Celerondon

I have a modified GP that I am thinking of selling but it probably won't be to you because I am on the west coast of North America. My AstroGadget kit works great with my ASIAIR Plus from the moment that I powered them up. The direct USB connection to the ASIAIR Plus replaced my SynScan/SkySafari control package and enabled autoguiding and effortless plate solving. It seems like OnStep might be the best path for you, but I loved every aspect of my AstroGadget kit from installation to the technical support that Alexander provides from Ukraine. The EQStarProEQ5 kit came with a complete belt drive upgrade, Wi-Fi, USB, and full ASCOM, SynScan, and SkySafari compatibility. Since I connected the ASIAIR Plus controller, I have barely used the SynScan Pro or SkySafari Pro apps. I was recently stunned when a fellow amateur suddenly decided to sell his "lifetime" Vixen mount and now I am in the same position for the same reason. Watch the used equipment market closely in the coming months. There are going to be plenty of mounts for sale as astronomers upgrade to strain wave mounts made by ZWO, Ioptron, Rainbow Optics, and others. These mounts are moderately costly and accurate enough to demand camera upgrades, so they tend to push other mounts "out of the nest". I sometimes think about keeping the GP, but I can't quite picture traveling with two GEMs if one of them is still a counterweight & worm gear equipped mount. Two GEMs plus two telescopes (and my TV refractor plus a Tele-pod) would be rather bulky. My wife is quite patient but that could change if my equipment crowds her space budget during our next eclipse trip. Don

Right, but what does that mean? The Mini has four 12 volt 5521 ports but no indicator LEDs for them. It wouldn’t be reasonable to assume that those are dummy ports, would it? Perhaps something got lost in translation. The Mini apparently has the power supply capabilities of a Plus other than the source indicator LEDs (which are visible and clearly explained by ZWO) and some other distinction in the power supply system which ZWO is somewhat vague about. Perhaps that “support the output voltage” means that the output voltages are unregulated. What do you think? Edit: Thanks! DT83! I was apparently typing while you were posting. That explains it. The Plus does have a more versatile power management system but the Mini can function as a power distribution device. I wonder though, if a Mini user specifies a dew heater as the load on a 12 volt port, will the app offer the option to regulate the current to that device? This is how the Plus works.

Does the ASIAIR Mini really lack the power management features that the Plus has? I thought that it merely lacked the indicator lamps. I have a Plus so I cannot check. Doesn’t the ASI app allow software control of the four 12 volt ports like it would on any other ASIAIR device? On my Plus I can control the current supplied to an attached dew heater. It is difficult to tell from the feature comparison chart on the ZWO website if the Mini can do this as well. Don

I have a terminology question about how you described the ASIAIR Mini. That looks like an external antenna on the ASIAIR Mini. I don’t have a Mini but your terminology confused me. Every time that I see a picture of the ASIAIR Mini there is a black antenna hanging off of it. Wouldn’t an internal antenna be invisible?

Did you ever restart your system? I read your post and immediately thought that you might need to service that mount after such a long hibernation. Sometimes the grease gets old and rather petrified after a few years.

Okay Marvin, here are my choices. Galileo’s gift: The telescope that Galileo gave to Duke Cosimo II offered multiple benefits to the seminal modern astronomer that influenced all that followed. That refined version of his initial efforts demonstrated Galileo’s development as a telescope designer and builder and proved the utility of this new tool for scientific research. Although primitive by our current standards, this singular instrument revealed the heavens to Galileo and his audience, which was and is considerable, because of the significance of his discoveries and his gift for self promotion. The Great Dorpat Refractor: I could stress the significance of placing a massive high-quality telescope at the disposal of a talented astronomer but that tends to happen routinely in this field. Despite the stellar credentials of Joseph von Fraunhofer and F. G. Wilhelm Struve and the outstanding optics of Fraunhofer’s telescope, optical quality and specific discoveries might not qualify this telescope for the list either. No, in this case, “It’s All About That” Base! I won’t apologize to Meghan Trainor for the pun since she beat Sir Mix-a-lot only because his rhymes wouldn’t quite fit in this family friendly forum. The Hooker 100”: The 100” reflector at the historic Mt Wilson Observatory made my list because of the massive leaps in knowledge that it enabled and because I think that George Ellery Hale needs to be mentioned in any discussion about important telescopes. A cynical judge might think that this is a way of squeezing the 40” refractor at Williams Bay, the 60” on Mt. Wilson, and the 200” on Palomar Mountain into consideration, but enabling us to understand and discover the size and expansion of the universe ought to be enough to earn that chunk of plate glass a place on anyone’s list.

