New ZWO ASIStudio

[RodAstro]

I like this software it has got me into EAA.

I bought a ZWO ASI174MM for solar imaging with the quark and downloaded drivers and software, I didn't take any notice of it for a few weeks, then one night I thought I would have a look at it. Love it, I can sit in my conservatory whilst my big scopes takes hours of subs for later and use the 174 as an eyepiece on my little ST102 and just go to one object after another looking at an image I could never see through the eyepiece. Brilliant and easy to use.

[2STAR]

On 15/06/2020 at 00:02, Merlin66 said:

I'm not sure this is correct.

All pre CC versions of Photoshop are no longer available. There are no legitimate free versions.

 

Still available PSCS2

[bomberbaz]

On 18/06/2020 at 18:13, RodAstro said:

I like this software it has got me into EAA.

I bought a ZWO ASI174MM for solar imaging with the quark and downloaded drivers and software, I didn't take any notice of it for a few weeks, then one night I thought I would have a look at it. Love it, I can sit in my conservatory whilst my big scopes takes hours of subs for later and use the 174 as an eyepiece on my little ST102 and just go to one object after another looking at an image I could never see through the eyepiece. Brilliant and easy to use.

Hiya Rod, Been following this thread with interest.

how do you manage that given the approx three meters length max on a USB3, do you use a repeater cable. 

[RodAstro]

Hi Steve

I have been trying a repeater cable but it is a bit dodgy it keeps losing connection and upsets the USB ports so need to do a computer reboot.

Sometimes it works all night others it just randomly stops. I have ordered a externally powered hub to go at the telescope end because I have a feeling it may just be a power problem to the camera from a laptop on such a long cable and some power is being used for the repeater. That way the hub will power the camera and the repeater will take care of the signal, fingers crossed.

I also run my QHY5ll C camera on the 50mm finder with a focal reducer for a wide field view if the goto is not dead on target and I can autoguide if I want to do a long exposure. The QHY also does polar alignment in SharpCap as well. SharpCap seems better at stacking but is a little complicated and needs more stars than the ZWO live stak program.

I will update you when the hub arrives.

Cheers Rod

   

[bomberbaz]

cheers for that Rob, some interesting ideas there, notably the idea of running a spotter with your rig. 

I have got a 5M repeater cable and although I haven't actually tried it fully live, I have run it a couple of times in daytime but without the stars i can't do stacking.  It was run from a PC which is recently upgraded and pretty high end so don't think there would be any buffering issues there.

What mount are you using incidentally if you don't mind me asking?

cheers agin, Steve

 

[RodAstro]

Hi Steve

Yep the stacking software cannot run in the daytime as it needs several good star images to align. This can also be a problem at night if you don't capture enough stars. I have tried it on my 10" f6.3 and only get success on globulars because the field is to small to capture enough stars.

I use it with a Skywatcher ST102 and it works fine.

I am using a Celestron Advanced GT for the mount.

I am still waiting for the hub to arrive.

Cheers Rod 

[RodAstro]

Hi Steve

The four port externally powered USB3 hub arrived today. So far just plugging in the ZWO ASI174mm USB3 camera works fine and does not seem to drop out. I have the ZWO connected to the hub via its original 3m cable then the hub connected to a 6m repeater cable to the laptop. The hub has four power switches one for each port and the camera only becomes active when the power is on so the laptop power is disconnected from the ZWO. The hub has a 2amp power supply so plenty for the ZWO on its own 3m lead. The data transfer is uninterrupted so the repeater cable takes care of that.

One thing that does not work is having two cameras connected to the USB3 repeater, when I plug in my QHY5ll guide/wide field camera with the ZWO, the laptop and PHD recognises it is there but no data gets through so no image from the QHY.

But the QHY5II runs fine on its own USB2 port through a seperate repeater cable while the ZWO runs on the USB3 port , I just thought it would save having another cable to deal with if I could have run both on the USB3 input.

I hope that makes sense, I will confirm this fully once I get a chance to use it outside but it looks promising.

Cheers Rod 

[bomberbaz]

You Had a chance yet Rod. I doubt it tbh given the awful weather.

[RodAstro]

Hi

Not a chance yet it takes so long to set everything up and get aligned the clouds roll in.

It's just so much easier to open the observatory and switch on and away we go. It does make me realise why I built the observatory though, so that's a positive.

Cheers Rod 

[cplee42]

Bit of a newbie question on this ASIStudio and related. I simply want my 8" SCT to offer an evoscope like functionality ,so that I can augment visual observing from my site. I would like to use a mono zwo camera and "throw" the image to my iPad while it builds up some live stacking so that I can see the faint fuzzies a little clearer. I do not plan to then process the image offline. It's a visual tool. I understand ZWOStudio will allow that to happen and ZWOAir will control the scope but I cannot see Polaris from my garden. Currently I use StarSense and that is usually good enough for a night's observing. 

So, can I use StarSense to set up the scope then switch in ZWO camera into an eyepiece mode with link to ZWOAIR and use Studio to connect all this together for the "evoScope"-like imaging session?

Sorry for the dumb misunderstanding this question might reveal!!

[Deflavio]

On 29/09/2020 at 20:32, cplee42 said:

Bit of a newbie question on this ASIStudio and related. I simply want my 8" SCT to offer an evoscope like functionality ,so that I can augment visual observing from my site. I would like to use a mono zwo camera and "throw" the image to my iPad while it builds up some live stacking so that I can see the faint fuzzies a little clearer. I do not plan to then process the image offline. It's a visual tool. I understand ZWOStudio will allow that to happen and ZWOAir will control the scope but I cannot see Polaris from my garden. Currently I use StarSense and that is usually good enough for a night's observing. 

So, can I use StarSense to set up the scope then switch in ZWO camera into an eyepiece mode with link to ZWOAIR and use Studio to connect all this together for the "evoScope"-like imaging session?

Sorry for the dumb misunderstanding this question might reveal!!

I have not used myself ASIair but looking at few videos on youtube it seems that all you need to get your "evoscope" functionalities is just install the ASIair, connect mount and camera(s) and install the app on your ipad. Looking at screenshots the equivalent of ASIstudio is somehow already built inside ASIair and the app so no need to install on any computer.

That's in theory, but in practice I would make sure that your mount is working fine with ASIAIR and that you wifi signal is good enough!  Also you may want to consider a ZWO focuser for this to be completely automatic.

Regarding StarSense, I guess you might be able to align first with Starsense and then sync the AsiAir but you want to check that is possible. You can ask someone here using ASiair if I can sync to existing had-controller status or maybe ask directly ZWO about StarSense...

F