Skywatcher AZ GTI mount owners thread

[Elp]

I might bin it to be honest. Using filters for mono you have to keep refocusing, hence the OAG will need constantly adjusting. Guidescope stays as it is untouched.

[AstroNebulee]

27 minutes ago, Elp said:

I might bin it to be honest. Using filters for mono you have to keep refocusing, hence the OAG will need constantly adjusting. Guidescope stays as it is untouched.

Yep true, better off in a osc setup I guess, not really looked into oag before. 

[LaurenceT]

41 minutes ago, Elp said:

I might bin it to be honest. Using filters for mono you have to keep refocusing, hence the OAG will need constantly adjusting. Guidescope stays as it is untouched.

When I was buying my OSC camera I mentioned to the seller that I would probably sell the 135mm Samyang and get an Askar FMA180 but I'd need an OAG because I couldn't find a way to mount a guidescope. He replied that it would be "a short descent into hell" so I avoided the Askar😅. I don't know how accurate his assessment was.

[bomberbaz]

Its all here, yippee. Pictures to follow but got a evoguide plus flattener, ASI Air plus, ZWO 183 + basic 30mm guide scope.  Also a bracket (3d printed) to hold the whole lot together.

Still a mess of wires and stuff as not yet finished tinkering but it is so lightweight as you would expect with the AZ GTi.

Like I said, pictures to follow as soon as I can get it finished.

[AstroNebulee]

1 hour ago, bomberbaz said:

Its all here, yippee. Pictures to follow but got a evoguide plus flattener, ASI Air plus, ZWO 183 + basic 30mm guide scope.  Also a bracket (3d printed) to hold the whole lot together.

Still a mess of wires and stuff as not yet finished tinkering but it is so lightweight as you would expect with the AZ GTi.

Like I said, pictures to follow as soon as I can get it finished.

Fantastic, can't wait to see the pics and your first light 👍

[bomberbaz]

Those of you using an ASI Air Plus could you please let me know how you are mounting it up against the rig!

I have no way of mounting mine against the OTA as there simply isn't any room, (the evoguide is very small) so was looking for other ideas I could apply to my rig.

cheers all

Steve

[AstroNebulee]

1 hour ago, bomberbaz said:

Those of you using an ASI Air Plus could you please let me know how you are mounting it up against the rig!

I have no way of mounting mine against the OTA as there simply isn't any room, (the evoguide is very small) so was looking for other ideas I could apply to my rig.

cheers all

Steve

Mines not an asiair plus, but I mounted mine on the underside of the ota dovetail with an angled camera bracket. 

[bomberbaz]

22 hours ago, AstroNebulee said:

Mines not an asiair plus, but I mounted mine on the underside of the ota dovetail with an angled camera bracket. 

 

Good idea that fella, has given me an idea to do mine in a similar fashion. I have commissioned my son in law to cut me a plate of alloy at work which should provide a platform to both the AIR PLUS and the battery compartment for my camera  cooling mod.

[AstroNebulee]

39 minutes ago, bomberbaz said:

Good idea that fella, has given me an idea to do mine in a similar fashion. I have commissioned my son in law to cut me a plate of alloy at work which should provide a platform to both the AIR PLUS and the battery compartment for my camera  cooling mod.

Sounds perfect 👍 I did mine like I have so to keep everything central and in line to the ota, which should keep balance better, in my way of thinking. So camera and guidecam wires stay in place along the ota. So only the eqdir cable and power cables are the ones needing to be carefully routed to stop snagging (if you see what I mean) 

 

[bomberbaz]

Ok had my first outing with the rig last night. Full moon ideal conditions 🤪 of course but to be fair the main purpose of the night was me trying out the new gear, getting used to the Air plus and seeing how it all went.

Pleased to report that I had no real issues at all, the Air behaved impeccably and tracked beautifully.

I am looking forward to adding to my data from last night when I grabbed a bit from M81, the heart nebula (IC1805) and the double cluster (see below).

The double is only ten minutes of data just run as a test. I have only stacked and stretched once to see how my stars are. Tweek needed on my tracking time, think it's too long at 5 seconds. 

M82 and IC1805 need much more data so not putting images up until I have it. However as a teaser to me, M81 also reveals M82 and the garland galaxy with just 20 mins data and the heart was just peeping out with 30 mins (a little more gain needed here maybe).

It's all a learning curve but very happy with what is capable from a 50mm guide scope and the AZ mount. 

Steve

[AstroNebulee]

3 hours ago, bomberbaz said:

Ok had my first outing with the rig last night. Full moon ideal conditions 🤪 of course but to be fair the main purpose of the night was me trying out the new gear, getting used to the Air plus and seeing how it all went.

Pleased to report that I had no real issues at all, the Air behaved impeccably and tracked beautifully.

I am looking forward to adding to my data from last night when I grabbed a bit from M81, the heart nebula (IC1805) and the double cluster (see below).

The double is only ten minutes of data just run as a test. I have only stacked and stretched once to see how my stars are. Tweek needed on my tracking time, think it's too long at 5 seconds. 

