herne

What do you mean “then send to home”? Also “plate solve it to the centre”? I’ll start by pointing (roughly) north with the scope/camera vertically in line with the mount/tripod. Start PA, it’ll rotate c.60 degrees. I’ll PA accurately from there and then - without doing anything else - tell it to goto a star to complete focus from that 60 degree angle. I don’t rotate it to home first. After that, it’s a straight goto for my night’s target. And when you say you plate solve it to the centre (for the focus star and your target) I’m reading that like you are doing something additional to plate solve? Or am I misunderstanding? My AAP plate solves and centres automatically on my focus star/target without me having to instruct it to do anything else.

Yeh agreed. The comment's more aimed at the person who "may" have set the wedge to 32 degrees given their latitude, rather than 58 degrees, and be unaware of the wedge's scaling 👍.

When you say “doing a PA, then plate solving” what do you mean? With my AZ GTi and AAP I do my PA and that’s it, I don’t then plate solve anything else separately. I PA, then simply tell the mount to slew (using the goto function) to a nearby star so that I can fine tune focus. Once done I then use goto to find my night’s target. +1 for @AstroNebulee for spotting your AAP says Mount - Skywatcher Alt-Az Wedge. If you are connecting the mount to the AZ GTi with an eqmod ftdi cable it should be set to EQMOD mount 👍. One other thought - double check your eq wedge is set to the correct latitude for your location. My Skywatcher wedge (all Skywatcher wedges?) have their scales inverted for some unknown reason. So for my 51 degree north location my wedge is set to 39 degrees on the scale ie., 90 - 51 = 39. (Actually I just checked and it’s currently showing 36 degrees, will have to adjust that next time I’m out. I guess it dropped a little over time).

Just a note of caution regarding the AZ GTi mount. If you are having difficulties with Polar Alignment now with your Star Adventurer, an AZ GTi on it’s own may not improve things. That’s because there is no built in polar scope. You’ll likely need to connect it to a laptop to help here or purchase a mini PC / ASI Air to help. Further, the AZ GTi is designed as an Alt-Az mount, not an equatorial mount, so not ideal for deep sky imaging out of the box. What you can do to remedy this is buy an equatorial wedge and update the AZ GTi’s firmware to run in equatorial mode. So one, potentially two additional purchases over and above just the mount itself. Don’t get me wrong, I have an AZ GTi which I use for deep sky imaging and love it, just be aware there’s a little more to the AZ GTi to do what I think you want to do than simply buying the mount 👍.

A simple, cheap solution I use is a personal attack alarm connected to a tripwire. The type of alarm used is where a pin is removed to set it off. For example this (cheap) or this (more expensive). The alarm gets secured to something solid (I use a zip tie) with the tripwire (some fishing line) attached to the pin and stretched across a point of access. For me, my equipment is set up on a raised platform which has railings all around it and a single set of steps leading up to it, so the tripwire goes across the steps. I keep it at just below waist height to avoid foxes/cats setting it off. A 140db alarm going off in the middle of the night will wake me up and (hopefully) scare off an intruder. If it’s not possible to stretch it across a point of access, it could be attached to the scope - one part on the scope, the other connected to the mount - or perhaps on a tripod leg connected to something solid (plant pot, nearby bush etc). Here’s a video to give you an idea of how it works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaQq2otgKH4

Yeh for sure, it’s an interesting experiment though. As you say, the image is clean (probably cleaner with greater integration) and cleans up nicely in Photoshop as part of my noise reduction workflow there. Hot pixels are gone, no sign of vignetting and stars have a nice shape (albeit somewhat bloated). It’s the first time I’ve tried processing with no calibration frames and I quite like the result. It helped having no moon on the night though I’m sure. I will get around to processing it again, this time spending longer on it (the above took about 20 mins only) and add in some calibration. I agree, it would certainly be interesting to compare 👍. Anyway, as a test for the AZ GTi I think it passed with flying colours.

A quick and dirty process of 19 x 10 min subs (3 hrs 10 mins). I'm sure I could do better but limited time at present. I discarded 5 subs due to clouds - another negative of using such long subs: that's almost a quarter of the total integration time gone. Ouch. Interestingly there were quite a lot of satellite trails apparent in other subs but DSS successfully deleted them. Note - this stack uses light frames only. No darks, flats, bias or dark flats used. Again, part of the testing. Stacked in DSS, processed in Photoshop.

