LaurenceT

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.

I'll try that tomorrow, cheers

1 hour ago, Richard Wesson said:

With stellarmate, the Pi will save images to the appropriate subfolder on the SD card in the 'pictures' folder e.g. flats, lights, darks etc. I then then create folders on the flash drive which you can do in the file exporer in the Rpi when I copy over. Whilst I understand you want to have the images go directly to the flash drive, I am not sure what the advantage would be and creates another layer of potential error. 

The sd card with Stellarmate OS on is possibly not big enough to contain all the data, that's why I thought a USB drive just dedicated to data storage would be a neater solution.

Thanks for the reply, I've just found a 64Gb USB flash drive so I'll format it to Fat32 and stick it in the Pi. My only concern is creating a folder to save the images to.

I'm just getting to grips with Stellarmate OS on a Pi4, I've got to the stage where all my equipment is connected and all drivers installed, I can control the mount from my Windows laptop remotely. Rather than have the image data sent back over wifi to the Win10 machine during an imaging session I'd like to add a usb stick to the Pi but I have a couple of questions before I start and muck everything up!

My knowledge of Linux is restricted to being able to open a terminal window and type in exactly what I'm told to. I will simply connect the Pi to a mains power source and connect a monitor, keyboard and mouse for this process.

So,

1) what do I need to type into terminal to permanently mount the usb drive?

2) how do I create a directory on the usb drive to store the image files as they are created during an imaging session?

3) how will I be able to transfer these files back to my Windows machine for editing?

Sorry for all the noob questions and thanks for looking

A 130PDS for £60 is amazing! What mount did you use for this image?

Took my £60 Orion ST80 into the garden at about 23.30, lovely clear night in Surrey but you could hardly call the sky dark. Although this little scope was clearly at it's limits I easily found M42 and gazed in wonder. No colours but it's shape was clearly defined. I wish I'd started this years ago.

From what I've read here and elsewhere it seems that you get what you pay for in terms of the premium UHC filters but Astronomik have 2 UHC offerings, the UHC and the UHC-e. There is a considerable cost differential between the two, is this borne out in the observing effect?

Are these UHC and OIII filters discussed here confined to observing or can they be used for imaging too?