LaurenceT

On 23/03/2022 at 19:15, bomberbaz said:

I reckon one of these would do quite easily having looked at mine. The grooves in the bottom should take the bolts quite well 

StellaLyra 335mm Universal Vixen-Style Dovetail Bar | First Light Optics

It arrived today and it's a perfect fit, long enough to get balance on my mount and also room to add my Asiair Pro and TP-Link mini router 👍 Thanks again for the suggestion. I now have to spend another £40 odd to get the ZWO clamp😅.

14 hours ago, SuburbanMak said:

Tried the AZGTi in a new configuration last night on a Manfrotto 55 with an ST80.  I was going for a lighter weight bike back packable set up and this worked perfectly. 
Very stable and with the ST80’s wide field the GoTo dropped every target in the eyepiece.  Another application for this super mount. 

Funnily enough I've also had the mount on my 055CXPro3 tripod using an ST80 and like you say was able to centre stars easily. I did find there was a fair bit of wobble so I added a 4Kg kettlebell weight to the rig and it was better but took away the lightweight portability.

26 minutes ago, AstroNebulee said:

Thank you Laurence 👍, I'm quite happy with it, may reprocess it though. Don't think anymore integration time on it will improve it now. I particularly like the little companion galaxy NGC 5474 to the bottom right is very cool. 

Did you only take lights or some calibration frames?

3 minutes ago, AstroNebulee said:

I will put this in the deep sky imaging section but wanted to post here to show you guys first. My efforts on M101 this week, 4 hours worth, processed in Startools with a small tweak in photoshop for high pass. 

80x180 sec subs 

Even the transparency didn't ruin it too much 👍

That's superb Lee.

13 minutes ago, AstroNebulee said:

Good point Laurence. One I thought of a few posts ago with the alignment issues on here. Most phone apps point to magnetic North and not geographical north, unless some have a setting to change it. Cheers 

Lee 

The app I use that compensates for magnetic declination is provided by PixelProse if anyone is interested..

On the  subject of alignment I wonder how many people are compensating for the difference between magnetic North and geographical North.

Last night when experimenting with SkySafari using the AZ GTI I found that my compass app allowed me to compensate for magnetic declination and my gotos were significantly improved.

Just now, AstroNebulee said:

Thank you Laurence, shame they didn't go up in order but hey, hopefully they give some ideas. I'm not saying mine are correct, just what works for me and I do tweak the aggression settings or the gain on guidecam sometimes but not by much. I'd say the transparency tonight is worse than last night but will still try to get get more data on M101. 

The transparency here near London is killing everything I want to do and has been for the last few nights.

Very comprehensive presentation of your settings Lee.

38 minutes ago, Tiny Clanger said:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Neewer®-Photographic-SandBag-Manfrotto-Universal/dp/B01E5350TI/ref=sr_1_11?crid=1FWXP7WZL9TG2&keywords=tripod+stone+bag&qid=1648074223&s=electronics&sprefix=tripod+stone+bag%2Celectronics%2C316&sr=1-11

A couple of tough triangular hammocks for £13, very handy for holding caps and oddments.

That's what I use but I put a 4Kg kettle bell in it to stabilise the tripod.

Thanks, I'll investigate that.

Some lovely rigs here.

If I could find a way to attach a long dovetail plate to the underneath of the Astrokraken bracket that would give me more leeway to connect more devices such as Asiair and get better balance.

I'm interested how people using the Evoguide 50ED as the main imaging scope are balancing their rig. Are you balancing using the RA axis or dec axis or both....(you can tell I'm still finding my way around this mount in EQ mode, my nomenclature may be way out!)

I'm pretty certain that @bomberbaz and @TerraC are using this 50ED. The problem for me is that I'm using the Astrokraken bracket system which is great but the dovetail bar is too short for adjustment to get good balance.

Thanks, that makes sense.

4 minutes ago, Zermelo said:

I'm not sure I understand the question.
The default Sky Safari behaviour will be to track any object you GOTO.  Rate will be siderial, lunar or solar according to the target.

So do I need to go through the alignment process in the Synscan app first?

Firstly I don't even know if this is possible!

I can control my AZ GTI with SkySafari 6 plus but I seem to have hit a brick wall in my research about the possibility of tracking.

According to what I have read the process seems to be:

Align the mount using the Synscan app, open SkySafari and align using SkySafari to the last star in the Synscan alignment process just used.  Then select a target and GOTO, the mount will then track.

Have I got this right or am I barking up the wrong tree?

The mount is in AZ mode.

1 hour ago, SuburbanMak said:

I keep mine permanently locked and have added a PB70 panning puck under the whole mount. The Az clutch is the one piece of the setup that felt a bit flimsy, like the thread might strip with excessive use. 

