Skywatcher AZ GTI mount owners thread

[AstroNebulee]

28 minutes ago, bomberbaz said:

Yeah it's what I was thinking but wasn't 100%. You know when you think you know but your not sure you are right that you know 🤪

All the time for me 😁

[RayWUK]

Manage to do a quick process my data of M51 taken during the same period as my M81 photo shown earlier with the new ASI533MC. Only 54mins of data (108x30sec) and again heavily cropped. No filters and Bortle 5 skies.

Edited May 11, 2022 by RayWUK

[AstroNebulee]

2 hours ago, RayWUK said:

Manage to do a quick process my data of M51 taken during the same period as my M81 photo shown earlier with the new ASI533MC. Only 54mins of data (108x30sec) and again heavily cropped. No filters and Bortle 5 skies.

Lovely image Ray, well done 👍

[bomberbaz]

Very quick process of M13 and not much data.  More checking the running of the system after my latest faffing around.

Pleased now that my tracking is under 1.

52 x30 seconds with the use of the L2 filter. 

Quite pleased with the stars and the core of the cluster not looking too bloated. I might have another go at processing later but it's late. 

[AstroNebulee]

6 hours ago, bomberbaz said:

Very quick process of M13 and not much data.  More checking the running of the system after my latest faffing around.

Pleased now that my tracking is under 1.

52 x30 seconds with the use of the L2 filter. 

Quite pleased with the stars and the core of the cluster not looking too bloated. I might have another go at processing later but it's late. 

I'm pleased you've managed another session to test your set up and your guiding is going great. The L2 filter really proving its worth it's a lovely image, though not a criticism but it looks a tad green in parts. I can't remember what software you use to process but can easily sort that issue. 

Cheers

Lee 

 

[bomberbaz]

1 hour ago, AstroNebulee said:

I'm pleased you've managed another session to test your set up and your guiding is going great. The L2 filter really proving its worth it's a lovely image, though not a criticism but it looks a tad green in parts. I can't remember what software you use to process but can easily sort that issue. 

Cheers

Lee 

 

yeah your right Lee, processed in gimp but it looked red last night so tried to edit that out and looks like I gave it a greenish hue in the process without noticing.

I will let myself off as it was late as mentioned, gone 12.30 when I did it 🙃

The main thing was testing the tracking and L2 filter, I think both passed. 

I will have another bash later and see if I can tidy up.

cheers

steve

[AstroNebulee]

5 minutes ago, bomberbaz said:

yeah your right Lee, processed in gimp but it looked red last night so tried to edit that out and looks like I gave it a greenish hue in the process without noticing.

I will let myself off as it was late as mentioned, gone 12.30 when I did it 🙃

The main thing was testing the tracking and L2 filter, I think both passed. 

I will have another bash later and see if I can tidy up.

cheers

steve

It was a late one for you indeed so yes let yourself off I don't blame you, whrn I've had a night of imaging (whenever that'll be again) all I want to do after packing it up and bringing in, is to get into bed so I applaud you. 

Definitely the guiding and filter passed, great to hear 👍

Edited May 12, 2022 by AstroNebulee

[LaurenceT]

A short time ago I reported that I was having problems in polar alignment/plate solving with my William Optics wedge and my Asiair. I thought I'd overcome this problem so last night I thought the gods were with me and I could get actually get first light with my rig. Not so!

I stalled at exactly the same point as last time, adjusting the wedge in latitude. So this morning I did some further tests on the wedge and essentially found it was reasonable to adjust the latitude with zero load but became increasingly stiff the more it was loaded until it became jammed with my full rig, this rig being very light at 2.4kg.

I have contacted the vendor, I bought the wedge 10 months ago to use on my Skyguider Pro and had no problems. I searched the web for any other problems and found one identical to mine in a review of the wedge. It works just about OK using an M6 bolt from my collection and an Allen key, not ideal so I've sourced some M6 bolts with a large knurled head which may avoid the blistered finger from last night!

