AstroNebulee

Yes I agree its a whole manner of things causing this and not just one cause though I can feel everyone's pain retailer's included, I don't think get better until towards the start summer here sadly.

I know you say you prefer using your Skymax 127 on the left hand side as your left handed and the focuser and finderscope are us awful positions now. Although I'm not left handed I updated the firmware to use my skymax 127 on the right hand side and all issues corrected, so no contorting to use my finderscope now. http://skywatcher.com/download/software/motor-control-firmware/

That's great its working properly now, on mine I've installed the right arm firmware so I can mount my skymax 127 pointing the opposite way then I can use my finderscope without getting in contortionist mode to view through it.

Your correct the scope has to point this way if you haven't updated the firmware to point in the other direction.

Mine just takes the time from my device, is the location set to your location in the app, I find the North level alignment position best for me

I have the az gti with my Skymax 127. How far out is the first star alignment. I use the level North alignment way

Thank you all for your replies, I now have one on order to start building the extra components needed for when I receive my evostar 72ed, clear skies

Thank you for your advice and knowing you can use a 1.25inch diagonal with this scope, just got to find to sort the adapter suggested by tiny Clanger and the 2 inch extension tube for the dslr connection. Clear skies

Yes that's the sort of thing I was looking for thank you, as you said there's nearly an adapter to do everything for anything. Just wanted to be sure if I had the evostar 72ed I could connect my 1.25inch ep with no issues and also my planetary camera to save buying fresh ep's, thank you again.

Not sure if this is any help to you, it's from another thread on an AZGTi stuck in firmware update mode

Hi, excuse my total ignorance and baffoonery on this matter. I would like to get an sw evostar 72ed in the future to compliment my star adventurer and az gti mount. I realise its a 2 inch focuser but could I use my 1.25inch diagonal along with my 1.25inch eyepieces and zwo asi120mc-s by using a 2 inch to 1.25 inch adapter. I know to use my dslr I need a extender tube to gain focus, I would buy a flattener if I could ever afford it. I'm just looking for advice on how to use my 1.25inch ep and zwo asi120mc-s with this scope without completely breaking the bank which will be low on funds after the 72ed purchase. Clear skies

Hi and welcome to SGL, have fun with your scope and just enjoy it

Just been and completed my star count, I think I would of counted more if my neighbours kitchen fluorescent light wasn't on, I did get a result of seeing more than 77‰ of last years count.

I have a pair of prinzlux 7x50 binoculars bought for me by my mum and dad, that I've had since I was in the old YOC club at primary school (I'm 47 now!) they are still as sharp as ever even after taking the prisms out to give them a good clean, they've been through the wars a bit but I find them absolutely fantastic for quickly getting out of the case and peering through them during a quick patch of clear sky, an essential piece of kit for a amateur astronomer I think.

That's a nice image and welcome back

Hopefully I'll be able to do it when the skies clear, it'll be a nice thing to do whilst my dslr is clicking away at Orion. I'm in bottle 3 according to Co so should be able to see a few. Clear skies

They are great images for a first time something to be proud of. It's all about the enjoyment you get when take your first images, don't push yourself to hard and try not to run before you walk. Learn your equipment and processes. With your new modded Canon 1200d you could try dslr wide field imaging on your az gti see what results you get as there are spectacular wide field views out there especially with a modded dslr. You can get some longer exposures with a dslr lens even a stock one. This is from my unmodded Canon 450d and stock 18-55mm lens, of just above Orion, not brilliant I know but the mw & pleiades is there and you can get some cracking images, clear skies

Thank you for your advice, I think next time I try to image Orion I'll use iso 800 and a longer exposure time or the longest I can manage with my Omegon lx2 tracker before star trails appear and see if the histogram moves anymore to the right. There's such a combination of the right iso, exposure time and aperture that it's trying to get the right balance. I do have a sw star adventurer 2i on order from flo so that'll help with longer exposures and low iso and aperture. Hopefully I'll process the image today and post it in the wide field imaging thread. Clear skies

Regarding my previous post here and looking at the histogram for my 50mm prime lens at 1600iso and 30 second exposure at 2.8f. I haven't had time to process them on my laptop yet what with work, they seem pretty good judging by the screen on my dslr of a single sub and can see the flame nebula. Would it be better to do lots of subs at these settings or thinking would it be better to go for 800iso at 1 minute exposures 2.8f, or is that the same as what I was doing in theory. Clear skies......Edit... I've added the screenshot of a single sub in PS and the .tiff file of said sub. There is slight star trails to this image as its one I've quickly picked and needs the focus a bit better. Orion-4-2-21.tif

That's holding its charge brilliantly, That's the only reason I got the 3000mah one as it was in my budget, they are fantastic portable power supplies.

Just what I use on my az gti, though mine is the 3000mah version and lasts for ages,still on first charge and still have 4 lights after 3 very cold frosty 2 hour sessions

I've just come in from spending an hour and half viewing and imaging Orion with my Omegon lx2 tracker, unmodded Canon 450d, tamron 70-300mm lens at 300mm 5.6 1600 iso 20 secs and younogo nifty fifty 2.8 1600 iso 30 secs. (I could of gone longer on exposure but just wanted to get something before the clouds rolled in) I took a lot of subs (can't remember how many) of each along with a set of darks, flats and bias for both. After looking at CO, MO and night shift, I decided to take a chance. It was just nice to set up quickly as the skies were clearing here, slightly misty at first but higher up it was quite clear. I kind of just enjoy setting up the shot and letting the dslr just click away taking the subs. Everything was beginning to dew up a tad, I did have a dew band to keep it off lens. I'll process the subs moro, just one thing to ask I tried to get the hump of the histogram as far away from the left hand side possible. I'll attach an image of this from my younogo nifty fifty. I know it's probably not far enough away but I was max iso and anymore on the aperture would of started making the image to light, as I could of gone to 1.8. I'm still green on this mind you so be gentle 😉, but I enjoyed this little session as I've been waiting for this opportunity to image Orion for quite a while. Clear skies.

I have no weights on my scope and az gti, but I could if needed mark the positions of balance on the dovetail to make it easier, but in my previous reply to David taurus 83, using freedom find seemed to help when balancing. I will continue to test various ways as this was only my 3rd time out with my setup, clear skies

I have live view on my Canon 450d but when in live view the stars don't appear very bright, not like looking through an ep, I had a quick experiment tonight during a brief clear spell, what worked sort of was as I was hoping, I alligned Mars with my ep, I then put auxiliary encoder (freedom find) on the synscan app on, then connected my dslr, rebalanced the scope, then clicked go toon Mars and turned off auxiliary encoder (freedom find) and seemed to align pretty well when taking a 10 sec 1600 iso shot to check. I'm not sure what other az gti owners do but I found this to work ok.

Hi I've not seen a clear and definitive answer to my quandary. When I'm going to use my skymax 127 az gti during a session, I do my alignment using level North and get the alignment spot on for viewing with eyepieces but say I want to connect my dslr or zwo camera, I would need to balance my scope again to make sure it tracks properly. Now my question is how can I do this without losing the alignment for goto whilst I rebalance the scope for either my dslr or zwo. For example say I'm centred on the beehive cluster viewing with my ep then I'd like to connect my dslr to take a few images, (obviously I need to rebalance the scope) should I enable the auxiliary encoder before I manually move my scope to balance then use the freedom find function to set the alignment back to the beehive cluster and switch off the auxiliary encoder and vice versa for putting an ep back on to goto another target to view. I hope this makes sense, I did in my head but transcribing to written form can be confusing. I'm hoping other az gti owners have any opinions on this. Clear skies