ASIair Advice Please

[David Hardie]

Hi all. I plan to try out the ASIair on my AVX or Skywatcher mount with Esprit 100 scope. In time it will hopefully be to do some imaging. But before that can the unit be used with a tablet / Sky Safari as a goto tool?

I imagine the scope would need to be at least roughly polar aligned first.

So can I use the Wi-Fi from the tablet to ASIair to slew to targets selected on the app?

I thought it would be a good introduction before I add my imaging and guide cameras.

Thanks. David

[Grierson]

The unit can be used in a number of ways and yes it can be used with an Android tablet/SkySafari combo and iOS tablets although I believe that currently two iOS devices are required if you wish to use SkySafari. The mount handset stays connected but you can slew the mount from the tablet.  I don’t use SkySafari and rely on the units comprehensive inbuilt list of targets. I do away with the handset as it is possible to run the setup in EQmod mode with the appropriate interface cable. 

I understand that the next version of the firmware for the unit will include polar alignment and it is suggested that this will be similar to the Sharpcap approach. This update is due any time now. In the meantime you do need to polar align as you presumably do at the moment. There is a good forum on the ASIAIR and a guy named Tom Connolly has produced a video on the use of the unit. (Google is your friend) - John