Albut

On 29/02/2020 at 21:19, Adreneline said:

Without my 0.75mm of spacers the 'infinity focus' position was before the 'L' mark and I had significant star shape problems in the extreme corners of the image with very noticeable 'coma' type star shapes in the top right and bottom left of the image. If I add another 0.25mm spacer the focus point moves beyond the 'L' mark.

I cannot be certain my current spacing is 'perfect' but the star shapes are acceptable (to me). On modern lenses the lens can be set to focus beyond infinity - although I am not sure exactly what that means.

As a final complication the focus point is different for all my filters. Using the ZWO EAF as a reference the focus position varies from 28302 to 28382. Now I've not done the maths to work out exactly how much that has moved the focus ring on the lens but I do know that even at the extremes it still stays within the 'L' so I am happy I've got it about as good as I am likely to get it without becoming obsessively compulsive about it.

I hope this helps.

Adrian

P.S. As a footnote I spent two entire evenings stripping the camera and lens apart and messing around with an array of spacers before I got to where I am now. I'm in no rush to change anything! Good luck!

 

I find adding shims or increasing the distance makes it worse with my samyang 135mm. Just not enough travel to reach infinity focus. I have asi183mc pro + the supplied 11mm spacer, and the Zwo canon filter drawer 26.5mm. With the 6.5mm built into the camera this makes it 6.5mm+11mm+26.5mm=44mm. I have also measured it and it’s bang on. The only way I can achieve infinity focus is by putting a 2mm thick filter in the drawer, which obviously adds by its refraction.

On 26/02/2020 at 13:10, drjolo said:

I think there are two things worth to mention about this lens.

One is aperture: it may happen that you will get little bit better image quality when you stop it down a little. But then bright stars will get spikes that comes from aperture blades. Some users (including me) attach "aperture stop ring" in the front of this lens to stop it a little and keep circular aperture shape.

Second one is mounting to camera. This connection needs to be stiff, because that is fast optics and do not forgive tilt or bending. And also backfocus distance needs to be kept, so you focus on the stars as close to infinity mark at the focusing ring as possible. This lens has internal focusing, so it is designed to have specific lens configuration at specific object distance. In my setup the ring is set about 5mm left to that mark when I focus at stars. And then I have pinpoint stars in the whole frame, but I have small chip - QHY163M. And SY135 is full frame lens. 

Then I think you should be very happy about this lens Here are my thoughts after (now) three years of having it https://astrojolo.com/gears/thirty-months-with-samyang-135-f-2/ 

Is my Samyang 135mm faulty? Just not enough travel to reach infinity focus. I have asi183mc pro + the supplied 11mm spacer, and the Zwo canon filter drawer 26.5mm. With the 6.5mm built into the camera this makes it 6.5mm+11mm+26.5mm=44mm. I have also measured it and it’s bang on. The only way I can achieve infinity focus is by putting a 2mm thick filter in the drawer, which obviously adds by its refraction.

So if you can’t achieve exact focus with thin spacers, is it better to be just over or just under under?

On 20/11/2021 at 12:37, powerlord said:

great changelog.. as if user has any idea if they have a GD MCU or not!

 

Agree, I thought all az-gti’s had same boards.

I mainly use redcat 51. So went for the 183. A no brainier when you look at the match. Amp glow is not a problem with darks which are always a necessity with other calibration files if looking for top quality astro photos.

Let’s get this back on track. Can I control my SA with PHD2. My guide camera does not have a guiding port but connects directly via usb to the laptop. So if using ASCOM how do I connect from laptop to SA. My SA is not Wi-fi version using the az gti the mount guiding is just controlled by Wi-fi when set up in this way. The SA has an st4 port but what cable is needed to connect to the laptop to enable control. Is it an eqmod to usb for example. Anyone know.

On 23/02/2017 at 15:34, bdlbug said:

All,

I have been searching forum for information and there is some but I am still confused as to exactly what cables go where in a Star Adventurer ST4 port using a small guide scope Cam, ST4 and a Laptop running PHD2.

I am absolutely up to speed with using EqDirect  cable plugged into the handset socket of my AZEQ6 mount  into USB on my laptop running PHD2 to  create pulse guide corrections based on images sent from a LodeStar X2 in my guide scope. This is all very clear and I am happy I know what I am doing.

Whats really confusing me and I don't want to plug things in where they shouldn't be is how guiding is setup with the Star Adventurer ST4 configuration

Before I get into detail - Yes I understand star Adventurer can only be controlled in RA, and I'm not sure if I really want to guide, as I've got a polestar and got the Star Adventurer adapter so I can get the mount accurately polar aligned. I am looking at a wide field capture setup with 50mm or less lens on my ASI1600 that should allow 60s+ unguided, but given the current weather I'm looking at how to exploit all the features I bought with this new mount - and this is driving me nuts trying to work out the correct configuration.

So to set up a Star Adventurer to be guided do I use the same wiring configuration as I have with my main mount but plug my EqDirect cable into the ST4 socket on the Star Adventurer , everything else is the same and PHD2 issues ST4 commands based on images from the guide cam ?

