LaurenceT

29 minutes ago, Ratlet said:

Was there any indication as to the problem?

Nothing said but it was becoming deficient in several areas, backlash, erratic azimuth movement and finally general wobble.

FLO have just sent me an email saying they are replacing the AZ5 with a new one. I'm pretty fed up with some of Skywatchers basic engineering and for a few moments was considering asking them to send a Scopetech Zero instead. However, the cost differential is considerable and the heaviest scope I'll be putting on it will be my Mak 127 so buying the Scopetech would probably just be a vanity purchase.

12 minutes ago, Elp said:

Out of your list I would say the asiair is essential, followed by the 533, and for the time being you probably don't need anything else but will eventually benefit from filters if your light pollution and bortle skies are unfavorable. I was in a similar position to yourself starting with a modded DSLR (which I still have for widefield), once my azgti starting working properly and autoguiding worked (it was around the time I got the asiair it all came together coincidentally), everything just clicked and I haven't looked back. If you're not autoguiding currently you'll also need a usb A to your mount connection type (RJ) eqdir cable. Some people will say the asiair is not essential so I'll reword it as probably the most user friendly and progressive piece of small and light equipment you can add to an AP setup due to having all you need in one unit to work alongside the rest of your AP setup with a simple and easy to use user interface which works seamlessly over WiFi on a mobile phone. Your DSLR I think is also compatible with it (you'll need the right usb A to usb B mini cable, some don't work so well), otherwise you're tied to zwo cameras which is not a bad thing.

Absolutely right about the Asiair, complete game changer for me as a beginner. After struggling for months with Astroberry and Stellarmate I virtually gave up my astrophotography ambitions because of driver problems with both my Sony cameras making the learning curve an almost impossible mountain. The opportunity to acquire a used Asiair Pro and a used ASI533 mc pro has set me back on the path again.

41 minutes ago, Ags said:

It was less than an hour of 6 second exposures.

Excellent then

45 minutes ago, Ags said:

Thanks! Yes, that was shot alt-az with an ASI485MC and ZenithStar 66 (reduced to f4 with an SCT 6.3 reducer).

Was that EAA?

26 minutes ago, adyj1 said:

Apologies if I've sent this down a rabbit-hole.

In an attempt to have a positive contribution to this thread, for those that may not be aware similar functionality can be had in EQ mode (as long as you carry out reasonable polar alignment when setting up).  

You don't even have to tell the mount what you are looking at, just point your scope at the object you want to view (you can use a combination of manual slew and fine-tuning with the RA/DEC buttons) and then turn on tracking in the app/on the handset...

Ady

I didn't know that, it will be very handy for me if that is the case, I thought it only functioned in az mode.

.

Thanks for taking the time to reply everyone. It seems that far from making my life simpler and easier I would be doing the opposite with a mini pc, the point that @Cosmic Geoff makes about doing some stuff at the mount and trying to the rest remotely is valuable as is @catburglar's comment about frame rates.

With a mini pc and an EQ mount I would still have to go through a polar align/plate solving routine before selecting my planet or the moon and track whereas if I simply reverted the AZ GTi to AZ mode in the Synscan app I could just select my target and slew manually, focus roughly and press the "point and track" button in the app. Sharpcap on my laptop will do the rest for me.

If I was truly lazy then I could spend the mini pc cash on a used Az GTi mount and use that for lunar/planetary exclusively 😅.

Once again thanks for all the advice.

9 minutes ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

I went the MELE route too, only the newer 3 but for our needs basically the same. 

To the OP, power is a consideration. The MELE is a nice one because it uses 12v, which you should have a ready supply of, some of these mini pcs are 19v which is a pita or the Pi route which is 5v. 

Any new out of the box mini pc will be fine but once again, I recommend finding a 12v one. 

Thanks for pointing out the power consideration,  if it's 12v I can use my Nevada unit that I use as my normal power supply.

17 minutes ago, Stu1smartcookie said:

Hi Laurence , i think the Mak127 will be fine on the AZ-Gti in EQmode , as long as its balanced well . I have used that set up before without any issues . I know its not the same but a guy on YouTube uses the mak127 with his StarAdventurer for luna photography and as both the SA and the AZ-Gti have the same weight capacity , i see no problems for you . 

Maybe other will comment differently but i can only speak from my own experience 

Stu

Thanks Stu, that's interesting. I've remembered seeing a guy called Masa Schumit on YouTube mounting a Mak 127 on an AzGti so maybe it's worth a try.

