How are ASIair and SkySafari best used together?

[Ouroboros]

After a bit of fiddling I’ve got SkySafari to connect to my mount via ASIair. That’s all well and good, but it set me wondering how best to use them together?  I suppose what I’m asking is how do I know that SkySafari and ASIair are pointing at the same bit of sky? How do I ensure they’re both synced together? 

 

[Adreneline]

Hi,

I use an ASIair and an ASIair-Pro with SkySafari on an iPad and they work really well together.

First thing to appreciate perhaps is that the ASIair does not need SkySafari at all. You can instruct the ASIair to slew the mount to a given target, say M31 or IC1396 or even an angular position in the sky, and it will slew the mount to that point, plate solve and re-sync as needed until the imaging scope is pointing exactly at the designated target. The better your setup PA the the better the first slew to target and the quicker the mount will be on target.

However, that said, using SkySafari helps you see the intended FoV for your particular equipment configuration. Providing SkySafari (on the iPad) is connected to the same network as the ASIair the two will sync together. You can select a target in SkySafari, say IC1805, and slew the mount. You can then take a test image in ASIair (using Luminance - maybe 5s) and plate solve and select 'Sync Mount'. Go back into SF and re-centre and you should be spot on target. You can double check by taking a second 5s image and plate solving and re-sync'ing the mount once more.

I rarely use the ASIair without SF - they are a marriage made in heaven for me.

I hope this makes sense. Please ask if you need more clarification or screen shots and I'll try and sort something for you.

Good luck.

Adrian

Edited September 15, 2021 by Adreneline

[Ouroboros]

@Adreneline Thanks for the interesting reply, Adrian.  I’m out today but I will respond later.  

[Ouroboros]

On 15/09/2021 at 13:07, Adreneline said:

However, that said, using SkySafari helps you see the intended FoV for your particular equipment configuration. Providing SkySafari (on the iPad) is connected to the same network as the ASIair the two will sync together. You can select a target in SkySafari, say IC1805, and slew the mount. You can then take a test image in ASIair (using Luminance - maybe 5s) and plate solve and select 'Sync Mount'. Go back into SF and re-centre and you should be spot on target. You can double check by taking a second 5s image and plate solving and re-sync'ing the mount once more.

Yes, I think that makes sense. I’ll give it a go next time I get a chance. I’ve only used my ASIair a few times so far, and successfully I should add.  I have to say I’m very impressed with it.  After a bit of fiddling I did manage to get SF to talk to the mount via the ASIair - but I didn’t  manage to sync them together in the time available - and anyway I wanted to get some imaging done.  
 
In the past I’ve used either Eqmod under Windows  or KStars on a Mac to control the mount/cameras etc. Both these have an integrated planetarium app of course. 

I wonder whether ZWO have plans to  include a planetarium app in a future upgrade of their app? 

[Adreneline]

48 minutes ago, Ouroboros said:

I wonder whether ZWO have plans to  include a planetarium app in a future upgrade of their app? 

Good question!

The ASIair has a huge database of objects and as I said above you can always input the exact position using coordinates, e.g. RA center: 20h 59' 10"
DEC center: +60° 38' 55".

I've done a few mosaics where the best pane centres did not coincide with a nice star/object on which to centre. Putting coordinates in worked really well and you can always pick those coordinates up off any planetarium program.

Good luck with the ASIair. I have two (ASIair-Pro with a RedCat+ASI1600MM-Pro+ZWO-EFW+ZWO-EAF and ASIair with Samyang 135mm+ASI183MM-Pro) and would not trade them for anything.

Adrian

[RayWUK]

On 15/09/2021 at 13:07, Adreneline said:

Hi,

I use an ASIair and an ASIair-Pro with SkySafari on an iPad and they work really well together.

First thing to appreciate perhaps is that the ASIair does not need SkySafari at all. You can instruct the ASIair to slew the mount to a given target, say M31 or IC1396 or even an angular position in the sky, and it will slew the mount to that point, plate solve and re-sync as needed until the imaging scope is pointing exactly at the designated target. The better your setup PA the the better the first slew to target and the quicker the mount will be on target.

However, that said, using SkySafari helps you see the intended FoV for your particular equipment configuration. Providing SkySafari (on the iPad) is connected to the same network as the ASIair the two will sync together. You can select a target in SkySafari, say IC1805, and slew the mount. You can then take a test image in ASIair (using Luminance - maybe 5s) and plate solve and select 'Sync Mount'. Go back into SF and re-centre and you should be spot on target. You can double check by taking a second 5s image and plate solving and re-sync'ing the mount once more.