Yes indeed! After years of star hopping and wandering the heavens, GoTo is a big change. GoTo has already changed my observing patterns, and it will certainly make me more ambitious with photographic target selection. On Friday, I did a hectic outreach event at a local middle school. Normally, I would not spend time or effort searching for fuzzy faint objects at such an event. It was almost intoxicating to see comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) drifting into the field of a 20mm eyepiece after I clicked "GoTo" in SkySafari Pro. To my further surprise, the students enjoyed viewing the comet, and most saw it without much difficulty. BTW, we were in a suburban environment, with poor seeing and a waxing moon near the meridian. It is good to hear from powerlord that the EQStar controllers are less finicky about the hibernate/home/park commands. My controller already has the latest firmware update so I will check to see how critical hibernation is with my current software and usage combination.

You have received some good advice here but there is still a lot to know about this topic. I have a suggestion that could supercharge your learning experience with face-to-face contact and regular lab time. Find and join at least one of your local Astronomy clubs! As you attend events and interact with other astronomers, your knowledge and experiences will be augmented with the wisdom and skills of the club’s membership. It seems like you have much to learn about telescopes and the fundamentals of astrophotography. (As do I!) You are right about your equipment. That Nikon gear is suitable for astrophotography when used with, or without, a telescope! As others have suggested, any telescope can take real astrophotos if the user is resourceful enough. But there is still much to learn. Online learning is great because you can control the pace and timing of the process but the value of in-person exposure to other astronomers and their equipment is significant. Have you investigated your local astronomy club scene? Florida is reputed to be a hotbed of activity for amateur astronomers. Don’t delay. Join up, gear up, and then stay up all night taking fascinating pictures!

If the parts are not available then there is another way. I have made similar caps with a 3D printer. Measure the bore that it snaps into, spend 15 minutes in Fusion 360, and 30 or 40 minutes printing and you would have your first cap to check for fit. If it fits fine, but otherwise you can go back to Fusion 360 to scale the size of your cap up or down to fit the hole. Repeat the process until you have a good fit.

If your mount is indoors, then the clouds cannot stop you from getting familiar with the SynScan control routines. Just do like I did, practice indoors! There is no instruction that they call "Park" in SynScan. Other mounts with other firmware may do different things. The Hibernate function gives you the ability to send the mount to its "Home" position (Pointing north/CW down) and save the awareness of this position. At this point you can disconnect your WiFi connection and shut the mount down. The next time that you power up and connect to the mount, SynScan will give you the option to restore your saved position data. If you have ensured that your mount is facing north with the CW down, then alignment should go smoothly, and you should be observing or taking pictures in no time.

This is a good idea Headwind H. Keep at it! If you search this forum and others like Cloudy Nights for EQStar threads containing comments by users of CG-4 and compatible mounts, you may find the parts that you need. Just the other day, I had an online discussion about disposing of my old Vixen hardware with a guy who was considering selling his controller and motors for a different mount. Don't pay too much, though! If you can get the bits for free or shipping costs it could be worth it but otherwise, the top-of-the-line EQStarPro costs about $129 more than that $180 that you would have to pay for a new drive kit. Plus it has Goto... ...and WiFi... ...and GPS (automatically from your mobile device)... ...and belt drive (no gears!)... ...and ST-4 autoguiding... ...and Windows connectivity! My Vixen controller/motor setup was doing something similar before I threw in the towel. Good luck, Don

I think you nailed it about the SynScan versus SkySafari Pro question. If you don't care about the flashy GUI or extra features, then the menu driven interface of SynScan is adequate for your needs. I like SkySafari Pro for visual sessions. When using a tablet, SkySafari Pro makes it easy to show others how to navigate the sky. Although a laser pointer can do something similar, it is nice to have a map of the celestial sphere visible as you explain the sky. BTW- Switch on your telescope crosshair indicator in SkySafari Pro to display a real-time pointing indicator that shows the current orientation of your mount. I use similar features in Stellarium if I use it during Windows managed sessions. I wouldn't worry about the answer to your parking question. Sooner or later, you will forget to park. It is not as bad as neglecting your parking brake when you are driving a stick-shift car in San Francisco. But it is not fun either. Park it, pal! 😉 Failure to execute the hibernate function will deprive your mount's "brain" of a home orientation. Thus, when you "wake" the mount by turning it on and initiating a connection, it may be disoriented. This is not a good thing for a GPS aware pointing engine. If your setup is working, then I would leave those settings alone. Don't fix it if it isn't broken. When you get more used to the system you may want to push the slewing speeds. I was impressed by the level of control that the Windows control utility gives over this simple setting. To me it made a huge difference during GoTo operation because of the large percentage increase in the slewing rate. 1800x slewing takes much less time than 700x slewing.

No router is required for a mobile device to connect with and control your mount when you have and EQStar kit installed and powered on. The EQStar controller has a WiFi switch that illuminates an LED indicator and broadcasts a wireless access point when it is switched on. Connect your cell phone or tablet to that "EQSTAR" WiFi access point and SynScan should be able to connect to your mount. Once SynScan is connected, you can perform an alignment and then use SynScan or Sky Safari to control your mount. Don't just switch things off when you are finished. Always use SynScan to hibernate your mount when you end a session.

