Skywatcher AZ GTI mount owners thread

[herne]

2 hours ago, AstroNebulee said:

Thank you. Yes I've watched both videos before and previously I had the RA when and gear meshed thus not using the spring I thought I'd try with the spring engaged but was worse so will go back to hod I had it

👍

2 hours ago, AstroNebulee said:

Hopefully you got some good data

Haha nope.  The clouds must have gathered again shortly after and the night was a wash out.  Ah well, there's always next time 😀.

[bomberbaz]

Just got my ZWO mains power connection, so it's running the AZ GTi, ZWO Air, 224mc guide and 183mc cooling at 0 degrees taking darks. It is giving a steady 12.1V and currently drawing 0.9A. 

I think it will be fine at that and from here on will slowly build a darks library at 60, 120, 180 and 300 at zero and -10C. I think I will do 64 of each as a minimum. 

I was worried the voltage might not be enough for tracking but 12.1, yeh be alright that.

[AstroNebulee]

21 minutes ago, bomberbaz said:

Just got my ZWO mains power connection, so it's running the AZ GTi, ZWO Air, 224mc guide and 183mc cooling at 0 degrees taking darks. It is giving a steady 12.1V and currently drawing 0.9A. 

I think it will be fine at that and from here on will slowly build a darks library at 60, 120, 180 and 300 at zero and -10C. I think I will do 64 of each as a minimum. 

I was worried the voltage might not be enough for tracking but 12.1, yeh be alright that.

Similar to what I do Steve. One power cable to AAP. Then power cables from AAP to az gti and 294mc pro. USB slots are :USB key for storage, 294mc pro (both in USB 3 ports) , eq dir cable and 120 mcs guidecamera (both in USB 2 ports.) 👍

Edited April 27, 2022 by AstroNebulee

[AstroGS]

Got it and set it up today. Unfortunately, first light needs to wait a bit longer as my redcat has an appointment with the telescope doctor. 
 

But, happy to see that it is ready 😀

 

 

[AstroNebulee]

22 minutes ago, George Sinanis said:

Got it and set it up today. Unfortunately, first light needs to wait a bit longer as my redcat has an appointment with the telescope doctor. 
 

But, happy to see that it is ready 😀

 

 

 

Looking good George. 

I will say like I said to David in a previous post that your az gti mount could do with moving in the direction of the red arrow so the top of the mount is in line with the main pillar in your tripod. The reason I say this my setup was the same and I had awful trouble adjusting the Dec adjustment bolts as the were really hard to turn even with the clutch off. The top of the mount should be inline with the orange arrow, then it balanced better on your tripod too. A longer dovetail bar will help with this. 👍

Have you managed to get your redcat to be looked at and fixed? 

 

Edited April 27, 2022 by AstroNebulee
Spelling

[AstroGS]

27 minutes ago, AstroNebulee said:

Looking good George. 

I will say like I said to David in a previous post that your az gti mount could do with moving in the direction of the red arrow so the top of the mount is in line with the main pillar in your tripod. The reason I say this my setup was the same and I had awful trouble adjusting the Dec adjustment bolts as the were really hard to turn even with the clutch off. The top of the mount should be inline with the orange arrow, then it balanced better on your tripod too. A longer dovetail bar will help with this. 👍

Have you managed to get your redcat to be looked at and fixed? 

 

Interesting. Do you have a picture of yours on how you did that?  With a dovetail?

Edited April 27, 2022 by George Sinanis

[AstroNebulee]

57 minutes ago, George Sinanis said:

Interesting. Do you have a picture of yours on how you did that?  With a dovetail?

Yes I used an astro essentials dovetail bar from FLO here. 

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dovetails-saddles-clamps/astro-essentials-dovetail-bars.html

It has a slot on the underside that the bolt head fits into do the dovetail sits flat on the wedge. I attached a bolt on one end to stop the whole thing slipping off were the dovetail not clamped down enough in the wedge. I used some hockey stick tape on the dovetail and this has stuck to the underside of the az gti mount to stop any unessesary rotation. 

It could probably be shifted a bit more up to be more in line but it is sufficient enough now and is more stable and I can adjust the Dec bolts much easier now. 

Edited April 27, 2022 by AstroNebulee
Addition

[Olli]

Hi all, first of all sorry to keep asking questions about the mount. After using @Elp’s advice about the power tank I have somewhat gotten closer to good alignment, however It is still quite a bit off though pointing in the right direction this time! I had got confused about my norths ( was using Polaris) and it has seemed to help. What am I still doing wrong? As the targets never seem to be in the field of view. This is being used In it’s al az mode.

Edited April 27, 2022 by Olli

[badhex]

26 minutes ago, Olli said:

Hi all, first of all sorry to keep asking questions about the mount. After using @Elp’s advice about the power tank I have somewhat gotten closer to good alignment, however It is still quite a bit off though pointing in the right direction this time! I had got confused about my norths ( was using Polaris) and it has seemed to help. What am I still doing wrong? As the targets never seem to be in the field of view. This is being used In it’s al az mode.

