LaurenceT

Field flattener arrives tomorrow and Astrokraken bracket next week.

14 minutes ago, OK Apricot said:

So last night was slightly better - a couple objects were actually in the eyepiece but still somewhat hit and miss. Must be on the right track 🤔 I think it's about as good as its going to get without using an illuminated reticle eyepiece for more accuracy? When manually centring I'm using slew speed 5 - I could probably slow that down to be more accurate and make sure the up/right movements are actually taking up the backlash? I'm not sure how much more level I can get it according to the bubble level - there's a lot of room for error. 

I don't think you can get more levelling accuracy than using a bubble level, some seem to think that the mount is reasonably forgiving in terms of level accuracy.

You could always buy an electronic leveller but I suspect that there would be little discernable difference.

18 minutes ago, AstroPhil said:

A few weeks ago I took delivery of one of these nifty little mounts for travel (pending trip to Chile coming up in late March!), and to go on top of my fotomate tripod. And on Wednesday also received an Askar FAM230 scope/lens as well. Despite the "may contain clouds'" warning sticker from FLO last night they both had a trial run via a few choice objects (Pliades, Behive, Pinwheel galaxy). I have to say I'm impressed. Took me a day of tinkering Satuday to get it all together (as I wanted to use a spare Rasperry Pi running KStars/INDI) but got there ins the end.

The only query I have so far (albeit with only 1 night of practice!) is around the driver and guiding: there's the usual Eqmod mount driver in INDI, but also what I assumed was the correct Gti driver - but this didn't seem to work so I reverted to the Eqmod one which did work. Hopefully that's right (anyone who images with this rig maybe you have pearls of wisdom here?). The guiding accuracy seemed rather hit and miss (5-20"+) but then again I expect I am testing the capacity of the mount here (CCD, filterwheel, counterweight) plus any innacuracies in my quick/rough polar align. I wonder if there are any tricks other users have found for getting decent guiding performance in terms of mount settings etc.? (caveat - it was a raher exposed/windy roof location so I was not expecting miracles for a first time run!).

Anyway, overall very pleased with the setup very portable, decent price. Just need some more practice now. Clear skies all.

Phil

I use the EQMOD mount driver option and it works fine in Ekos

27 minutes ago, 900SL said:

It won't work with a vixen clamp, unfortunately. 

Would this work? :

Altair 150mm Dual Vixen Arca Plate (harrisontelescopes.co.uk)

I've only just got the 533 so I practiced focussing my Samyang 135mm with it using "live view" in Sharpcap with a Bahtinov. I think I'll do that to get focus first before firing up Ekos. I intend getting the AsiAir anyway as I a bit fed up with Ekos.

Thank you so much for taking the trouble to post those clear images. My only concern now would be mounting the nodal rail on my Az GTi mount with a vixen style clamp.

On 22/02/2022 at 07:36, 900SL said:

Amazing images Padre. 

I'm pretty much ready to roll with my OSC set up now, hoping to get out in the desert soon and some bortle 2 skies 🤩

If the wind holds off I'll give it a test run this weekend in bortle 7 Khobar using a duoband NBZ filter.

What exposure would you OSC guys recommend for the Rosette? I have a new 533MC courtesy of FLO and will be using 110 gain and ASI Air Pro, the NBZ cuts a lot of light.. 3-4 minutes?

 

I like the way you have set things up, how are you connecting the guide scope to the scope?

1 hour ago, JBadger said:

I've started using a Svbony illuminated crosshair eyepiece for my initial alignments. It is surprising how far off you can be doing it by eye. This makes it easier to align the finder accurately too. 

I agree, I've started using an illuminated crosshair eyepiece and I'm amazed at the accuracy compared with just eyeballing the star. 

11 minutes ago, OK Apricot said:

Another thought - is my scope on "the right way"? 

Looks fine from your photo

If you're using a phone or tablet your coordinates should be automatically found. What alignment methods have you tried?

18 minutes ago, OK Apricot said:

Ooo look what came today 😁

Splendid, I have one and it's superb value for money, you will enjoy it I'm sure. You may want to consider upgrading the clamp, it's saved me from a few heart attacks.