As you rightly say balance is the key.

4 minutes ago, IDM said:

I have also been thinking through mini pc idea. I have to say when I have tried any wireless solutions I get endless problems. I have now bought a 20m cat6 cable which I can feed into the house and in my early experiments seems to work flawlessly. As for pc’s I have a raspberry pi which is pretty good and I have just bought an hp pro desk mini on eBay. It was cheaper than the pi and came with ssd so I am hoping it will work well. If you do go down this route make sure you get windows 10 pro license as you need it to remotely access the pc.

others will know far more than me.

good luck 

Ian

Interesting, have you a link to the Ebay unit you bought Ian?

6 minutes ago, Clarkey said:

I use a Miele Quieter 2 but this is for deep sky and I am not sure how good it would be for planetary. I would suggest that you do the work on the telescope PC and just use remote access to control it. If you use wifi, I think your frame rates are likely to be impacted by the wifi speed. You do not need anything too special for planetary imaging, it is mainly the transfer rates. I have used a big standard pentium to run planetary without a problem. Personally I went for a fanless PC as it reduces the risk of vibration.

Thanks for that. I hadn't considered letting the mini pc do the work I must admit. The unit you use looks good but it's too expensive for me at this time I had been looking at something like this:

SNUNMU Mini PC, 8GB RAM+128 ROM,Intel Celeron J4125,Windows 11 Pro Mini Computer, 2.4G & 5.0G WiFi, 4K UHD, Gigabit Ethernet, BT 4.2 Desktop Computers for Office, Business, Home, School : Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

I know I could use my Asiair but my lunar/planetary camera is an Altair.

Having now gone back to using my mount in EQ mode for sort of grab and go EAA I'm wondering whether my Mak 127 would be too heavy for the mount when used for remote lunar/planetary imaging. I know could strip the mount back to use as a right side mounted AZ mount but I'd rather leave it in EQ setup. I know I could use my EQ5 but the thought of literally moving the Az GTi and tripod out into the garden in one movement is very appealing.

I've now fully converted my Az GTi to EQ mode for sort of grab and go remote EEA but would like to get into remote lunar/planetary imaging. I would be using my Mak 127 for this and it's probably too heavy for the Az GTi in EQ mode even for relatively short periods of imaging compared to deep sky. I know I can strip back the mount to use as a right side mounted alt az mount but I'd really rather leave it set up in EQ..

A solution I've been mulling over is to use a NUC/mini pc on my EQ5 to send images via wifi to my laptop using Sharpcap remotely, I'm getting on in years and have an auto immune rheumatic condition and the prospect of sitting in the warm during winter nights is appealing! Although I'm an experienced PC builder I'd rather buy a ready built one but the price for an occasional use machine is off-putting. I read somewhere (maybe on here) about relatively cheap mini pc's on Ebay or similar and I've been looking at some. What I'd like to know is what minimum specs I should be looking at considering my laptop indoors would be doing the donkey work.

Thanks for looking.

5 hours ago, beamer3.6m said:

I have seen an item I am interested in at Hdew Cameras and the price is very competitive.

The item is only a lens so the need to register it etc is almost redundant, unlike when buying a camera body etc.

No recent reviews on here though and I will be parting with a good few £££'s so any comments welcome.

Years ago I bought several Olympus m43 bodies and lenses from them, all items had proper warranty and I was able to claim easily when a tele extender developed a fault.

If I was in the market for gear they were selling I would buy again from them.

7 minutes ago, Ratlet said:

EDIT:  Just seen that you're not wanting to risk voiding the warranty.  Hopefully the vendor will reply with an answer.  I'll leave the below for you though in case they do ask you to check the work gear.

You can remove the panel with the grub screw and check that the carrier for the brass worm gear isn't damaged:

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/794915-skywatcher-az5-deluxe-mount-azimuth-control-not-working/

Thanks, I had seen that item but as you point out I didn't investigate because of the warranty problem. I suspect that if that carrier was indeed fractured like that then there would be zero AZ movement regardless of how tight the knurled knob was tightened.

Thanks for that, I did have a look at those 3 screws earlier and they do look as though they may be integral to that free play in the AZ but they are all tightened down to the maximum already and I'm not inclined to interfere with them.

Although I can sort of cope with the lack of AZ control unless that knob is screwed tight it's this free play in AZ that makes the scope unusable at high mags. 