I thought I was upgrading in quality and performance when I purchased this WO premium mount. for $220.00
I was using a Sky-Watcher latitude EQ Base that was only $70.00. I noticed that on the first use that it was very difficult to raise the elevation of the mount when doing polar alignment using the small thumb screw because you are pushing 

against the weight of the rig. The Skywatcher uses a knob, it is easier to grip and you have more torque, Practically it makes it easier to do polar alignment, I am using an ASIAIr for Polar Alignment, I notice the WO product is the same as far as fine adjustments. The WO base is prettier and seems bouit better but they need to change that screw,It could make your fingers bleed trying to turn it on a freezing night, I am contacting Bob's Knobs or replacing it with a screw using Allen Head to get more torque,

 

[herne]

@LaurenceT  As requested 🙂.  The Z61 has 2 small allen key bolts on either side of the focuser tube (the right hand ones highlighted yellow below).  I simply unscrewed the 2 on the left side (2.5mm allen key) and attached the little dovetail base by screwing the bolts back into place through the slots in the bottom of it.  Then it's just 2 thumb screws to hold the AAP in place.

Balance is fine, I didn't even need to move the dovetail bar further forward to compensate (although the whole rig is shifted slightly further forward in the mount).  If you need any other pics give me a shout 👍.

[RayWUK]

2 hours ago, LaurenceT said:

A short time ago I reported that I was having problems in polar alignment/plate solving with my William Optics wedge and my Asiair. I thought I'd overcome this problem so last night I thought the gods were with me and I could get actually get first light with my rig. Not so!

I stalled at exactly the same point as last time, adjusting the wedge in latitude. So this morning I did some further tests on the wedge and essentially found it was reasonable to adjust the latitude with zero load but became increasingly stiff the more it was loaded until it became jammed with my full rig, this rig being very light at 2.4kg.

I have contacted the vendor, I bought the wedge 10 months ago to use on my Skyguider Pro and had no problems. I searched the web for any other problems and found one identical to mine in a review of the wedge. It works just about OK using an M6 bolt from my collection and an Allen key, not ideal so I've sourced some M6 bolts with a large knurled head which may avoid the blistered finger from last night!

I thought I was upgrading in quality and performance when I purchased this WO premium mount. for $220.00
I was using a Sky-Watcher latitude EQ Base that was only $70.00. I noticed that on the first use that it was very difficult to raise the elevation of the mount when doing polar alignment using the small thumb screw because you are pushing 

against the weight of the rig. The Skywatcher uses a knob, it is easier to grip and you have more torque, Practically it makes it easier to do polar alignment, I am using an ASIAIr for Polar Alignment, I notice the WO product is the same as far as fine adjustments. The WO base is prettier and seems bouit better but they need to change that screw,It could make your fingers bleed trying to turn it on a freezing night, I am contacting Bob's Knobs or replacing it with a screw using Allen Head to get more torque,

 

Just a tip, start of with the latitude too high, that way you're not trying to lift the weight of the rig with the thumbscrew.

[AstroNebulee]

3 hours ago, LaurenceT said:

A short time ago I reported that I was having problems in polar alignment/plate solving with my William Optics wedge and my Asiair. I thought I'd overcome this problem so last night I thought the gods were with me and I could get actually get first light with my rig. Not so!

I stalled at exactly the same point as last time, adjusting the wedge in latitude. So this morning I did some further tests on the wedge and essentially found it was reasonable to adjust the latitude with zero load but became increasingly stiff the more it was loaded until it became jammed with my full rig, this rig being very light at 2.4kg.

I have contacted the vendor, I bought the wedge 10 months ago to use on my Skyguider Pro and had no problems. I searched the web for any other problems and found one identical to mine in a review of the wedge. It works just about OK using an M6 bolt from my collection and an Allen key, not ideal so I've sourced some M6 bolts with a large knurled head which may avoid the blistered finger from last night!

I thought I was upgrading in quality and performance when I purchased this WO premium mount. for $220.00
I was using a Sky-Watcher latitude EQ Base that was only $70.00. I noticed that on the first use that it was very difficult to raise the elevation of the mount when doing polar alignment using the small thumb screw because you are pushing 

against the weight of the rig. The Skywatcher uses a knob, it is easier to grip and you have more torque, Practically it makes it easier to do polar alignment, I am using an ASIAIr for Polar Alignment, I notice the WO product is the same as far as fine adjustments. The WO base is prettier and seems bouit better but they need to change that screw,It could make your fingers bleed trying to turn it on a freezing night, I am contacting Bob's Knobs or replacing it with a screw using Allen Head to get more torque,

 

I found this with my WO wedge Laurence and mine was very difficult to adjust in lattitude the more I needed to go up. Mine was all down to my set up not inline with the centre of the tripos extension. You've probably read my thread about this before. 

