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NEW Sky-Watcher AZ-GTi Wi-Fi Alt-Azimuth mount


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  • 2 weeks later...

I have one of these and I find it really easy to to set up and use. I intend to use it as my travel scope. I have put it on a carbon fibre mount and use a "Chinese" 90mm Refractor , at F5. The weight of my whole kit, canon 1100D, scope, mount & tripod is 6.1 Kg. I will put the mount and tripod in my checked bag(3.4k) and carry-on the scope and camera( 2.7). That plus a Dell XPS(1.2kg) should keep me busy.   Took a decent photo of M42 using 25 sec exposures  as explained on "No EQ challenge thread". The SynScan app is really easy to use and there are two versions, ordinary & Pro. The pro version has an option under "Advanced" for "Polar Alignment" but its grayed out. The help message says that is to "Polar Align an equatorial mount based on 2-star or 3-star alignment" As this application is designed for multiple mounts I assume it recognizes the AZ-GTi and decides it cannot be EQ aligned. But it could be, if it was on a wedge. Anyone know a way round this? It should be easy to make a simple wedge for such a light set-up.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 21/12/2017 at 17:53, maxchess said:

I have one of these and I find it really easy to to set up and use. I intend to use it as my travel scope. I have put it on a carbon fibre mount and use a "Chinese" 90mm Refractor , at F5. The weight of my whole kit, canon 1100D, scope, mount & tripod is 6.1 Kg. I will put the mount and tripod in my checked bag(3.4k) and carry-on the scope and camera( 2.7). That plus a Dell XPS(1.2kg) should keep me busy.   Took a decent photo of M42 using 25 sec exposures  as explained on "No EQ challenge thread". The SynScan app is really easy to use and there are two versions, ordinary & Pro. The pro version has an option under "Advanced" for "Polar Alignment" but its grayed out. The help message says that is to "Polar Align an equatorial mount based on 2-star or 3-star alignment" As this application is designed for multiple mounts I assume it recognizes the AZ-GTi and decides it cannot be EQ aligned. But it could be, if it was on a wedge. Anyone know a way round this? It should be easy to make a simple wedge for such a light set-up.

Hi, would like to know that to, i'm looking to get in to some basic astrophotography and got the AZ GTI...

What about the Skywatcher Star Adventurer Equatorial Wedge ?

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19 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

Take a look at the No "EQ" DSO Challenge thread. You do not need a wedge to have a go at astrophotography if you already own the azgti.

Hi, yes, i know i can already have o go at it, but from what i read i can only take about 20-30 sec exposure shots.

Also there wil be a rotation in the image.

So what i was wondering is a wedge going to counter for that field rotation, or am i seeing it to simple  ?

 

thanks

Edited by Miguel1983
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The big advantage of the AZ-GTI is the speed at which you can set it up and start imaging or observing using the Smart Phone app. 20-30 sec images should be enough for the the sort of scope you can put on this thing. The book "Astrophotography on the Go"   explains how large numbers of short 20-30 sec exposures with Darks etc can give really good results. DSS will stack them and then you can remove rotation artifacts in Star Tools.  Hopefully there will be wedge support for the GTi in the future, but longer exposures will require a much sturdier mount. I have an EQ5- Pro for that. The GTI + 90mm F500 scope is my holiday gear, plus you can easily mount a DLSR for wider views.

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I'm quite new to all this, but i'm for sure bitten by the starbug :icon_biggrin: , so the Skymax AZ GTI 127 is my second (already have a 10" dob) scope and was bought with grab and go in mind and for taking the first steps into astrophotography.

Maybe i bought it to quickly since i've just now been looking more in to detail what gear provides the best photo's, however, i'm not planning on spending tons of money, so i guess the AZ GTI is just a fine compromise.

Can somebody point me to a comprehensive explanation video or thread on what a wedge actualy can or can't ad to an AltAz mount ?

I've been searching, yet still to find a good review/demonstration.