I finally managed to get out a couple of nights ago and wanted to push the AZ Gti a bit. I've taken individual 10 minute subs before but never a full night's session, so that's what I did. I also wanted to get back to some nebula hunting which is a little tricky at present - I have great views North, South and West but East tends to get blocked by my roof, however as it doesn't really get dark until 11ish that's just about the time some eastern nebula pop above my roofline, so I managed to get a good 4 hours of data. Below is a single uncalibrated 10 minute sub of the Sadr region, straight out of the camera as a FITS file but saved as a png to share, so completely untouched and unprocessed. Honestly the AZ GTi continues to surpass my expectations - I'm super impressed it can handle not only a single 10 minute sub but an entire night's imaging run. I'm seeing some hot pixels and stars are bloated somewhat so I doubt I'd be using 10min subs much in future (although processing will help there), but as a test for the mount actually being able to handle that length of sub (guided) without star trailing I think is pretty nice. I haven't processed the finished image yet, will share when I do. Set up used: WO Z61ii; ZWO 533mc Pro; ASI Air Pro; L-enhance filter; Astro essentials 30mm mini guide scope; ZWO ASI 120mm mini guide camera; AZ Gti eq mode.

Don’t use rechargeable AA batteries, they won’t give sufficiently stable power. At home I plug mine into the mains via a 12V 5A power supply.

That’s a nice image, you’ve brought the Cygnus Wall out nicely - it almost has a 3D quality about it 👌. The green tint may well be through processing although it may also be a gradient as it’s more apparent bottom left vs top right. I don’t know much about GIMP but there are some good tutorials on YouTube.

Highlights on the Cygnus Wall look nice, I bet more data would really bring it out well 🫶.

Before trying anything else, ensure there is no movement anywhere in your rig while taking pictures. If you are dithering, stop for now and take some test shots without dither. Check that everything is fastened down properly - see if you can find any sort of tiny movement at all by, well, wiggling things in all directions. Recently I found I could slightly move my AZ Gti on it’s mount and an Allen bolt needed a tiny tighten. So belt and braces, check everything is hunky dory as tiny movements could cause what you are seeing. Experiment with different length subs. Start short (a few seconds) and gradually increase - do you start seeing the issue at a particular length? Double check focus (not back focus). If using a Bahtinov mask double and triple check accuracy on a bright star near your target. If all that checks out, are you seeing this regularly or just a one off (or occasionally). If not often, seeing conditions might have an impact due to atmospheric turbulence. If it’s all tight and you’re seeing this result all the time then there may be an issue with the optics (coma/collimation?). If I remember correctly you’ve only just bought your refractor? If so perhaps it took a knock in transit or something was a bit off when being set at the factory. However, first things first, double check for any type of tiny movement anywhere in your rig - from feet to tip - while imaging 👍.

I was replying in relation to which cameras can be used with the ZWO ASI Air Pro/Plus 👍.

I use a 40cm threaded bar myself. Bought it as a 1m length from B&Q (I think) and cut it down. I still have a 60cm length left over I can use if I want extra length although much longer and it might become a bit ungainly. Actual weights instead of my nuts and washers would perhaps be better.

You can use Canon and Nikon DSLRs. But for dedicated astro cameras you have to use ZWO products.

I'll double check what it's set to the next time I'm out (if I remember!) but I know I don't do anything with clearing the calibration. I also let it pick my guide star but not multistar guiding. Good job getting dithering to work on the AZ GTi 👍. It's not something I got on very well with. Perhaps I'll try again at some point although I'm quite happy with my results without. Yeh exactly. There will always be small variances in gears and whatnot so the more information sharing the better to give others ideas and things to try 🙂. I think a methodical approach can sometimes help. Even something as basic as the order in which we switch on equipment might have an impact.

I've been reading some guiding / drift issues above so thought I'd share my set up ASI Air Pro settings as I rarely (if ever) get such issues with either DSLR or ASI 533mc pro. For reference I use the Astro Essentials 30mm mini guide scope + ZWO ASI 120mm mini camera on top of my WO Z61ii scope. The AZ GTi is stock (I haven't opened it to fiddle with the insides at all) and I use the Skywatcher eq wedge. Camera and memory stick inserted to ASI Air usb 3 ports. Guide camera and mount (via eqmod cable) into usb 2 ports. Make sure the mount is level and balanced then turn on the AAP first once everything is connected and in position. Wait for the beep then turn on the mount. Open up the AAP app on my iPad once it's all switched on. Roughly focus then polar align (I can spend ages doing this). I'm not happy until I'm within 00° 00' 10". I can't stress enough how important for me this step is. Slew to a nearby star (I use the AAP's goto function) to finalise focus using a Bahtinov mask. Slew to my target (again using the AAP's goto function). Once in a blue moon the mount might go a bit crazy and slew in a seemingly random fashion, at which point I'll turn it all off and start over. I seem to have got over this issue now that I've changed how I power the mount (from the AAP rather than an old dusty power adapter I found in a drawer). Guiding - in the guiding screen to start guiding all I touch are the circular arrows button over on the right to start refreshing, then I'll focus the guide camera (gain set to around 80 so I can see properly to focus) followed by the circular target button to start guiding. "Exp" (bottom right) is set to 1 second. At the bottom of that screen next to the graph, RA Aggr is set to 100%; DEC Aggr set to 100% and DEC Mode is set to Off. I then minimise that screen so that the small guide graph is visible, take a test shot of my night's target and, once happy, set up my imaging run. In terms of other Guide Settings (button at the top) from the top down: Guide Camera - ZWO ASI 120mm mini (picked up automatically by the AAP) Guide scope focal length - 120mm (make sure that's accurate) Gain - 77 (changed when I focus the guide camera) Calibration step - 1000ms Max DEC duration - 1000ms Max RA duration - 1000ms Auto restore calibration - set to on Guide camera bin 2 - off Guide stability settings - Stability 1"; Settle time 3s; Timeout 60s. Dither settings - it's switched off. I don't bother with dithering with the AZ Gti. I've had very mixed results with it and don't bother any more. Mount Settings Mount - EQMod mount selected and switched on Serial connected; Baud 9600 Goto Auto Center - turned on Center Exp Time - 2s Guiding Rate - 0.5X Tracking - turned off I think that covers it. I'm normally guiding around 1 - 1.2 Total (quite often below 1, sometimes higher) which is fine for my 360mm fl / 61mm dia scope. 2 or 3 min subs are my norm, 5 mins I'll set rarely and I've had it as high as 10 mins without issue. On occasion I'll notice a very minor amount of drift between subs but we're talking fractions here from first sub to last in a multi-hour imaging run. It's so minor it's not an issue and causes no problems when stacking. Hope that helps if you've been having problems 👍.