I rarely use the ASIair without SF - they are a marriage made in heaven for me.

I hope this makes sense. Please ask if you need more clarification or screen shots and I'll try and sort something for you.

Good luck.

Adrian

Does SkySafari connect to the mount via the ASIAIR or directly to the mount? What connection method do you use in the SkySafari app? (ASCOM, INDI, Other).

RayW

[Adreneline]

33 minutes ago, RayWUK said:

Does SkySafari connect to the mount via the ASIAIR or directly to the mount? What connection method do you use in the SkySafari app? (ASCOM, INDI, Other).

RayW

Hi Ray,

Sky Safari connects to the mount via the ASIair but you have to ensure the two are on the same network.

I control my ASIair from my iPad so once the ASIair has started up I go to Wifi in my iPad Settings and choose the ASIair wifi network/hotspot - so the iPad is connected directly to the ASIair.

Once that is done I start up SkySafari and connect to the mount. You need to ensure the settings in SkySafari are set up for the mount type and I have to input 10.0.0.1 as the IP address and port 4030 for my iOptron CEM25-EC. For my SW AZ-EQ6 the IP is the same but the port is 9624.

For reasons that are way beyind me I also have to set SkySafari to use a Meade 200 Classic as the mount type and not a SW - that requirement comes from a pop-up that appears on the ASIair. The ASIair itself is set to use EQMOD Sky Safari from the available mount types. Weird or what?! Took me a few goes to get it all working.

The connection between ASIair and SkySafari has only ever failed me once and that was on the first night with my AZ-EQ6 and may well have been my fault anyway. With the iOptron it is rock solid.

The ASIair has the Search/GoTo function but sometimes I want to slew to a nearby star to check focus with a BM and then SF is a real bonus.

HTH and makes sense!

Adrian

 

[RayWUK]

On 13/02/2022 at 15:45, Adreneline said:

Hi Ray,

Sky Safari connects to the mount via the ASIair but you have to ensure the two are on the same network.

I control my ASIair from my iPad so once the ASIair has started up I go to Wifi in my iPad Settings and choose the ASIair wifi network/hotspot - so the iPad is connected directly to the ASIair.

Once that is done I start up SkySafari and connect to the mount. You need to ensure the settings in SkySafari are set up for the mount type and I have to input 10.0.0.1 as the IP address and port 4030 for my iOptron CEM25-EC. For my SW AZ-EQ6 the IP is the same but the port is 9624.

For reasons that are way beyind me I also have to set SkySafari to use a Meade 200 Classic as the mount type and not a SW - that requirement comes from a pop-up that appears on the ASIair. The ASIair itself is set to use EQMOD Sky Safari from the available mount types. Weird or what?! Took me a few goes to get it all working.

The connection between ASIair and SkySafari has only ever failed me once and that was on the first night with my AZ-EQ6 and may well have been my fault anyway. With the iOptron it is rock solid.

The ASIair has the Search/GoTo function but sometimes I want to slew to a nearby star to check focus with a BM and then SF is a real bonus.

HTH and makes sense!

Adrian

 

Hi Adrian, many thanks for that. All working now, had to use Port 9624, other searches i made all suggested 4030 as for your iOptron but that never worked for my mount. Wish manufacturers documented these things.

Ray.

[Adreneline]

4 hours ago, RayWUK said:

All working now

Excellent - good luck!

Adrian

[Ouroboros]

Glad you got it working @RayWUK.   I managed to make it work some time ago, but actually haven’t used the two together very much if at all. I found it a bit fiddly and I now can’t recall exactly why. I have tended to just use the search and slew features provided in the ASIair. This is adequate for setting up for imaging. Although having said that, I will be pleased if ZWO ever includes a planetarium feature in a future upgrade.  If I want to use SkySafari at the same time I view it independently on my phone.  

[RayWUK]

6 hours ago, Ouroboros said:

Glad you got it working @RayWUK.   I managed to make it work some time ago, but actually haven’t used the two together very much if at all. I found it a bit fiddly and I now can’t recall exactly why. I have tended to just use the search and slew features provided in the ASIair. This is adequate for setting up for imaging. Although having said that, I will be pleased if ZWO ever includes a planetarium feature in a future upgrade.  If I want to use SkySafari at the same time I view it independently on my phone.  

One use i can see is using the 'Field of View' options in SkySafari. Theoretically one should be able to 'see' the target in SkySafari as i would appear in your images.

I've set this up for my equipment but waiting for some clear sky to try it for real.