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Hi all This will hopefully be the new thread for all things regarding the skywatcher Az Gti mount. Please share anything you think is relevant or ask any questions regarding this stunning and very capable mount. I'm hoping that this will become the central hub for this mount and the place to come to for advice, help, information and knowledge for the Az Gti. Share your images of your mount and set up along with images captured or experiences observing with it. I've owned mine since May this year and use it with my sw 72ed ds pro, asi air pro, zwo asi294mc pro (used to use a canon 600d) in EQ mode. Even though its mot meant for astrophotography it sure can pull out some brilliant performances. I live in a 1st floor flat and portability is key for me and the goto functionality is a godsend to setup quickly. So feel free to ask anything and other az gti owners can help and advise.

Hi guys, having fallen in love with my 130pds, and seeing that I'm not the only one recently, I was thinking it would be nice if we posted our images made with a 130pds here. It gives a nice reference point as well, as to what could be achievable (with better guiding, better camera, better weather...). Well, here goes:

Can anyone tell me the size of the secondary mirror stalk for the 130PDS? Finally getting around to ordering a dew heater.

I’m working on building an auto guider using the EQ5 and mods, and the 9x50 finder. Has anyone used the Pi High Quality camera for autoguiding? It has a C-mount on the board, which would seem perfect when allied with the C/CS Astro Essentials via FLO, but how does it perform optically? Is it sensitive enough? Ta!

Hi, I'm having trouble aligning my telescope. I can polar align fine, and I set the scope up in the direction of the pole star, and I use my DSLR (live view) to calibrate the stars whilst 2 star aligning. I then pick a star in the control handset and I check the star using an app is available (I have a view of it), when it is I confirm an dthe scope moves to align that star. However, the star is hardly in shot/view and the scope is pointing in a slightly different direction than the app. (star walk 2) So I'm having all manner of difficulties aligning. Any help is much appreciated Thanks

Hello everyone. Bit of a niche request for my first post, but is anyone using the ZWO EAF focuser on the standard Crayford type 150/750 Sky-Watcher Newtonian? The focuser is stated as being compatible only with Sky-Watcher's astrophotography OTAs with their dual-speed focuser, but I can't see why that is except perhaps that ZWO assume you wouldn't do imaging with the standard tube - whereas it works fine with my Nikon D750. I'm intending to get one but seeking reassurance it will work. I've seen this video: it's on a bigger OTA by the looks of it, but the focuser looks the same as mine (in French, but very clear even if you don't speak it):

Hi everyone, I'm using for the first time PHD2 and after connecting my mount and guide camera (Star Adventurer pro + ZWO 30mm f/4 + Orion Starshoot autoguider), the calibration process fails all the time. I've watched Peter Zelinka's tutorial, but in the end, after 60 west steps, I always get the same "the star didn't move enough" message. Why does phd2 wants the star to move anyway? isn't having stars as still as possible the purpose of guiding? I must obviously be too much of a dummy to be able to use a program called Press Here Dummy

Hi Everyone, I'm in need of basic help with my equipment. I have auto-guided before and I am struggling to connect. I have a Star adventurer pro, a orion starshoot autoguider, Canon 600D and I've downloaded PHD2. I did all the connections but, when I start the program, it just doesn't see my guide camera and it doesn't seem to have the star adventurer as an option in the mounts. I am a total beginner and also absolutely useless with computers and technology in general, so please be patient with me Thanks in advance for any sort of help

Does anyone know of an online community/discussion/support forum for the Synscan app, or more generally, Skywatcher software? I'm already aware of the skywatcher.com website.

Hello. I recently acquired an Ocal electronic collimator for my new 130 PDS and the image I see when I connect it is the one I attach. I can't adjust the green circle in the circle created by the end of the focuser. Not even helping me with the offset of the program, whose maximum is 20. I don't know if anyone has tried this collimator with its 130PDS. But it doesn't seem normal. Any ideas? Thank you.

Hi Guys, So I am losing my mind with this Mount. I am having the same issues. For the life of me I can’t work it out. Here is a pic of how my scope is mounted. Would really appreciate some help as I am increasingly frustrated with this purchase. Thank you.

Winter is coming and I struggled the past days with dew on my Skywatcher 120ED. I have tried to use a self made isolation dew-cap around it, but not good enough (still dew) I have browsed trough the forum and read about dew heaters vs. Dew shield, and figured out that I probably need a dew heater. The temperature here can range from minus 5 to minus 35 degrees celcius, but I dont think I’ll be using the scope when passing minus 20. My question is, which dew heating option would handle minus 10 to minus 20 degrees celcius for my scope? I am afraid that the temperature loss will make the strips not functioning well when passing minus 10 degrees, but I might be wrong? I guess my scooe is around 45cm circumference outside the tube. I am using 220V with adapters to everything else, so power is not an issue.