I'm not sure how your setup is loaded and not very heavy though line is only 2.9kg.

Now mine is more central to the are tension tube it's so much easier to adjust. 

Though this maybe completely nothing to do with yours Laurence. 

Cheers 

Lee 

 

Edited May 12, 2022 by AstroNebulee

[Elp]

1 hour ago, RayWUK said:

Just a tip, start of with the latitude too high, that way you're not trying to lift the weight of the rig with the thumbscrew.

That's how I do it, or I use one hand to take the load of the azgti whilst turning the screw to lift it up, the back screw is screwed out a bit so it can be done with the one.

[LaurenceT]

1 hour ago, RayWUK said:

Just a tip, start of with the latitude too high, that way you're not trying to lift the weight of the rig with the thumbscrew.

You would think that would work but mine works the other way, it's easier to start off with a lower latitude and raise it, lowering is impossible.

[bomberbaz]

2 hours ago, herne said:

@LaurenceT  As requested 🙂.  The Z61 has 2 small allen key bolts on either side of the focuser tube (the right hand ones highlighted yellow below).  I simply unscrewed the 2 on the left side (2.5mm allen key) and attached the little dovetail base by screwing the bolts back into place through the slots in the bottom of it.  Then it's just 2 thumb screws to hold the AAP in place.

Balance is fine, I didn't even need to move the dovetail bar further forward to compensate (although the whole rig is shifted slightly further forward in the mount).  If you need any other pics give me a shout 👍.

What is the total weight of this please.

Looks a lovely setup and the extra 10mm of aperture must be a great help and the FL53 glass will give super colour and clarity.

[herne]

41 minutes ago, bomberbaz said:

What is the total weight of this please.

Looks a lovely setup and the extra 10mm of aperture must be a great help and the FL53 glass will give super colour and clarity.

It’s a lovely scope, I’ve been very pleased with it.  Total weight is c.3.7kg  (excluding the homemade counterweight).

[RayWUK]

1 hour ago, LaurenceT said:

You would think that would work but mine works the other way, it's easier to start off with a lower latitude and raise it, lowering is impossible.

That's very odd, you haven't got it set for lower latitudes? The peg that the two thumbscrews act against has two positions, one for low latitudes the other for high. In the UK you need it set for high latitudes. It's easy to change, just remove the latitude clamp bolt, move the peg to the other position and reassemble. I think its held in place with a set screw.

 

Edited May 12, 2022 by RayWUK

[LaurenceT]

2 hours ago, AstroNebulee said:

I found this with my WO wedge Laurence and mine was very difficult to adjust in lattitude the more I needed to go up. Mine was all down to my set up not inline with the centre of the tripos extension. You've probably read my thread about this before. 

I'm not sure how your setup is loaded and not very heavy though line is only 2.9kg.

Now mine is more central to the are tension tube it's so much easier to adjust. 

Though this maybe completely nothing to do with yours Laurence. 

Cheers 

Lee 

 

I think you've got the solution there Lee, the little blue dovetail bar I was using to mount the AZ GTi was too short consequently the whole rig was pitched too far forward when compared to your rig in the photo and the WO wedge was fighting a losing battle against the weight of the kit. I read a post of your last month where you demonstrated how you attach your mount to the WO wedge and I've bought on from FLO. I'm not sure what hockey tape is but I'm sure I'll find out!

4 hours ago, RayWUK said:

Just a tip, start of with the latitude too high, that way you're not trying to lift the weight of the rig with the thumbscrew.

Once the penny dropped Ray I realised that's exactly what was happening!

Thanks to all for your help.

[AstroNebulee]

3 hours ago, LaurenceT said:

. I read a post of your last month where you demonstrated how you attach your mount to the WO wedge and I've bought on from FLO. I'm not sure what hockey tape is but I'm sure I'll find out!