Also the "NO EQ DSO thread" mentioned before by happy-cat, i can't seem to find it. ***EDIT : Found it :hello2:***

Edited by Miguel1983
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1 hour ago, Miguel1983 said:

Can somebody point me to a comprehensive explanation video or thread on what a wedge actualy can or can't ad to an AltAz mount ?

Its very simple, a Alt-Az mount is oriented to the ground. It tracks an object rotating in the sky by moving along 2 axis Horizontal and Vertical, ie along a bit, up a bit so this is an approximation to the movement in the sky. In addition it means that the rest of the sky appears to rotate around your object of interest, so each image you take is rotated a bit. Stacking software like DSS (Deep Sky Stacker) will use stars to align and stack images, but will still leave some "rotation artifacts" towards the edge of your image.  If however you can tilt the axis of your telescope mount so it is pointing north,  the sky and objects will appear to rotate around that axis.  The mount can then rotate along the other axis at a known rate (Sidereal) and track your object much better without rotational errors. The classic mount for doing this is an EQ or equatorial mount. However if you put an Alt-az mount on a wedge at the correct angle, pointing at the northern pole,  it has the same effect. The problem is that the software in your mount needs to know that it is now equatorial. The GTi software currently does not support this, nor does it have a built in device for polar alignment (Pointing the axis north). In theory you could cheat by telling it ,it is at the North Pole, but that would mess up the GoTo.

The Skywatcher Star Adventurer does support Polar alignment, but I don't think it has GoTo, which is why it is promoted mainly as a DLSR mount. You can find most objects through the viewfinder of a wide-ish angle lens.
 

Edited by maxchess
forgot a point
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Thanks for explaining !

The synscan Pro app has an extra tab "advanced" witch holds following sub-tabs "Polar Scope"/"Polar Alignment"/"Auto Home"/"PEC"/"Camera Control" and "EQ mount".

Off course its possible this "Pro" app is ment for other Skywatcher mounts, but it does connect with the AZ GTI.

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You are right it does, but the polar alignment feature is "Greyed Out" 

A final point, you have bought the Mak 127 version, this has  a focal length of 1500mm  and is f/11.8.  This good for planets which are tiny and bright. Unfortunately it is not so good for DSOs. You need something with a wider field that will be faster, F/5 ish which will let in around 6 times more light.   Ideally on a mount like the GTi you want something like an 80-90mm refractor with a 400-500mm focal length at f/5. e.g at the low end the Skywatcher ST80. I have an  90mm F500 Refractor at F5 that I bought on Ebay for £188 that seems to work well.

Have a look at the Astronomy Field of View calculator on this site to get an idea

 

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I'm very tempted. I've got a Berlebach Uni 18 tripod with a mount head for both an HEQ5 and HEQ6, so maybe one of them will fit? Either way, I'm trying to decide whether to stick with me Skywatcher 80ED, which I think would be a pretty good match, increase the aperture to a Skywatcher 100ED, or go a little nut and buy a FC100D (I've had one before and loved it....but the price!)

It's rarely clear here, but when it is, sitting by Buttermere or Ullswater doing a bit of star gazing is a lovely thing. This would be great. 

Something to mull over. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Does this mount also do basic panning between user added positions for terrestrial photography and time lapse, in a similar way to the SW Merlin Multi Function Mount?

Edited by Barry
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21 minutes ago, Barry said:

Does this mount also do basic panning between user added positions for terrestrial photography and time lapse, in a similar way to the SW Merlin Multi Function Mount?

I too am interested in its use for normal photography, the number of DSLR mounts that can be WiFi controlled can be counted on one finger...

Alan

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7 hours ago, Alien 13 said:

I too am interested in its use for normal photography, the number of DSLR mounts that can be WiFi controlled can be counted on one finger...

Alan

Hi,

check out Wolfie6020 on YouTube, he's also on this forum, and he also got the AZ GTI and i think he primarily uses it for mounting his camera.