3rd of July 2017 / 21h30 UTC+01:00 / Stargazing Conditions: 80% After much reading and hyping myself so much, I was pretty stunned by the early notification on my phone that yesterday night could potentially be a good evening with good seeing. So I went home after work (with my phone still showing 80% of potential seeing), sat on my desk and prepared myself. I chose to watch the Moon, since I never really observed it, Jupiter, Saturn and search for the Sombrero Galaxy! Last week I searched for a few good atlases and stumbled unto the Interstellarum Deep Sky Atlas. A promising atlas which should arrive this week, but still would let me be without a field atlas, since it is a desk edition... After cramming in the forums I mainly found three downloadable recommendations: 1) The Deep-Sky Atlas 2) Deep-Sky Hunter Atlas 3) TriAtlas I downloaded all of them and browsed through them, noticing that only the Deep-Sky Hunter Atlas exists in a field edition. I printed the normal Version on A3 paper to look if it fits the need and, hell yeah, I really like it so far!! Only downside (for me) at the moment, is that the constellations are in black lines in contrary to the Deep-Sky Atlas. So I think I'll print both of them, laminate them and take them with me on my sessions. (I will have to inverse the colors on the Deep-Sky Atlas though) To round everything up, I figured that I'll need a software too, to plan my sessions a little better and just give me the right impressions on where I will have to search in the sky. A while back I downloaded Stellarum, which seemed to be a great free app, but it simply kept crashing on my laptop... Searching for alternatives I found SkySafari 5 and Starry Night 7. Given the prices of Starry Night 7 and the fact that it isn't to be found on the AppStore, I went ahead and downloaded SkySafari 5 Pro. It is a beautifully simple app which does the job just fine and gives me the needed input to satisfy my thirst for knowledge (at least for now). At this point, I was wondering if someone knows if Starry Night 7 was up-gradable? So let's say I buy the Enthusiast Edition and wanted to up-grade to the Pro or even Pro-Plus version one day. Do I have to buy the App entirely new or does it give the opportunity to up-grade for a few bucks to the next edition? Enough rambling an off to my stargazing site! I arrived well early before sunset, which gave me the opportunity to once check again, if my finderscope was well aligned with the 'scope. It also gave me the chance to let my 'scope acclimatize the same way as last time and so I sat back and waited a little until the moon gained a little on contrast as the sun was setting. The Moon The Moon, being a waxing gibbous, shone bright in the slightly dark blue night sky with literally NO clouds in the sky. I put my 15mm BTS eyepiece in and looked at the beautiful moonscape. It is defiantly the first time I've seen the Moon so up-close and I was in awe by it. I never imagined that it could be so nice to look at all these craters and I began to wonder where they all came from. It is simply a battlefield of craters and each and everyone has its own story to tell... after a good 30 minutes of switching between the 8mm and 15mm eyepiece and lots of "ohs" and "wows", I figured I could try and photograph the Moon with my phone through the eyepiece... what seemed to be a really stupid idea at first turned out to be a really great shot (I think?)! (very little photoshop-magic to increase contrast and sharpness) Jupiter Next on that nights list was Jupiter. I remembered the image last time I looked at it and I was thrilled to already clearly identify Europa from Io through the finderscope. I managed to see Callisto, Ganymede, Europa and Io. I think that Jupiter itself was a little less contrasty as last time BUT I think I could make out the Red Spot which really made me happy! I was so thrilled by the view I even can't write down how I felt... I switched from 15mm to the 8mm eyepiece and focused in... I kept focusing and focusing and focusing but nothing happened... As I looked up in the sky I was shocked... the beautiful cloudless sky had turned into a thick carpet of Cumulus Cumulonimbus... I immediately looked at the horizon on my right to see if there was a slight possibility of clear sky but the enemy had invaded the sky... To make matters even worse at that moment, I met my locations' neighbor, which is no other company then Arcelor Mittal... The sky with the clouds lit up in a bright orange from the molten metal... At that moment I knew it was over for that night... Thanks for reading Abe

Hello there, I thought to myself that it would be great to write everything down I'm experiencing. From the very beginning, to the very end... So I chose to create this blog and use it as my small journal for personal observations, stargazing sessions, thoughts, reflections and what I recently learned. The greatest thing about this is, that it gives the opportunity to kick of many interesting discussions and I really can't wait to get started. Around the end of winter 2017 I started gazing around with a pair of binoculars I found at home. I initially got them when I was 9 years old and literally forgot about them... They were eating dust for 18 years now. After gazing around a little I bought myself some interesting books about astronomy and how to find stars and star maps. I don't know if it was my subconsciousness leading me into ticking off a point on my bucket list, but after so much hesitation if I should buy a 'scope or n... BWAAAAH I cracked and bought one. Period! Which leads us to yesterday night. After many days of reflection and information overkill, I finally went for a Skywatcher Skyliner 200P with BST 25mm, BST 15mm and BST 8mm eypieces. I ordered it last week on FLO and I couldn't be happier! It arrived divided into three packages last night and I immediately had to assemble it! Armed with my cordless screwdriver set to 11nm of tension, it took me about half an hour to assemble it and check if it was collimated right. Collimation was not perfect but it was absolutely okay for a first ride (I really should admit that I am a little anxious to collimate it and it is so near "perfect" that I'm okay with it at the moment). All in all the pictures don't give enough credit on the built quality of the 'scope. It is a simple to assemble and use first 'scope. I'm really glad that all of you pushed me in the right direction. After assembly and cleaning there were ONLY 5 damn hours left to wait until sunset... So I figured to simply develop a small evening plan in what I wanted to watch and gaze at. I simply chose to visit Saturn and Jupiter... Humble and modest for starters but hey, less is more and I really wanted to enjoy my evening out and not dish up myself with a list that a total novice couldn't handle and therefore risk to end up with a very disappointing first night. I'll write up my first experience in the next post and if you're interested, keep an open eye. I'll also use the opportunity to thank everyone involved into getting me started with my first 'scope! So let's go! Abe