SW AZ GTI WiFi Alt-AZ

[Maxrayne]

Currently have the SW SA, which I adore, but at some point I'm obviously going to be in the market for an upgrade. Was looking at this and, as best as I can make out, this is basically the SA but with GoTo? I've always worked on the idea of balance being one of the key things with a mount, ie counterweights etc. Am I missing something or does this not have the ability for counterweights? And If not, how does one achieve balance?? Probably a completely nooby question but...well, y'know...

[steveex2003]

I have one of these (GTI). Balancing, if I understood you correctly, is achieved as best as possible on the horizontal axis. It is, iirc, rated at around 5kg. I have never gotten to 5kg with it. I have used it with my Skymax 127 and Equinox 80. Fully loaded both are somewhere around 3.5 - 4kg with my dia/EP etc. It seems happy enough with these loads. Of equal importance, as ever, is the tripod it lives on. I think the GTI is equally sensitive to length of OTA as it is weight loading,

[Cornelius Varley]

The Star Adventurer and SW AZ GTi are different mounts. The SA is an equatorial mount with the RA driven (no motor in the dec axis and no goto). The AZ GTi is an alt azimuth mount, both axis are driven and is goto primarily controlled through a WiFi connection. Vecause it is an alt-az mount the AZ GTi doesn't require a counterweight, just balance the telescope in the alt axis.

[Maxrayne]

Thanks guys, I knew it would be a noobish question. Was just scratching my head a bit about it. Curious as to whether or not it would deal with the ED72 and a DSLR. Should certainly be within limits and the OTA isn't that long either

[happy-kat]

The azgti with firmware upgrade (free) means the mount can work on either az or eq mode you decide in the pro version of the app each time you use it. A counter weight can be fitted as to the star adventurer wedge when wanting to use in eq mode. There is a video of this by member that's good.

[happy-kat]

I don't have one I just think they're great

 

[vlaiv]

AZ GTI looks like really interesting beginner / portable imaging setup.

As far as I'm aware - it can even be guided in both axis in EQ mode - should register as ASCOM mount with appropriate drivers, and one can use it in field with laptop for goto + guiding applications via wifi - which is also interesting.

Next step up is quite a bit more money - Eq3 goto version, but I'm not entirely sure it is any better in performance.

We still lack hard data on mount behavior - like periodic error, tracking precision, guiding RMS that can be achieved, and I suspect that like with any other SW mount - it can, and should be "tuned" for best performance (like gear meshing, grease, bearings and such).

It's interesting that it has encoders (which are used as freedom find) - but don't know if those are actually used when tracking. I've seen encoder precision of 0.625" quoted. It's got servo motors instead of steppers. I'm guessing here but I would expect tracking/guiding performance to top that of EQ3 class mount.

Cheaper, lighter, better(??? - yet to be seen) - what is not to like

 

[happy-kat]

There's a long thread on cloudy nights with I guiding info and possibly graphs too, just waiting to see info like that shared on here 

[vlaiv]

1 minute ago, happy-kat said:

There's a long thread on cloudy nights with I guiding info and possibly graphs too, just waiting to see info like that shared on here 

I've seen one thread on CN with a guide graph - but I can't really tell anything from it - guide params were completely off ?

Guide resolution is way low - RA and DEC RMS in pixels is reported at 0.04px - that is simply lower than centroid is able to calculate - (1/16 to 1/20 so uncertainty in star position is something like 0.05px, so you can't tell if star is +/-0.05 from where PHD2 measured it). Min mo is set to 0.16 for both RA and DEC - at this setting no guide commands were issued at all. At least we can conclude that mount on its own stays within +/- 4" for at least 50 seconds (to be honest not much of info   - graph shows 0.5s guide exposure and 100 samples).

[Wolfie6020]

8 hours ago, Maxrayne said:

Currently have the SW SA, which I adore, but at some point I'm obviously going to be in the market for an upgrade. Was looking at this and, as best as I can make out, this is basically the SA but with GoTo? I've always worked on the idea of balance being one of the key things with a mount, ie counterweights etc. Am I missing something or does this not have the ability for counterweights? And If not, how does one achieve balance?? Probably a completely nooby question but...well, y'know...

Hi I saw this comment and was going to post a video but someone already has linked to my video.   

Yes you can use a counterweight and I  always do, even in Alt Az mode.  It balances nicely and the tracking is smoother as a result.    

You can use it in EQ mode and I have done that,  polar aligning it with PHD2 using drift align it can be quite accurate.   Guiding works on it too in EQ mode via the SynScan app and ASCOM. 

The other benefit of using a counterweight in Alt Az is you can fit a larger bubble level to the shaft and get a much more accurate level that you can with the built in bubble level.  

This is how I do it.  Great mount and I take it everywhere.  

 

 

[vlaiv]

3 hours ago, Wolfie6020 said:

Hi I saw this comment and was going to post a video but someone already has linked to my video.   

Yes you can use a counterweight and I  always do, even in Alt Az mode.  It balances nicely and the tracking is smoother as a result.    

You can use it in EQ mode and I have done that,  polar aligning it with PHD2 using drift align it can be quite accurate.   Guiding works on it too in EQ mode via the SynScan app and ASCOM. 

The other benefit of using a counterweight in Alt Az is you can fit a larger bubble level to the shaft and get a much more accurate level that you can with the built in bubble level.  

This is how I do it.  Great mount and I take it everywhere.  

Could you please provide some stats on how well it tracks/guides?

[Maxrayne]

I'm sold!! Especially at that price point too. I'm almost wanting to sell my full SA kit to fund it...almost. Kind of attached to Miranda (I'm that sad, I named it!)  You guys rock  That video is excellent, very informative. If it's truly that easy to use via the SynScan app and, say, Sky Safari, is there even any need to involve PHD2? But I'm guessing thats the crux of the questions being asked above. Atm, with the SA, ED72 and 450D I can get 1 minute subs before trailing (yes I know, but in my defense, I ask a lot of my setup.) If the tracking/guiding on the AZ GTi is coming in at less than that, would it be worth the upgrade? But then I guess that's where PHD2 would come into play. It has the same payload capacity as the SA, which I already push, probably beyond the recommended limit (the ED72 alone is just shy of 2kg)

I'm just thinking out loud at this point now, but from my understanding, alignment is carried out via the 2 star method as opposed to polar aligning via a polar scope.

If I were to keep both the SA and AZ GTi then that's essentially two (relatively) cheap mounts, one with GoTo functionality, without thinking about up or downgrading any OTA (currently have the ED72 and ST102T), both of which would be interchangeable with either mount and the modded 450D and unmodded (for now) 700D can also go onto either OTA. I'm converting my 9x50 finder into a guidescope (already have an ASI120mm mono) to be used as a guidecam or planetary/lunar work.

Jeez, the possibilities....  

[ThomasLondon]

Wow - this is exactly what I was looking for! ?