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tompato

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  1. Got this a week or so ago as a present from the wife. Should be a nice upgrade to my Evoguide 50ed.
  2. Yeah, I'm in much the same boat Ed. I'm hoping some competition from Player one cameras might help with the price of APS-C size cameras. They are supposed to be launching some new cooler cameras this autumn, although I was kinda hoping they would launch a non-cooled APS-C size camera with these new zero amp flow sensors. https://player-one-astronomy.com/cooled-camera/
  3. Just to play devil's advocate but summer is (likely) coming to an end soon and the darker skies and cooler temps will be with us. Might be worth sticking with the 600d and then investing in something after Winter for the warmer months ahead, there might be new models out then, and maybe bargains to be had on used models. Is your 600d modified? What ISO are you shooting at? I still get pretty good results in summer with mine, even 60 mins of data on Veil I was pretty happy with in the middle of June.
  4. I think the width of the 585 and 533 sensors is the same, it's just the 533 is square and so has a larger area overall (square vs rectangular).
  5. I love the look of the little Minitrack Quattro, looks really nicely machined. Looks nice to do wide field with when you're out and about without worrying about power.
  6. Beautiful! I love that you can see that tiny IC4617 galaxy, the resolution and detail is brilliant.
  7. Here is my first attempt with my astromodified Canon 600d (thanks Juan!) And I'm using my Az-Gti and AsiAir setup with my Evostar 50ed and EvoFF. Lights: 60 x 60s @ ISO 400 (I forgot to check usually I set this to ISO 800) Darks: 10 x 60s Bias: 20 Frames Flats: 20 Frames Stacked in Affinity Photo and edited in the same. Really happy with how this turned out with such a small amount of data in the rather light summer skies. Next target is something with a bit more Ha nebulosity to really see how different things are with my modified Canon 600d.
  8. Has anyone tried the Omegon Deluxe Wedge? It looks pretty solid, but I've not seen anyone using it or any reviews. I was tempted for my Az-Gti setup. (But off topic I know). It looks like it has a fixed dovetail bar on the bottom of the Skyhunter so I don't see why you wouldn't be able to use another brand wedge. Only question would be if it has enough clearance I guess as the one supplied has quite a long clamp that extends above the wedge somewhat.
  9. The locking knob turny arm things (technical name I'm sure) can be pulled outwards in order to rotate their position without loosening them, if that makes any sense. So their angle/position can be changed to make sure it doesn't hit things. But yeah you're right about the iOptron base being a pain to adjust, especially in latitude as that big knob is easy to adjust upwards, but when lossening it jumps down quite substantially and if you have to adjust downwards for PA you'll often find yourself way overshooting and then adjust back up - which in turn is then really annoying if you overshoot again and have to adjust downwards. It's not a good wedge, at least in my experience. (I realise its slightly different to the one available with the SGP but it looks mechanically the same otherwise).
  10. Ah okay, cool. I'll give that a go next time and just grab more light frames. I think I need to send off my 600D to be modified next to get the next step up from my images.
  11. As the title mentions, I got my Az-Gti setup working in EQ mode with the ASIAIR and managed to get fairly well polar aligned and whipped the mount off to M27 to do get some data on an object I hadn't managed to get in my non Goto days with my SGP. Oh I also managed to get it guiding as well which is the first time I've managed that and looked like I was getting okay results from the graph in ASIAIR. Light: 30 x 120s (1 hour) Dark: 10 x 120s Bias: 30 Flat: 20 Equipment: Az-Gti (EQ Mode), Evoguide 50ed with EvoFF v2, Canon 600d (unmodified), Light Pollution Filter, Zwo 120MM Mini with Astro Essentials Guidescope, ASIAIR Pro Plus. I gave Affinity Photo a go to stack it and edit it, which is something I've not used before and I think I need a lot more practice with it but it was nice to be able to use my Mac to stack and edit the photos on without having to dig out the Windows setup.
  12. Ah I see! Yes it's the astro essentials one which I think is f4 and 30mm so 120mm focal length it is! I'll hopefully get my stacked and processed image up this afternoon
  13. My Az-Gti and AsiAir are outside as I type this capturing some 120s subs on M27. All worked pretty seamlessly, I plonked it down facing Polaris, popped it into PA mode and it went through its stuff. I then fiddled about for about 10 mins and got it to around 1 arc minute and a smiley face and stopped. Then set it to go to Deneb and it was spot on. Pointed it at M27 and took a snap and hey presto. Did a couple of focus checks. Then I figured I would try guiding and had a play with the menus. Realised I've never used my 120mm mini before and so it was not in focus at all so had to fiddle with that until I realised the 120 stands for 120mm focus distance (I think?) and so extended my guidescope so it was around that. Struggled to get it perfect but it was good enough for guiding. Swung it back to M27 and set the guiding to calibrate and started a run of 30 x 120s subs. I tried 180 but the stars has slight movement so figured I would play it safe.
  14. Yeah I actually got this right haha, quite unlike me. I had it set to 52 for my SGP and I was looking at the Az-Gti and I realised it would be at 90 degrees to the usual axis so minuses 52 from 90 and set it to about 38. It actually wasn't too far off when I did the PA routine, I think I just need to get used to very gently tweaking the adjustment bolts. The longitude adjustments weren't too bad but the latitude adjustment bolt seemed to jump quite a bit when trying to move it down, but did seem to adjust better when moving back up. I don't think it's the greatest design but I'm sure I'll get better. I was pretty surprised how far off it seemed when it had roughly PA'd and then I tried the Goto, but I'll try the workflow suggestions and go back home next time and see if it helps, failing that I'll just try Synscan without the AsiAir.
  15. Thanks Lee, Yeah all the latest versions of software, apart from the Az-Gti being on one firmware back from the very latest as that wasn't flashing properly. I didn't go back to home so maybe that is my issue. I am going to just try with the Syncscan App first next time and get it working with that. Then I can at least eliminate a physical setup issue and move on to getting the AsiAir settings correct. I did have it set as EqMod and connected using the EqMod FTDI cable and slewing around manually seemed to be working fine. I'll get some screenshots of settings next time ☺️
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