If you haven’t used your rig yet it might be an idea to start with what you have before getting into guiding. Your Z73 + Heq5 pro is a nice combo - get used to setting up, polar aligning, using the goto function and tracking your target. Lots to do and learn and, if properly polar aligned, you can still get nice images 😎. However if you do want to jump in the deep end (nothing wrong with that!) and £200 is your budget then that will only really stretch to a guide camera + guide scope (good examples mentioned above), not an ASIair or mini pc as well. FLO sell a guide scope/camera/ASIair combo package, but that’s £510 (and out of stock). Cheaper if you can buy used of course. Without a mini pc/AAP you’ll be plugging it all into a laptop and using PHD2 or NINA (for example) as your guiding software. Power to the guide camera will be via the usb connection from the laptop (or mini pc/asiair) - the same cable used for guiding.

Make sure it’s set for high latitude not low latitude. Nice light weight rig though 👍.

I don't use any myself but I know there are some who have discord servers with people who live stream from their own telescopes. Obviously as I don't use them I can't comment on how good these places are (or how open they may be) but it might give you something to look into or give you ideas to investigate something similar further. This is an example of one (astrobiscuit). The only other option I can think of is both budget and ability related. I appreciate you say you can't go outside to stargaze but are you able to set up your own scope now and again which you could then connect to remotely indoors via a pc/laptop/tablet/mobile? Or perhaps leave outside but well covered and protected from the elements? There is of course a cost associated to that - @doublevodka mentioned one option above, another (cheaper) option might be setting up your own imaging gear. Further down this forum there are channels for EEVA (Electronically Enhanced Visual Astronomy) here and here. The people in there may be able to help further if this is something you might like to get involved with. Alternatively there is astrophotography. Not necessarily viewing things "live" but it is taking pictures of the night sky yourself. Again, gear can be set up outside and you then withdraw somewhere nice and warm (exactly what I do). But there is still a cost involved so without knowing about your budget it's difficult to advise. Then again you could start by simply pointing your mobile or camera at the night sky and taking some pictures. That may still give you some nice views of constellations, the Moon and perhaps even star trails. There are plenty of youtube videos about that.

When in the field do you use AA batteries to power the mount? If so don’t use rechargeable ones, they tend to be underpowered and can cause issues.

Looks great 👌. Looking forward to your first light picture.

If all else fails you could still try. Banks call this type of transaction "Customer Not Present" ("CNP") such as mail order, online purchases etc. By their very nature they are a higher fraud risk and Banks take action accordingly by enhancing their authorisation process in order to cover themselves from loss. Even if you told them during the bank transfer you'd seen the item you could still say it's a small defect, hardly noticeable upon initial inspection but on closer inspection it's a serious defect and would get worse to the point of breakage. Worth a try anyway 👍.

If you paid via Bank transfer you may be able to contact your Bank to see if they can do something, possibly even via their Fraud department - you’ve been sold faulty goods which was not made clear in the advert.

There's loads of tutorials on YT about hubble palette-style images from an OSC (or DSLR) using an L-extreme/enhance filter. Here's 2 from one of my favourite channels, one for Pixinsight the other for Siril: OSC Hubble Palette Guide! - Easy PixInsight Tutorial - YouTube Siril Beginner's Tutorial! - Hubble Style OSC Narrowband With FREE Software! - YouTube