Don't worry Olli, that's what the thread's for 🙂

I could have missed it earlier in the thread, but might be worth detailing step by step what you are doing from the start, and at what point you start to run into problems. If you have a photo of your setup that would also help? 

Edited April 27, 2022 by badhex

[Olli]

13 minutes ago, badhex said:

Don't worry Olli, that's what the thread's for 🙂

I could have missed it earlier in the thread, but might be worth detailing step by step what you are doing from the start, and at what point you start to run into problems. If you have a photo of your setup that would also help? 

Hi, I had put it in another thread but happy to write it again. After contacting Flo and reaching out on here I have been told to point to north  and level the scope w with the horizon which I have tried tonight and had better results then the last two days as it had started to point to the ground 😆 I then power on the mount and connect the wifi and reset the alignment. I also have the scope on the left hand side. haven’t got a photo of my exact set up but hopefully this helps a bit I will try and get one soon. Thanks 

Edited April 27, 2022 by Olli

[Elp]

@Olli don't worry about asking questions.

This should help a little bit more though probably overkill if you're near enough to Polaris: Your next port of call I'd say is try to setup the mount to point to true geographical north as this does not change as dramatically as magnetic north does. I do this with a manual compass which has a declination scale on it, depending on your location in longitude E or W of the meridian you orient the compass until the north indicator is pointing toward the value of your E/W angle, that is true north in very rough estimates. As youre still using a compass it still won't be super accurate but it makes for fascinating reading how seafarers navigate at sea via their equipment, stars and charts.

Did you manage to complete any of the 2/3 star alignment processes?

When aligning a star into the centre of the field of view you can use a crosshair illuminated eyepiece or slightly defocus the alignment star so it's a bloated doughnut shape so you can better align it to the centre of the eyepiece, you'll realise when centering a star how off you are.

It would be good once you've achieved your result to update here and finalise the thread you started so others can find a solution if they have had similar problems to you.

[AstroNebulee]

7 hours ago, Olli said:

Hi, I had put it in another thread but happy to write it again. After contacting Flo and reaching out on here I have been told to point to north  and level the scope w with the horizon which I have tried tonight and had better results then the last two days as it had started to point to the ground 😆 I then power on the mount and connect the wifi and reset the alignment. I also have the scope on the left hand side. haven’t got a photo of my exact set up but hopefully this helps a bit I will try and get one soon. Thanks 

I don't use mine in ALT az mode anymore but what I used to do is the North level alignment. Firstly I levelled the tripod then place a spirit level on my scope and level it. Then I used this compass app on my phone that can be set to geographic North. Do a 3 star alignment, 1st star would be slight off but next 2 would be in fov then just centre them, you have to confirm in the app by pressing the up and right arrows I think after each alignment star. 

Maybe the firmware needs updating I'm not entirely sure though. I think there's one for the left hand mounting here? Hopefully someone can confirm. 

http://skywatcher.com/download/software/motor-control-firmware/

Cheers 

Lee 

 

Edited April 28, 2022 by AstroNebulee
Addition

[Olli]

4 hours ago, Elp said:

@Olli don't worry about asking questions.

This should help a little bit more though probably overkill if you're near enough to Polaris: Your next port of call I'd say is try to setup the mount to point to true geographical north as this does not change as dramatically as magnetic north does. I do this with a manual compass which has a declination scale on it, depending on your location in longitude E or W of the meridian you orient the compass until the north indicator is pointing toward the value of your E/W angle, that is true north in very rough estimates. As youre still using a compass it still won't be super accurate but it makes for fascinating reading how seafarers navigate at sea via their equipment, stars and charts.

Did you manage to complete any of the 2/3 star alignment processes?

When aligning a star into the centre of the field of view you can use a crosshair illuminated eyepiece or slightly defocus the alignment star so it's a bloated doughnut shape so you can better align it to the centre of the eyepiece, you'll realise when centering a star how off you are.

It would be good once you've achieved your result to update here and finalise the thread you started so others can find a solution if they have had similar problems to you.

I tried a two star alignment in at the start of the session and it was way off but I haven’t tried it after it got a bit better at aligning.  At the moment the Star I choose is Arcturus and I then tried Polaris as my second star not sure if these are good choices. I did use a compass on my phone last night to Try and be accurate but I’ll try and get a physical one. ( they are fun to use anyway) I will have a look into Thor illuminated eyepieces and will make sure to close the thread once I figure this out… hopefully. Thanks

[Olli]

1 hour ago, AstroNebulee said:

I don't use mine in ALT az mode anymore but what I used to do is the North level alignment. Firstly I levelled the tripod then place a spirit level on my scope and level it. Then I used this compass app on my phone that can be set to geographic North. Do a 3 star alignment, 1st star would be slight off but next 2 would be in fov then just centre them, you have to confirm in the app by pressing the up and right arrows I think after each alignment star. 