OR...do I have to use a ST4 cable and connect the LodeStar X2 ST4 output into the Star Adventurer ST4 input and then Lodestar X2 USB connection to Laptop - but I then don't understand how PHD2 will send tracking commands into the ST4 input.

I've seen screenshots where people have posted their guide plots with Star Adventurer using PHD2 - so clearly it can be done -

Anybody done this and can post a diagram or annotated image of what cable goes where, and possibly a why explanation, or if there is a post or link that has this info I'd appreciate that as well.

thanks

 

“So to set up a Star Adventurer to be guided do I use the same wiring configuration as I have with my main mount but plug my EqDirect cable into the ST4 socket on the Star Adventurer , everything else is the same and PHD2 issues ST4 commands based on images from the guide cam ?”

Is the above possible as I want to try something similar in guiding my SA. I have a 1.3mp HD camera with guide scope. So if I connect camera to laptop via usb and then eqdir cable from st4 on mount to usb on laptop will I be able to guide this with phd2? The camera sends signal to laptop/phd2 and then corrections are sent from laptop/phd2 to mount to guide.

On 22/07/2020 at 20:23, SonyDave said:

Synscan pro works fine on its own.

The problem with the Synscan app on iOS is that it doesn’t run in the background. So after alignment in the synscan app and the initial handover of the synscan link data to any other app like Luminos or SkySafari, the two apps no longer are able to communicate. So goto’s are compromised. Your better off continuing any syncs to other objects in the synscan app and then the purposing the hand over. Not sure if this is the case in android. In any event Luminos works far better than SkySafari pro. It has better sync options albeit these are only local to the target selected. 

On 01/04/2020 at 20:41, Stu said:

Hmmm, unless they have resolved this bug you have run up against the same problem a few of us have faced previously. Basically because iOS devices don’t run applications in the background, they can’t run Synscan and SkySafari simultaneously so it won’t connect! There are two resolutions, use two iOS devices, one running Synscan and the other SkySafari. Cumbersome but it works. Or get an Android device with both apps on and that will work. You can also buy a handset and a SkyFi unit and do it that way. Either way it was a bit of an issue with many of us buying these units expecting the to work as you did!

Is this still the case with latest iOS 14. It’s meant to run apps in the background but the synscan pro app does not show in ‘settings-general-background app refresh’ list?

On 09/10/2020 at 18:15, Relpet said:

Before I splash out £18.49 has anyone succeeded in driving the Skywatcher AZ-GTI Freedom Finder using Skysafari 6 Pro wifi on Android?  The developer's forum suggests it's still work in progress but the last date is May 2020.  I've just emailed them but don't expect  a quick response.  I don't have a problem with the Skywatcher's own Synscan Pro but think Skysafari might offer more.

If it’s primarily for controlling your az gti, don’t bother. I have had sky safari for many years and as a stellerium app it’s very good but for controlling and syncing my az gti mount it’s useless. The sync function just doesn’t work in iOS. I have changed to Luminos and find this app is far better for control of my mount.

On 08/08/2018 at 09:43, hedwri said:

Recently bought an AZ-GTi, primary for visual use but also exploring photography. I realise that in AZ mode I am limited to relatively short exposures due to field rotation but I have an old Skytracker mount and wonder whether mounting the AZ-GTi on it and switching to EQ mode would be worth a try?

The main concern I have is that I will have to remove the Skytracker polar scope after initial alignment as it would foul the AZ-GTi in use. Mounted on a Manfrotto 055 tripod there may be a risk of losing accurate polar alignment so is the whole idea a waste of time?

Did you ever get this to work.

On 18/06/2020 at 12:08, Ags said:

Here is the latest iteration of my AZ GTi setup. C6, 2kg counterweight, and light eyepieces or camera.

This seems to be set up in AZ mode. Are counterweights required in this mode? If so how do you bajance?

Has anyone an answer to how you can find out the current firmware version installed on the az gti mount. Can it be found in the loader app or synscan pro app? 

I reprocessed this image in Startools. A great bit of software. The image is low quality because I was using trial version and took a screen capture. Finished in PS. Yet to use full potential of startools still learning the trial version but will purchase as it does such a great job and relatively inexpensive. Only trial limitation is can’t save final image. Wirth trying but a steep learning curve. 

It’s the handheld remote on this model. Bit annoying as having to increase interval by 2 sec amounts to another 16 minutes for a 500 photo session. I’ll report back if I get a response from hahnel. As I said I have an older hahnel giga-t pro and that works fine even down to 1 second. So clearly a problem with their new units. Looking at getting the asiair guider kit as Peter Zelinka video. Is it a good bit of kit?

I have one of these and it’s not your camera it’s the Hahnel captur timer module. I also have a hahnel giga t-pro and with same settings it works. Bottom line the captur timer module requires  interval 1  to be set to 4 or more seconds for it to work as above. Obviously a bug. Wish I had bought a different make. I have raised the issue with hahnel and await a reply.

Took this with a friend, our second attempt at M31 with better alignment, using ioptron tracker, Sony a7iiii camera and William optics Redcat51. Took about 50 or so photos iso 3200 60 secs. Then from something that looked pretty dull followed the andromeda video tutorial by Peter Zelinka and ended up with this. Probably the colours are out but pleased with the result.