Oh, and welcome to the world of Maksutov focus wobble.....😀

I've been looking at this thread with interest as I'm thinking of getting this astrograph. Reading the posts and looking at images of setups I'm still not quite clear how to mount it on an EQ mount and attach a guide scope/camera for guiding.

I'd be grateful for some pointers.

1 hour ago, Stu1smartcookie said:

I think the counterweight " z bracket " (see photo 2) for the want of a better term helps , especially as the scope sits directly above the mount , when the scope points to the zenith , as long as the balance is correct it performs admirably . Also a strong tripod makes a lot of difference and , to be honest i probably could get away without the extension tube to make the whole mount even more solid . 

Sorry, I misunderstood, I was talking about 130PDS photography in EQ mode. At just over 4Kg it's fine for observing or even lunar/planetary photography in Alt Az mode.

1 hour ago, Stu1smartcookie said:

reckon it will work ok in EQ mode too , Lee ...when i get round to updating the firmware lol

I'd like to try that too but when adding a camera and in my case a Telrad I'd be at or over the load limit for the mount but heyho🤣

I thought only the 130PDS was suitable for astrophotography but according to Harrisons the 130M is suitable.

SkyWatcher Explorer 130M Telescope (harrisontelescopes.co.uk)

I'm using an AZ GTI in AZ mode with a planetary camera for lunar/planetary and it seems ok.

This does appear to be the cooling solution described by Martin Pyott on YouTube.

@maro21, thanks  for posting your work.

1 hour ago, maro21 said:

I use 12v 17ah agm.

Thanks, do you screw the peltier to the camera back or use thermal epoxy or similar?

Very interesting modification, how do you power the fan and peltier?

11 hours ago, david_taurus83 said:

Didn't notice it really at the eyepiece and tried a bit of lunar photography with a spare guide camera and it was pretty stable. It is off centre of balance as when the tube is over 2 legs it doesn't take much effort to push it up off the opposite single leg but it's not on the edge of balance where a slight breeze will push it over. I will be putting a weight on the tripod though to lower that COG for safety.

Edit: Again pointing out that this is a Heritage 150 so half the weight of a normal 150P.

7 hours ago, Ed the Fox said:

I put a 130m on my gti and that is pushing it.....

I was getting excited about changing my 130pds for a 150pds to put on my Az GTI until you pointed out yours is a Heritage.......................................🤣

@david_taurus83

what scope is that?

A very well constructed approach @RayWUK, I don't use the Asiair system, I use Stellarmate instead but I've kept that out of the equation thus far because it may add an extra layer of Stellarmate flakiness. I'll have a play around with it using your approach.......what could possibly wrong?🤣

Is this the field flattener you are thinking of getting?

Sky-Watcher .85x Reducer/Flattener for ED80 | First Light Optics

If it is this comment on the OVL field flattener on the FLO page for the OVL FF may help:

"£100 less than the "optically matched" reducer/flattener from SW which is not even optically matched, just frankenstiened from the the ED80's reducer/flattener."

I'm unclear why a phone and a tablet are needed for this, on my Ipad Pro I connect the Ipad to the Az Gti hotspot, open Synscan Pro and  connect the Ipad to the mount. I then open SkySafari, click "connect " and then I can control the mount.

What I'm not clear about is whether the mount is actually pointing exactly at the new location it has slewed to or where the SkySafari app thinks it should be. I'm also confused with the park/home/hibernate settings of the mount when it's being controlled by SkySafari.

8 hours ago, RayWUK said:

Has anyone had any success connecting their AZ-GTI to SkySafari ? If so what settings in SkySafari did you use.

I Have SkySafari Pro6.

I had success in selecting "Skywatcher SynscanLink"  as the Scope Type and Equatorial GoTo (German) as the  Mount  Type. Looking at the app I can't determine the port I selected.

37 minutes ago, DusknightbyFatma said:

Hello 

Could you please let us know if it has worked out with you? 
 

I have been using Stellarmate for one year now and lately been encountering a few problems. So I’m about to switch to NINA. 
I own Az gti Eq mod, QHY and WS61 

Thank you. 

I'm just starting out configuring Stellarmate so I'd be interested to know what problems you've been encountering.

The man reason I've chosen the Stellarmate over the Asiair is that the latter does not support my Sony camera and of course the Stellarmate is cheaper when used with the Raspberry pi.