the post. This may help you https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/367987-star-adventurer-2i-sideral-tracking-issue/?do=findComment&comment=4066237

I've since managed to add more frames to this image to a total of 296 x180sec 800 iso. I didn't use gradient x terminator as I had a previous trial of it that ran out do couldn't download it again. I used astro flat pro and horizontal banging reduction in astro tool in photoshop, I can't help feeling there's more there and my image looks like it was a beautiful fresh painting that has had a sheet of paper placed over it and pressed to crunch and smudge the image, if you know what I mean.

Pleased it's all working for you. I guess it's pot luck with which mount you get. Definitely update the firmware though and should run much better too.

Looks lovely, really got that core now, the colour and dust lanes looking real nice, once moony out the way grab loads more data on it to stack with it, really enhance it even more. 👌

Absolutely stunning Mike, you made good use of our recent clear skies too. I got just under 5 hours on M33 so hoping for good things

I do prefer the first one, it's a lot smoother to, your doing fantastic and controlling the core of M31 real nice, top work 👍

That's woukd make a stunning image, hopefully it's clear for you, looking good so far 👍

That's a superb image 👍

I hope you get a chance to test it out. I updated to 3.36 and have no drift wurh mine, though I'm running an asiair pro and dither 19 pixels, guiding has been ok and getting some good figures, though the wind was an issue last night with guiding. Imaging on Friday and guiding was excellent, just need to sort the long settle time after a dither.

That's brilliant, so pleased the counterweight and firmware upgrade did the job and improved your images. I also don't take dark frames with my dslr and just take bias, flat and dark flats, found that darks make no difference. You've controlled the core quite nicely in both images, it's very easy to blow it out. I do prefer the first image of M42 but both are excellent. Look forward to seeing your results wurh more data 👍

Thanks Mike, hopefully got another hours worth tonight, though guiding was acting up a bit. Yes there's quite a bit of banding in it and managed to get most of with the horizontal banding removal action in my astro tools in photoshop but not that good a job at it, I'll download the trial of gradient exterminator and see how that deals with it. I did use the free trial of pixinsight and that removes it beautifully but trial ran out and its very expensive at over 230 euros and not paying that just to remove banding. Normally the colder nights I have less banding but strangely not on this night.

Finally got the scope out, after 5 weeks clouds, my try at M33 on Friday night, sw 72ed AzGti (3.36 firmware) eq mode Canon 600D, 42x180sec exposures, stacked in AAP, baffoonly processed in PS, needs more data, so hoping tonight is staying clear to grab some more data.

I would expect a bit of both really with the the virtuoso mount now and if a new az gti mount with the improved board inside it. Though what's baffling me is that there was no 3.35 firmware update. It went 3.34 to 3.36. I updated the firmware on mine no issues, now let's hope I have some clear skies sometime to test this one, though all the forecasts suggest cloud 😭

Version 3.36 is out now, wow that's 3 firmware updates I've missed trying out due to cloud 😬 was there a 3.35 even? I might have installed it who knows. I've had more use from my setup just by updating the firmware recently 😂 It's brilliant that they are keeping the firmware updates coming though. http://skywatcher.com/download/software/motor-control-firmware/ Says the update has fixed oscillation after high speed slewing.

A counterweight may help you as you've suggested, it's worth a try first or if your confident and not worried about voiding your warranty on the az gti mount you could try taking off the cover to regrease the worm and gears, or try adjusting the motor spring tension to fixed or just adjust it. I followed this video on adjusting the spring tension https://youtu.be/hgEzeXrhhEg Or these two videos for tuning and greasing your AzGti https://youtu.be/MoAF6tYcby8 https://youtu.be/iwJdrAFLPpU But only do these if your feel confident to. I stripped mine down and regrease and the tracking was much better. Also an easier fix is to update the firmware of the az gti mount to the latest firmware as this says its fixed the tracking issues. http://skywatcher.com/download/software/motor-control-firmware/ To update your firmware via WiFi follow this link here, I update via eq mode cable but have done it over WiFi before. https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/305296-sw-az-gti-mount-firmware-update/

Lovely image and nice to see a 130p being used on the az gti mount. I have a 72ed in EQ mode on mine. Great image 👍

Thank you, if I didn't have my 72ed I'd definitely go for a 60mm refractor

I have a sw 72ed evostar ds pro on AzGti mount in EQ mode with a asiair pro, 120mm guidescope with zwo asi120mc-s as the guidecam and use my canon 600D to image with. Using my tablet to control the asiair and mount so easy and lightweight, I use mains power and whole set up is around 6.5kg in all so quite lightweight, had some lovely images. Guiding has been as good as 1rms and lower. So I'd definitely go for AzGti, simply great.

I have a sw 72ed ds pro on AzGti mount in EQ mode on the star adventurer tripod that comes with the Az gti. I have to carry mine down 2 flights of stairs, as I'm in a first floor flat. The tablet /phone, counterweight, battery all goes in my back pack and carry the scope already set up with one hand. The battery pack I have used before is a talentcell battery pack from amazon that runs the mount perfectly for days on end and around the size of a cigarette packet, so very pocket friendly. I know use a asiair pro with my set up which uses mains. When I was using my scope in alt az mode before, it's so lightweight and easy to use maybe around 5kg total weight, with the z61scope even lighter or a st80 scope

That's what scares me to as the osc is like to buy zwo asi 294 mc pro is just shy of £1000, I'm not sure how much use I'd get from it. I have a asiair pro which I use to get my images but with rubbish nights no good. If I had a permanent set up like an obsy or private back garden I'd have no issue as could let it run all night and gain hours of data but I only grab an hours data at most after dithering settling of an evening, so takes me 3 or 4 good nights to match a permanent set up. I'm still hoping to get a ground floor flat I've my eye on if the council let me but tried other ground floor flats before and never got them or a swap. I'm not giving up astro, just thinking of a hiatus from deep sky astrophotography. With my 2 left feet dancing is a no go, I've no rhythm either haha

Like I've said in other posts, I cannot leave my set up unattended for one moment as it's in a communal area out my flats and even in rural Cornwall things develop legs and walk. So unlike a lot of other imagers who can leave their set ups for long periods whilst being indoors, just not feasible for me atm I think. When Orion pops around again on the early evening and a decent clear night then I'll image but until then think my gut is correct.

Thanks Mike, yes I know what you mean just do what you enjoy. As I said I love astrophotography but feel I need to reconnect with the heavens again, I know I'll have started off a war between imagers and visuals but as long as we are all doing sonething astronomy wise who cares, we are all in it for one thing and it's the love of astronomy. 😊

Resurrecting this post as thinking of going back to visual astronomy with the odd bit of lunar and astrophotography for a while. I think I'll strip my az gti mount from its eq mode back to alt az mode for a bit and see if that gets my mojo back. We had a few clear days back in the earliest part of September but 4 weeks later and still not a sausage again. I must be missing out on so much by not doing visual at the moment and with the part cloudy skies I can still do this and quickly set up the az gti mount and hook the dslr or if at a push my zwo asi120mc-s on the back if I want to for a quick unguided photo, not lost my love for astrophotography atall but missing astronomy in generak. Living in first floor flat and lugging everything down 2 flights of stairs, dangly a extension lead of my window to power everything and then partial clouds roll in and then go is frustrating to say the least. Its an age old battle visual v astrophotography I know, I love astronomy but my mojo has taken a knock in the latter part of the year.