Quite suddenly a couple of days ago the mount stopped responding in the azimuth to slow-mo control, the altitude was fine. The only way I could get it to respond was by completely screwing down the knurled knob. It also developed some slack movement in the AZ of about 7mm. It doesn't sound much but when viewing at high magnification simply touching the scope focus control this movement was enough to put the object, in this case Jupiter, almost out of view in the eyepiece, very irritating. I can't find anyway to tighten anything to prevent this "wobble" and I'm reluctant to open anything up in case I void the warranty, I bought the mount in January of this year. I've messaged the vendor so I'll just have await their reply.

28 minutes ago, Elp said:

My last session I didn't even open the synscan pro app at all, straight to asiair app and it worked in EQ mode. Was only testing something mind so didn't fully use it.

Yes I realise that now, I was definitely getting befuddled yesterday. The mount will respond to any appropriate software be it Synscan, Asiair, Sharpcap or any other. Thanks. 

2 hours ago, bomberbaz said:

I was thinking about how to do this the other week and my thoughts were to polar align first using the air, then switch to the Synscan app, connect the camera to a laptop to do a 2 star align. Then disconnect the laptop and connect to my PC (big screen) via USB3 powered (jumper) cable and away you go.  Works in theory but not sure about in practice.

Viewing from the conservatory sounds quite comfortable but only on nights with a moon.

I am more into visual than imaging and new moon dark skies have their place for me behind the eyepiece. Some of you may have read this already.

 

I'm not clear why you would need to use the Synscan app at all. After polar alignment and plate solving by the Asiair you could then disconnect the camera from the Asiair , connect it to a laptop and fire up Sharpcap or similar. Alternatively, if you have a guide scope/camera you could use that as your main scope with the Asiair for the polar alignment and plate solving and simply plug the imaging camera into a laptop for the lunar or planetary imaging session.

Of course it's quite possible I'm completely muddled and wrong😄.

Edit: Of course you'd have to fire up the Synscan app in order to put the mount into the correct mode, I can't quite get my head around what comes next!

51 minutes ago, Elp said:

I generally use alt az mode when doing planetary, lunar, solar, much less to think about, especially when you have to take multiple passes.

That's what I'll do, just hoping the right side scope mounting works for me this time.

1 minute ago, AstroNebulee said:

As you say for just doing EAA with your az gti, just set up outside with it do your PA with your Asiair. Retreat into the warmth of your home (hopefully)  and carry on with your EAA session. Would you be using your 127 or something else for this? 

I got a little bit confused which for me isn't hard at all. 😂

Lee 

For EAA I would probably just use my WO Z61 as I know the mount can cope with that easily in EQ mode although I might consider my Orion 80ED, too heavy maybe?

Thanks for that Lee, you've clarified things in my mind for me.

I will try the mount in EQ  mode for visual, I suspect the Asiair software may be better if not easier than the Synscan software. The only issues would be simply rotating the scopes in the rings when using my manual AZ5 mount and rotating the eyepiece after slewing in visual when in EQ  mode.

8 minutes ago, beamer3.6m said:

Can you not do lunar etc in eq mode...

You usually would if you were say using an heq5 so why not the gti... just thinking of saving the time changing modes???

I could do lunar and planetary in EQ mode but my chief concern is one of overloading the Az GTi in EQ mode. My preferred scope would be a Maksutov 127, by itself it weighs 4.4kg and then I would have to add a camera and imaging train and I feel this is too close to the EQ limit while in AZ mode it would be fine. Also in EQ mode I would have to go through the whole process of polar alignment and plate solving while in AZ mode I can simply use "point and Track". My concern is also using the mount in EQ mode for visual, I can't seem to find much about that use on the web.

I'm wondering if anybody uses their Az GTi both in EQ mode for DSO imaging and also in AZ mode for lunar and planetary imaging/visual observing.

I'm interested in EAA now that winter is here and I can have some visual fun sitting in the warmth of my home (energy costs permitting😄). Using the Az GTi with my Asiair for this purpose would a great experiment and would save the hassle of dragging out my EQ5, setting it up and then tearing down, I can simply move the Az GTi back into the kitchen.

For lunar/planetary imaging and quick visual it would simply mean removing the wedge and remounting the Az GTi  in AZ mode, selecting AZ in Synscan app and mounting my scope on the right side. For the imaging it would mean using Sharpcap with an attached laptop and for the quick visual using Synscan and probably SkySafari. I did try right side mounting with dual mode firmware some time ago but was unsuccessful, maybe better luck this time.