AstroNebulee

The great red spot may not have been in view that night. If you had a good view of Saturn it suggests the equipment is performing quite well as Saturn is dimmer and further away dispite just passed opposition. Jupiter is approaching opposition in a week or so time so hopefully you'll get better views of Jupiter. A free app such as stellarium will show you which nights the GRS is in view. Maybe try a slightly more powerful eyepiece 20mm if you have one with the x2 Barlow, this will be the equivalent to a 10mm ep and may bring the equitorial bands into view but don't expect high quality. By using averted vision on Jupiter may help you.

That's awful, I still haven't been able to try mine yet.

Hi Lee Thank you and good to know you suffer no dew with your AAP in a similar position to mine. Yes I think it's best to have a dew heater on the guidescope, just need a clear sky to try it out.

Thank you, I have looked everywhere online but no advice until I drop a topic in here and the general concensus is thst it should be ok on dew or lack of gaining dew.

Thank you for putting my mind at rest with this just wasn't sure if it suffer with dew.

Very nice indeed 👌

Thank you, so your suggesting that when I've finished imaging to put my AAP in a sealed bag and only open the bag once the AAP has been in my home for a while

By the time you've written this or woken up moro there maybe 3.33. Let's hope @GoldTop57 can gleen some information with the 3.32 update if he has clear skies. 👍..... Well I have now upgraded my firmware to 3.32 but as the updates appear to be coming thick and fast and what with the cloudy skies I'll be on update 3.33, 3.34,etc by the time I get to test them haha

Thank you. I did think the heat created from the AAP would stave most of the dew off. I will indeed fashion something from the ice cream tub just to sheild it a bit without letting the heat build up to much. I could probably cut one side from the tub and slot it over the AAP. Will post a pic once the masterpiece is created. The SMA dew sheild sounds great and nothing wrong with a bit of cheap DIY with what's hanging about.

That's awful, maybe why 3.31 was only iip very briefly, let me know how you get on with 3.32,I'm glad I didn't get the chance to upgrade to 3.31. So will upgrade to 3.32 later, I'm glad I've kept all the previous firmware just incase.

Christ that escalated quickly. I'll have been through 3 firmware updates now and still not got the scope out to try any of them 😔

Thanks Clarkey I thought it prudent to, like you say didn't want to lose guiding or a load of subs with dew blocking it.

Another firmware version to update to now @powerlord, 3.30 was only released a few weeks ago, now there's 3.31 so hopefully I'll update this firmware after I get home from work Here's the link to the firmware http://skywatcher.com/download/software/motor-control-firmware/

Outstanding images Stu, you've done amazingly well in 6 months I'm only a year in and struggling to get anything as good as you are, hopefully one day I can afford my osc then I'm sorted...for now, clear skies

Hi Stu Thank you for your reply. I was just concerned with the slots on the front end of the AAP (as you looking down to the dslr end) whether moisture would get in there. I have always placed my scope dew heater in that position just so the part where the white hood end meets the black tube. I suppose the dew heater on the guide cam is overkill but thought dew would form on it and throw guiding off. I'd like to answer all your questions about using the AAP outside but I've yet to have a clear night to use the AAP, 4 weeks and counting. Total of 2 clear 'patches' in 2 months but it is the summer months. Hoping autumn brings better skies. I have also upgraded to 3.30 for my az gti. I will let you know what settings I have used once I can use it.

Hi all Sorry its another Asiair Pro question again, youill all be bored stiff of me now. I'm just wondering when the dewy nights start coming back in and I'm out imaging with my setup how other users of the AAP stop dew forming on it, or am I being completely silly and as the AAP generates it's own heat will it stop dew forming. As you can see from my set up the AAP is open to the elements and would of thought putting it in some sort of enclosure like you do with a laptop may cause more overheating. I was thinking of fitting some sort of baffle with an ice cream tub to the front, where the AAP is mounted as there are air flow slots that could let moisture in.

There is a slight gap on the two sides of the scope end when the phone is over it, what I may try and do is use my tablet as the quite screen and use my phone to use with AAP to take the flats or just once I have carried my set up back indoors use my laptop screen as the white screen but this may dislodge the dust motes on the scope I'm thinking? I can't remember what the exposure tone was when taking flats with my intervalometer but they were fast exposures compared to the flats with the AAP.

Hi thank you so much for your informative reply. Really appreciate it. I'm using my Skywatcher 72ed ds pro on az gti mount. For taking my bias frames I set the dslr to M as always thought the whole process of using my AAP,tgrn set the exposure to. 000032. For my flat files I unticked the auto box set to 6 or 7 seconds to get the peak around halfway on the histogram. I cover my scope with a t-shirt through 2 layers of it and hold my smartphone with a blank white screen down it. I will download your white screen you use, tick the auto box and up my brightness on my screen as I think I had it to low. Thank you again for helping me

An update to this thread I started, I've experimentwd indoors as I've had no clear night's so far to test taking flats and bias with my AAP. To set my bias I've taken the exposure time down to to the lowest on the AAP will give me which is 0.000032 and taking the flat files, the AAP determines the exposure time itself and this was around 8 seconds, which I'm thinking can't be right as when I take flats with my intervalometer and dslr setting av mode it's very short exposures. I attach a white t-shirt double folded to my scope and then hold my phone rubbish screen on the end as usual. I'll include an image of my bias and flat file. So regarding the flat files do I have to switch my dslr to av mode as usual. There's no help anywhere...... Edit I have taken the auto setting off for the flat files and changed exposure time myself to 8sec and now getting this screen with looks more like the flats I usually got before and the histogram is in the middle as people suggest it should. So there therefore I shall not use auto mode for flats.

Hi Richard I have looked on sky safari 6 pro and can see Zeta Ursae Majoris B. But not the companion star to the south east of Mizar. In stellarium I can see ZUM B and then zooming in closer I can see the unknown star to the south east (see stellarium screenshot) is this the star you saw? And below that screenshot from SS6.

I would assume it would be the CR2032 about the Size of a 10p piece

Hi Niall Glad to hear you had some great help and are managing ok. I used to use my skymax 127 on az gti and it's a gem to use on planets, lunar, double stars and some DSOs and gave me outstanding views scouring the Lunar surface. I loved mine till I downsized to a 72ed for more Widefield imaging. Deffo buy a dew sheild for your scope or construct one from a section of cardboard to roll up and kerp the dew off. Clear skies and best viewing to you.

I agree with Helical as when I had my skymax 127 maksutov that would dew up very quickly then I bought a an astro zap dew sheild and then no more dew. They are a must with maks and sct scopes.

Hi Harry As Jonny above says are you putting the eyepiece into the diagonal or straught in the back of the scope.?

I and many others on here use the talentcell battery packs and are quite phenominal with the az gti I have had many outings on one charge very easily and it's fits in your pocket for easy carrying I use the 3000 mah one and suits my needs.