If I want to slew manually I use the PB70 for Az movement and it turns the whole thing into a nice manual mount.  The only downside is that when used this way the dual encoders won’t get data, so it rules out hybrid manual/GoTo sessions - not an issue for me as I tend to use it manually only for shorter looks, if I’m out for a while I’ll align and drive the scope off the app. 
 

https://www.feisol.net/heads/panning-base/feisol-panning-base-pb-70.html

Seconded, the Feisol is a well made product generally, unfortunately that model appears to be unavailable in the UK at the moment. I was fortunate enough to have a Novoflex panoramic head left over from my landscape photography days. Many of the really cheap ones are not worth having. There is a Novoflex version like mine available on Ebay right now:

Novoflex panoramic tripod head | eBay

There is a newer version but it's much more expensive. My old version works very smoothly, maybe something to do with the German engineering. Using the panoramic head as described here is an excellent way to avoid messing with the clutch or tripod particularly when pointing north.

1 hour ago, Adam J said:

Completely inaccurate lol, mounted mine fine. 

Which bit is inaccurate?

47 minutes ago, Adam J said:

 

Very nice

20 minutes ago, Adam J said:

Completely inaccurate lol, mounted mine fine. 

How did you mount yours?.........lol

I was recently faced with the same dilemma moving on from a mirrorless modified camera. I found a used ASI533mc Pro at a very good price of £650. I've not seen anything lower anywhere.

12 minutes ago, Ed the Fox said:

Just a thought..

What percentage of people here use the mount purely for visual rather than AP?

I have 2, one in Alt Az mode just for grab and go viewing with lunar and planetary AP and one permanently set up for deep sky AP (when I eventually get round to it!)

Thought I'd do a little lunar photography with my 130pds and Altair planetary camera but walked outside to see it tangled up in the neighbours trees (the moon  I mean 😀).

Turned my back to the moon to find the Pleides and discovered what people mean by the full moon washing out the sky!

Luckily I'd earlier seen M42 with the Startravel 102t that arrived today, lovely sight and as an utter newbie I'm pleased with the optics.

Now watching Ben Fogle in Chernobyl with a glass of Scotlands finest.

The Samyang 135mm is an absolute joy.

8 hours ago, Ratlet said:

Hi,

I was wanting to get my logic checked for my plan for starting out with astrophotography.

I want to see if doing the hobby is as fun as watching you lot make it appear.  

My thinking is that I get an az GTi in equatorial mode, canon DSLR, and some vintage lenses (135mm and 200mm takumar) and go for it.  Oh and a powerpack and intervalometer and mounting bracket and...

There almost seems to be no end of pretty things that look good in those focal lengths.

Seems like there is a lot to learn and by minimising the equipment and focal length I'll make life a bit easier on myself.  I've been on astrobin and I'm quite impressed what the old lenses can do (chromatic aberration and all).

There almost seems to be no end of pretty things that look good in those focal lengths.

The gargantuan thread on the az GTi/EQ on here has me sold on it as a small scale mount.

In terms of progress this presents an organic and flexible 'upgrade path', so long as I am realistic about the capability of the mount.

Guiding would obviously benefit, but if I keep the focal lengths down I shouldn't need it initially.  Shorter subs will have to do.  Once I figure out the basics I can worry about guiding.  That then opens up other possibilities.  But that is for down the road.

The main appeal to me of this route is that it seems low risk (light weight, quick setup, minimise the amount of new things to learn in one go, minimise frustration) but also everything remains useful going forward since the az GTi is still a very portable system compared to the big mounts.

So basically:

Keep it simple and avoid buying stuff which you'll need to replace later because you didn't buy right in the first place

 

Seem reasonable?

That's an almost exact mirror of my philosophy in starting astrophotography with the AZ GTI in equatorial mode. Keep it light and simple in respect of the capabilities of the mount in particular and also ones own experience of AP at this stage and, particularly in my case, keep it as cheap as possible. I made a false start using Sony gear as I've been a long time Sony shooter generally and was heavily invested in Sony. Nothing wrong with Sony gear at all but there were limitations when it came to expanding the gear. With Canon or Nikon as a starting point you will have more capacity in terms of gear compatibility.

41 minutes ago, Elp said:

I might bin it to be honest. Using filters for mono you have to keep refocusing, hence the OAG will need constantly adjusting. Guidescope stays as it is untouched.

When I was buying my OSC camera I mentioned to the seller that I would probably sell the 135mm Samyang and get an Askar FMA180 but I'd need an OAG because I couldn't find a way to mount a guidescope. He replied that it would be "a short descent into hell" so I avoided the Askar😅. I don't know how accurate his assessment was.

On 11/03/2022 at 10:06, Adreneline said:

I use the AC750 version and it works perfectly. It too can be powered from an ASIair usb socket (it draws just 330mA so well within the USB specification).

HTH

Adrian

I actually returned the lower powered TP-Link router and have taken delivery of the AC750 that you use just to make sure of extra range, for the extra £12 odd it seemed worth it. Can I just confirm the settings I've applied to connect via the TP-Link router?

I've setup the Asiair connected through the app ( iPad PRO) and set frequency to 5Ghz and closed the app.

Connected the ethernet cable from the AAP to the router and set the router to AP/Eng Ext/Client mode

Connected the ipad to the TP-Link wifi 5Ghz network and re-opened the AAP app.

It seems to work well, I can hear the mount slewing through 3 internal walls although I can't test it's full range as my wife is away today. When she returns she will be able to help me test the full range of the router/AAP.