Maybe the firmware needs updating I'm not entirely sure though. I think there's one for the left hand mounting here? Hopefully someone can confirm. 

http://skywatcher.com/download/software/motor-control-firmware/

Cheers 

Lee 

 

Thanks lee, I still haven’t updated the software yet so I will give this a try tonight. I will read a bit more to see if I do need to do it. That sounds like a good idea about the leveller , that’s one thing I can’t do on the app is manually control it. As I have seen videos where pressing the arrows you can slew it around but unfortunately this doesn’t work for me I’m not sure if buying a SynScan handset might be better as I’m having difficulty with the app itself most the time.

[happy-kat]

I also use the synscan dongle and in altaz mode (virtuoso mount).

Level tripod.

Point telescope North.

Telescope OTA must be level as in 0 degrees altitude.

Turn on mount.

[bomberbaz]

1 hour ago, Olli said:

I tried a two star alignment in at the start of the session and it was way off but I haven’t tried it after it got a bit better at aligning.  At the moment the Star I choose is Arcturus and I then tried Polaris as my second star not sure if these are good choices. I did use a compass on my phone last night to Try and be accurate but I’ll try and get a physical one. ( they are fun to use anyway) I will have a look into Thor illuminated eyepieces and will make sure to close the thread once I figure this out… hopefully. Thanks

If you want best accuracy, you are better looking for stars which are either side of N/S and also the further apart the better. Also preferably above I think it is 30 degrees Alt in height too. 

With that in mind Arcturus is fine but a better star as second would be capella or if it's later on and it has dropped low down then either of pollux or castor.

Vega is only just below 30 and gives a better spread. Just check stellarium (other apps are available) to see what height the stars are at.

[AstroNebulee]

4 hours ago, Olli said:

that’s one thing I can’t do on the app is manually control it. As I have seen videos where pressing the arrows you can slew it around but unfortunately this doesn’t work for me I’m not sure if buying a SynScan handset might be better as I’m having difficulty with the app itself most the time

That seems strange to me. With the mount switched on and connected to the synscan app you should be able to move the mount with the keypad. 

What are you using device wise with the synscan app? 

Cheers 

Lee 

Edited April 28, 2022 by AstroNebulee

[StevieDvd]

6 hours ago, Olli said:

Thanks lee, I still haven’t updated the software yet so I will give this a try tonight. I will read a bit more to see if I do need to do it. That sounds like a good idea about the leveller , that’s one thing I can’t do on the app is manually control it. As I have seen videos where pressing the arrows you can slew it around but unfortunately this doesn’t work for me I’m not sure if buying a SynScan handset might be better as I’m having difficulty with the app itself most the time.

How were you doing the alignments if the arrows are not working?

[Olli]

2 hours ago, AstroNebulee said:

That seems strange to me. With the mount switched on and connected to the synscan app you should be able to move the mount with the keypad. 

What are you using device wise with the synscan app? 

Cheers 

Lee 

Hi lee, Tried using it with my iPhone and also my iPad but having the same issues, when I go to use the keypad I can here it making a noise but it basically doesn’t move at all. It was with both the non and pro version of the app.

[Olli]

1 hour ago, StevieDvd said:

How were you doing the alignments if the arrows are not working?

Just by selecting alignment on the app and choosing the stars it then goes off and does the alignment without me having to use the keypad though with it being quite off. So I’m unable to Center the stars.

[AstroNebulee]

16 minutes ago, Olli said:

Hi lee, Tried using it with my iPhone and also my iPad but having the same issues, when I go to use the keypad I can here it making a noise but it basically doesn’t move at all. It was with both the non and pro version of the app.

Ahh I see, it will be moving thats what the noise from the mount will be. That's because its moving so slowly you can barely see it move. If you change the speed just above the keypad circled in orange, one is more speed one is less speed. Then the speed indicator is circled blue in the attached image. So add more speed when centering your target for alignment (not to much or you will overshoot each time, speeds are 1-9) or to try it now just put to 9 and see that baby turn 😁 Once you get the alignment star in the centre I think the keypad will flash the up and right buttons, so just tap these 2 to proceed to your next alignment star, then repeat. 

Cheers 

Lee 

 

Edited April 28, 2022 by AstroNebulee
Spelling

[Elp]

Did you try adjusting the number above the keypad to max 9? You'll definitely see it moving then.

Did you try the app via a laptop or tablet yet?

[Elp]

Beat me to it

[shropshire lad]

I always adjust mine to "9" as well, moves well then.

 

[Olli]

49 minutes ago, AstroNebulee said:

Ahh I see, it will be moving thats what the noise from the mount will be. That's because its moving so slowly you can barely see it move. If you change the speed just above the keypad circled in orange, one is more speed one is less speed. Then the speed indicator is circled blue in the attached image. So add more speed when centering your target for alignment (not to much or you will overshoot each time, speeds are 1-9) or to try it now just put to 9 and see that baby turn 😁 Once you get the alignment star in the centre I think the keypad will flash the up and right buttons, so just tap these 2 to proceed to your next alignment star, then repeat. 

Cheers 

Lee 

 

Just had a quick look on the app and the number is on 5 in the middle. That maybe the issue! Will try when I get home thank you.