Ian, Trippleforge's original question was about AstroGadget kits rather than ASIAIR systems. The answer to that question may depend upon the platform that the software will run on. Android, iOS, OSX, and Windows each have their own availability or compatibility issues. Did you really mean to say that AstroGadget kits are "only designed to accept Sky Safari"? Many of us use Stellarium and other planetarium programs with EQStar hardware.

Check again for that virtual com-port software. If it really isn't present, then you can download a compressed version of the entire software and documentation package from the AstroGadget website on the product page for your kit. The EQStar kits work with both SkySafari Pro and Stellarium. For some reason, most of us prefer SkySafari Pro on mobile devices and Stellarium on Windows machines. Other than the SynScan update issue, there should be no problems other than minor configuration questions with getting this system to connect to mobile devices or Windows machines. There is no Windows connection problem for AstroGadget kits.

Right, this problem was caused by an update to the SynScan app that breaks the connection to non-Sky Watcher hardware. One solution is to use an older version of the SynScan, or SynScan Pro app. However, that is easier said than done. Modern networked mobile devices are often required to maintain lockstep compliance with upgrade distribution for software compatibility, security, and other requirements. This is especially true when devices are part of mobile (cell phone) networks. Apple's vaunted software reliability and ease of use is partly due to their fierce enforcement of an update until obsolescence cycle that limits software purchases to Apple managed sites. So, my solution for this problem was to follow Alexander's advice (AstroGadget support) to install an older version of SynScan Pro. To accomplish this feat, I set aside my iPhone and iPad and used a refurbished Samsung A7 Lite that is limited to Android 11 and only runs the Android apps for SynScan Pro version 1.19.16 and a shiny new version of SkySafari Pro 7. You can download 1.19.16 directly from SkyWatcher since older versions are not available on the Google Play Store similar to the Apple App Store policy. My tablet has no working cell modem installed and it is only allowed WiFi access when I need to download something. Even with precautions, this Samsung A7 Lite will complete an automatic upgrade of the SynScan Pro app without asking for permission. I suggest that you keep a copy of the APK file for version 1.19.16 handy so that you can downgrade your app again if necessary. Another solution would be to upgrade the firmware in the EQStar controller box to mesh with the newer SynScan versions. If Alexander has already done this, then we can fix broken WiFi connections by merely updating the firmware in our EQStar controllers.

You should receive that kit soon if you don’t already have it. Please let us know your impression of the sounds that the stepper motors make when idling and slewing. Because users report different levels of irritation with these tones, I suspect that there is a strong subjective aspect to this “noise” issue. To me the sounds are noticeable but not annoying. If I even suspect that my neighbors can hear these steppers running then I will stock up on mercury and silver bullets and further limit my observations around the full moon! 🌔 🐺. 😉 Here is a software tip that may help you if you plan to control your mount with SkySafari. This EQStarPro controller works fine with a smartphone or tablet but I suggest that you should use an Android tablet. The reason why I am warning you away from iPhones, iPads, and Android smartphones did not exist a few months ago. I make this suggestion despite the fact that, until recently, I lived in a pure Apple bubble of iOS and OSX bliss that barely tolerated Windows hardware and refused any contact with Android devices. Because a recent software update for the SynScan and SynScan Pro apps broke their ability to connect with some non-Sky Watcher hardware, it became necessary to use an older version of the apps. Using old versions of apps has become challenging because of intertwined mandatory updates for apps and operating system software. On networked devices like cell phones and Internet ready tablets, avoiding mandatory updates is essentially impossible. (Believe me, I have tried!) My refurbished Samsung A7 Lite tablet arrived the other day and it works like a champ. It only connects to my home WiFi when I allow it to and has very few apps installed. The tablet is stuck on version 11 of the Android OS and I will probably leave it there. I hope that this advice smooths your installation routine. For power, I use a TalentCell battery pack that I purchased on Amazon. This compact LiFePO4 unit has three power outputs and an impressive capacity.

Sorry, I never saw your response but my answer is, yes! The kits are great and Astro-Gadget is a class operation. I just came in from using my EQStarPro equipped Vixen GP. I control my mount with an iPad running SkySafari but I have used an iPhone and a PC running Stellarium as well.

Here is a tip regarding the slewing speed of the Asto-Gadget GoTo kits. They all work well but the Pro versions have the high speed slewing capability. So a mount fitted with the EQStarProEQ5 kit will slew much faster than one with the regular EQStarEQ5. I ordered mine online directly from the Astro-Gadget and Alexander was fantastic from ordering through technical support.

Say Vin, Did you ever get that board replacement installed? I just ordered the EQStarProEQ5 kit from Astro-Gadget. I am curious to hear about your continuing experience with your similar GEM goto kit. Thanks, Don