M82 and IC1805 need much more data so not putting images up until I have it. However as a teaser to me, M81 also reveals M82 and the garland galaxy with just 20 mins data and the heart was just peeping out with 30 mins (a little more gain needed here maybe).

It's all a learning curve but very happy with what is capable from a 50mm guide scope and the AZ mount. 

Steve

Sounds like you had a brilliant time, yerp the best time to check the kits all behaving like it should is a full moon. Really pleased that your happy with your az gti and the first outing 😊 Plus you did well getting anything last night. I could even get the moony, was blowing a hooley and the moon wasn't clearing the trees fast enough so losing my mojo big time and came in. 

[Elp]

@bomberbaz great progress. @AstroNebulee shame but we all experience it, I was active for around 8 hours last night on and off, still didn't get on with the OAG and my 30mm mini guide scope the swine lost focus again (due to camera being removed) so wasted time even though my setup was left assembled ready to go at dusk and the horsehead disappeared from view again for the forth time trying to shoot one bandpass batch, also got a second setup with a different mount trialling (more issues to overcome). Was shooting RGB so I'll have to brace myself for the lunar damage... Forecast looking decent this week mind.

[Ed the Fox]

Just a thought..

What percentage of people here use the mount purely for visual rather than AP?

[LaurenceT]

12 minutes ago, Ed the Fox said:

Just a thought..

What percentage of people here use the mount purely for visual rather than AP?

I have 2, one in Alt Az mode just for grab and go viewing with lunar and planetary AP and one permanently set up for deep sky AP (when I eventually get round to it!)

Edited March 19, 2022 by LaurenceT

[bomberbaz]

 

38 minutes ago, Ed the Fox said:

Just a thought..

What percentage of people here use the mount purely for visual rather than AP?

Mine was bought and used purely for visual several years back but I then started using it for unguided imaging two years ago before finally taking the guided route after discussing the merits of the ASI Air and also looking into people who use that in conjunction with the AZGTi.

I think it was finding a webpage with someone using both along with the evoguide that finally pushed me. I think it is amongst the most compact and versatile imaging rigs going, still waiting for my mounting plate before I give you pictures. 

Steve

[badhex]

1 hour ago, Ed the Fox said:

Just a thought..

What percentage of people here use the mount purely for visual rather than AP?

🙋🏻‍♂️ Purely visual observer here. The AZ-GTi is very helpful for faint targets in light polluted skies 🙂

[knobby]

1 hour ago, Ed the Fox said:

Just a thought..

What percentage of people here use the mount purely for visual rather than AP?

Purely imaging here. Bought it when I damaged my shoulder and couldn't move the Heq5.

[Gfamily]

1 hour ago, Ed the Fox said:

Just a thought..

What percentage of people here use the mount purely for visual rather than AP?

90% visual, but I have used it for imaging the Moon and the Sun occasionally with my mirrorless camera.

I'm half thinking of seeing whether to use my SA wedge for AP, but to be honest I've wasted too much time getting less results that didn't really seem to warrant the effort.  

[Elp]

I do enjoy visual, saw m13 for the first time yesterday (it was a faint smudge) but due to light pollution cant really see anything so biased toward imaging.

[AstroNebulee]

I'd like 2 setups like @LaurenceT. I'm purely imaging but do hanker for the simplicity of visual. 

[bomberbaz]

14 minutes ago, AstroNebulee said:

I'd like 2 setups like @LaurenceT. I'm purely imaging but do hanker for the simplicity of visual. 

There is nothing simple about visual my friend trust me. There are so many variations of it, it can be as complicated as imaging, if not more so. 

I have 6 visual scopes, all with different used or attributes, I sometimes wish I had less. 

[bomberbaz]

M81/82 plus Garland galaxy with data from tonight and last night. All using the AZ GTi / ASI Air+ and Evoguide.

There is 60x60 seconds using the ASI 183 MC,  half subs at 150 gain and half 180 gain. 

Still getting to grips with processing, I think the data I have is capable of far better results but I need more practice and also more time understanding what I am doing. 

[OK Apricot]

So the dwindling faith is turning to frustration at this point. Last night conditions were terrible really, so I thought I'd use the time trying to get some good results with the goto.

Everything level, zero'd, fully charged power pack, clutches not tight but snug. Followed all advice from FLO and here. North level alignment, pants. 1 star, pants. Brightest star, terrible. 3 star, nowhere near. Each time it goes from one alignment star to another, its somewhere else completely in the finder. 

What am I doing wrong? 

The only other thing I can think of is that to centre an object, a lot of the time I have to use the down and left slew. With the mount tracking, I can't use earth rotation to let the star drift in a way that I can then "catch up" using ONLY up and right slew. This is probably introducing a degree of error through backlash. Is there a way to stop the mount tracking during alignment? I cannot think of anything else. 

[happy-kat]

you could use left and down too far so that could end in up and right to centre the target using lowest power ep

Edited March 20, 2022 by happy-kat

[OK Apricot]

That's what I'm doing as it's the only way to get it centered, but im thinking doing this is introducing error into the system as it goes through backlash, so to avoid it I need to have a way to centre using only right and up.