herne

The biggest issue I had when using a laptop and DSLR was polar aligning. There is no built in polar scope on the AZGTi. I found it frustrating to the point of either giving up or buying an ASIair (I bought the ASIair). Other people’s mileage may vary of course, that’s just my experience. iirc you can install the synscan app onto a laptop to control goto and tracking so no need to use the handset (or install the app onto your phone/tablet and use wirelessly). Sharpcap for guiding. I believe NINA also works with the gti but I’ve never tried it. (Thinking about it you won’t be able to use a hand controller anyway because you’ll need the hand control port on the AZGTi to connect to your laptop using a cable such as this one from FLO). Assuming you want to image DSOs you’ll also need an equatorial wedge and update the AZGTi’s software so it’ll work in equatorial mode.

I’ve no doubt the WO wedge is a great piece of kit. Personally I’ve never had any issues with the SW one (4 mins to PA last night thanks to me accidentally knocking the tripod and I’ve previously taken 10 mins subs) and so see no need to change 👍.

Quite possibly yes. For myself and the results I get I see no need to swap out my SW wedge for the WO one 👍.

It's a different cable. This is the one for the EQ6R. As others above, I also use the EQ DIR cable to connect the AZ Gti to the ASI Air. When connected, make sure you choose "EQ Mod Mount" on your phone/pad when opening the AAP app if you use the cable. Haha me too. I wrap the excess around the counter weight bar.

You guys are way off the mark. There's no such thing as space, it's all just a big light show projected onto a dome and we're mind controlled from vapour trails and 5G. Even the ancient Greeks were, who didn't exist - just like Australia and the entire southern hemisphere hemiplane. Anyway, back in reality, that's a lovely globular cluster and a well deserving picture of the month 👏.

@bomberbaz It looks like something's wrong with that download file. It's really small for a tiff and can't open it once downloaded.

Yes agreed. I think the de-starring / re-starring approach is definitely the way to go. There probably is some more signal to squeeze out and will be interesting to try to get at it, especially once I add more data 👍.

Was just about to post the same, it’s a different cable. Here’s the link for the EQ5 cable (it looks like the Az gti cable link was posted twice above 👍). https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-watcher-mount-accessories/lynx-astro-ftdi-eqdir-usb-adapter-for-sky-watcher-eq5-pro-heq5-syntrek-pro-az-eq5-gt-az-eq6-gt-and-eq8-mounts.html. It’s probably worth a quick email to FLO first before you buy though @LaurenceT as you say you have a rather elderly EQ5 - just in case something has changed.

That’s the same guide camera I use - it sometimes had trouble finding a decent guide star to use. That is until I realised the Gain was set too low. Things became much clearer after I turned it up 🤣.

This is an ongoing project and by no means finished however being impatient I thought I'd have a quick play with the data captured so far (c. 7 hours worth of 2 min subs plus a few darks). Just for kicks I also had a look at a starless version (below), something I haven't tried before, and I kind of like it. It's not what I'd call natural looking but it has a certain drama (not sure if that's the right word) about it I think. Perhaps once the project's finished I'll do with/without stars versions but it's certainly given me food for thought although I'm certainly in two minds about it - any thoughts? For reference taken with a William Optics Z61ii, ZWO ASI 533MC Pro, Optolong L-Enhance filter. Stacked in DSS, processed in Photoshop and Starnet++.

Thought I'd share this - I had my first attempt at M16 last night (2 min subs). Not an easy target for me as neighbouring rooflines obscure all vision until around 2330 plus it's comparatively low in the sky and south for me is towards Canterbury, so a fair amount of light coming up. I also noticed I'd need to do a meridian flip at about 1am, something I don't usually get too involved with. But I thought lets give it a crack. And I have to say the AZ GTi + AAP performed flawlessly for the meridian flip. I stayed up to make sure it all went smoothly and to be honest I didn't need to bother. A few tentative minutes waiting after the flip for everything to settle, restart guiding and imaging but it all worked just fine and didn't need any interference from me. It really is a cracking little mount, continues to impress and I think is just an ideal partner for the AAP. Anyway, images below (wide field and crop) - just under 3 hours integration (I could use more and am keeping an eye on the sky to add more soon I hope) along with some Dark frames. I may see if I can split out the RGB and make a pseudo-Hubble palette image.

I’d say that’s definitely better than your previous picture - you’ve brought out more of the surrounding nebulosity and there is a better overall colour calibration 👍. Additional integration time will of course be useful but there’s a marked difference already between your two pictures and you’re on the right track 😀.

Yeh definitely have read of the manual 👍. I didn’t want to go into detail above about what it all means, just a quick overview to get started 👍

@bomberbaz Actually I should list the exact Siril workflow I used for your data: Open the tif file in Siril. At the bottom middle, change "Linear" to "Autostretch". If you flick through the Red/Green/Blue/RGB channel tabs at the top, they'll all be shades of grey except the RGB channel which will be bright green. From the top, select Image Processing > Color Calibration > Photometric Color Calibration. In the window which appears, select the "Image Parameters" box, type in NGC6888 and click Find. Some options should appear underneath after clicking Find. Select Simbad Crescent Nebula (or NED NGC6888 if you don't get that option). Then click OK. Wait for it to complete and click close. The bright green RGB picture should disappear and be replaced with something looking better but suffering from gradient. The Crescent will be in the centre against a greenish/black night sky and framed by reddish clouds. Select the Blue Red or Green channel but not the RGB channel. Select Image Processing > Background Extraction. Use these settings in the window which appears: Degree order 4; Samples per line 20; Tolerance 1.00; leave Add Dither unchecked. Click Generate. A load of small green boxes will appear. Right click on whichever green boxes touch or are very near to the Crescent nebula to make them disappear. (You can't get rid of boxes if in the RGB channel, hence changing to one of the others). I got rid of 4 boxes. You don't want them touching your target as that'll make the program think it's part of the gradient. Click Apply then Close when it's finished. Click on the RGB channel and your picture should now be looking pretty nice. Select Image Processing > Remove Green Noise. Make sure the Protection Method is set to Average Neutral, tick Preserve Lightness and click Apply. Close the window when done. At the middle bottom, change Autostretch to Linear. The screen will go all black again. Select Image Processing > Histogram Transformation. A window will appear with a line graph in it. Just below the line graph there are 6 icons. Click the one on the right which looks like a cog wheel with an S curve running through it. Your picture will reappear. Click Apply then Close. The night sky will have a blueish tinge which I sorted out in Photoshop with a basic "S" curve. I guess GIMP could do the same. Now save it as a 16 bit tif file for use in Photoshop or GIMP. (Right click on the image > Save RGB image to TIFF > give it a filename > select 16 bit unsigned integer). That's it 👍.

You can use it for stacking and/or some basic processing. I tend to experiment with stacking between DSS and Siril and use the stacked version I like the best. For my Sadr pic on the previous page I used DSS then Photoshop, didn't touch Siril. But for my recent Whirlpool galaxy pic I preferred the stack which Siril produced, then did some light processing in Siril before switching to PS. It's just trial and error. With your Crescent nebula data it looked like there was some gradient in it which can be dealt with in PS but I find it easier to deal with using Siril. So with your tif file I used Siril for a quick auto stretch followed by a colour calibration, then a background extraction to help with gradient and finished with the green noise removal tool (you'll see what I mean when you start using it). It took me 5 mins. Siril can be more complex but I find that quick & simple workflow suits me just fine. I've only been using the program for a few months - I watched some YT videos and just practised with some data 👍.