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13 hours ago, Barry said:

Does this mount also do basic panning between user added positions for terrestrial photography and time lapse, in a similar way to the SW Merlin Multi Function Mount?

There might be an app for that.

My virtuoso mount can be used with the app on Android so perhaps this mount can too.

app here

Ah I have a bluetooth dongle in my virtuoso mount, I wonder if the app works with wifi I guess it may not.

Edited by happy-kat
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15 hours ago, Alien 13 said:

I too am interested in its use for normal photography, the number of DSLR mounts that can be WiFi controlled can be counted on one finger...

Alan

IMHO and experience, not true in that 95% of mounts that can be IP/UDP wired controlled can be controlled via WiFi - e.g. Old SW AZ Goto mounts can easily be controlled via WiFi.  E.G using Sky Watcher Wifi Adapter(£70) or build yours own.  but there are caveats !

You can then use Planetarium software to point the device/Dslr (although horizon limitation problems come into play)

 if you are into Python programming you can supply AZ/Alt or RA/Dec positions(depends on the mount type) via Ascom (assuming your Mount can be controlled by Ascom) mount driver to point your mount

You can even convert a lot of none WiFi Dslr's to Wifi devices using an RPI Zero W , VirtualHere and either Windows ,Linux or OSX PC's/Tablets - but yes the download to he PC is slower but acceptable. Then use something like APT/ByEos to control the DSLR - so about £70 including APT/RPI Zero/VirtualHere 

So there are ways and not at a great expense - especially if you already have some older kit - else buy the AZ-GTI which is a nicely priced item ( I dont work for Sky Watcher , FLO etc ) that could be "adapted" for normal photography - but watch he horizon limits.

So not as bad as you "one finger" in IMO

Now if it could follow a laser pointer that would be cool!!!!

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3 hours ago, stash_old said:

IMHO and experience, not true in that 95% of mounts that can be IP/UDP wired controlled can be controlled via WiFi - e.g. Old SW AZ Goto mounts can easily be controlled via WiFi.  E.G using Sky Watcher Wifi Adapter(£70) or build yours own.  but there are caveats !

You can then use Planetarium software to point the device/Dslr (although horizon limitation problems come into play)

 if you are into Python programming you can supply AZ/Alt or RA/Dec positions(depends on the mount type) via Ascom (assuming your Mount can be controlled by Ascom) mount driver to point your mount

You can even convert a lot of none WiFi Dslr's to Wifi devices using an RPI Zero W , VirtualHere and either Windows ,Linux or OSX PC's/Tablets - but yes the download to he PC is slower but acceptable. Then use something like APT/ByEos to control the DSLR - so about £70 including APT/RPI Zero/VirtualHere 

So there are ways and not at a great expense - especially if you already have some older kit - else buy the AZ-GTI which is a nicely priced item ( I dont work for Sky Watcher , FLO etc ) that could be "adapted" for normal photography - but watch he horizon limits.

So not as bad as you "one finger" in IMO

Now if it could follow a laser pointer that would be cool!!!!

Thanks, I was thinking more off the shelf and app controlled, the only one I know about is the Cam Ranger at about £500 although there might be some pro devices about costing four figures.

Alan

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  • 1 month later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Hi all 

 

i have the AZ-GTi mount , got it last week , used it once , and now has lost the wifi connection, iPhone Android and windows will not connect. has any one else experienced this issue and if so how did you get the unit back up and running 

 

cheers 

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3 hours ago, zimby001 said:

Hi all 

 

i have the AZ-GTi mount , got it last week , used it once , and now has lost the wifi connection, iPhone Android and windows will not connect. has any one else experienced this issue and if so how did you get the unit back up and running 

 

cheers 

Can you still see the Wi-fi network produced by the mount ie is it still listed when you looked at which networks are available?

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2 hours ago, Stu said:

Can you still see the Wi-fi network produced by the mount ie is it still listed when you looked at which networks are available?

hi no it does not see it at all on the iPhone or android , the windows pc sees it but i get can not connect to this network 

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