I have place a strip of hockey stick tape in the orange marked section  and this has the friction (I believe it's stuck on now so better) to stop the mount spinning untowardly as I've no bolt in the little dimple on the underside of the az gti (not my image of the underside of the az gti mount) 

Cheers 

Lee 

Edited May 12, 2022 by AstroNebulee
addition

[bomberbaz]

M13 reprocess. I think I got a more natural look this time. If you look below the cluster there are n orange and small blue star next to each other which make a useful and beautiful pair to help check colour correction.

I tried stretching a little bit more but it wouldn't take it, simply not enough data. I would like to get up to around 2 hours worth on this and really see it jump out of the screen at you.  Still, reasonable happy with what 26 minutes has given.

I removed 8 because of heavy satellite trails, there were more but were either very feint or in the corners where I crop or could have been more than a dozen. I mean 8 FGS, that's still more than 10% of only 30 second images ruined because of satellites!

Also happier that my processing skills are developing nicely. I was considering getting another programme to process but slowly learning my way around GIMP, improving results too so think I will stick with it instead.

Evoguide + FF - Astronomik L2 - ZWO 183MC Pro mounted on AZGTi,  52 x 30 seconds, gain 111 - Darks, Flats and Bias - Stacked DSS - Processed in GIMP.

[herne]

12 minutes ago, bomberbaz said:

M13 reprocess. I think I got a more natural look this time. If you look below the cluster there are n orange and small blue star next to each other which make a useful and beautiful pair to help check colour correction.

I tried stretching a little bit more but it wouldn't take it, simply not enough data. I would like to get up to around 2 hours worth on this and really see it jump out of the screen at you.  Still, reasonable happy with what 26 minutes has given.

I removed 8 because of heavy satellite trails, there were more but were either very feint or in the corners where I crop or could have been more than a dozen. I mean 8 FGS, that's still more than 10% of only 30 second images ruined because of satellites!

Also happier that my processing skills are developing nicely. I was considering getting another programme to process but slowly learning my way around GIMP, improving results too so think I will stick with it instead.

Evoguide + FF - Astronomik L2 - ZWO 183MC Pro mounted on AZGTi,  52 x 30 seconds, gain 111 - Darks, Flats and Bias - Stacked DSS - Processed in GIMP.

I prefer that than your greenish one above 👍.

As you say, you’ll definitely benefit from more integration.  My only comment is it now looks (through my screen anyway) to have a yellowish/golden tint.  May I also ask -  why are you using a filter?  Have you tried comparing with and without one?

[AstroNebulee]

49 minutes ago, bomberbaz said:

M13 reprocess. I think I got a more natural look this time. If you look below the cluster there are n orange and small blue star next to each other which make a useful and beautiful pair to help check colour correction.

I tried stretching a little bit more but it wouldn't take it, simply not enough data. I would like to get up to around 2 hours worth on this and really see it jump out of the screen at you.  Still, reasonable happy with what 26 minutes has given.

I removed 8 because of heavy satellite trails, there were more but were either very feint or in the corners where I crop or could have been more than a dozen. I mean 8 FGS, that's still more than 10% of only 30 second images ruined because of satellites!

Also happier that my processing skills are developing nicely. I was considering getting another programme to process but slowly learning my way around GIMP, improving results too so think I will stick with it instead.

Evoguide + FF - Astronomik L2 - ZWO 183MC Pro mounted on AZGTi,  52 x 30 seconds, gain 111 - Darks, Flats and Bias - Stacked DSS - Processed in GIMP.

Looking nice now the greenish hue has gone Steve 👍. The 'propeller' arms showing nicely too. 

I agree with you on those satellite trails, even using kappa sigma clipping in dss doesn't get them all out anymore. 

Keep at it with gimp, it's not that much different to photoshop really. I only use an old cs4 copy of ps so I can use astronomy tools with it. Pity not compatible with gimp else, I'd use that. 

Cheers 

Lee 

[bomberbaz]

38 minutes ago, herne said:

I prefer that than your greenish one above 👍.

As you say, you’ll definitely benefit from more integration.  My only comment is it now looks (through my screen anyway) to have a yellowish/golden tint.  May I also ask -  why are you using a filter?  Have you tried comparing with and without one?

Re the filter, I did a picture of the iris nebula recently, short clip with and without the filter. One star in the clip was a red giant, with the filter, nice and tight little star, without a bloated orange blob. 

It's basically a ir/uv cut filter.

[bomberbaz]

Decreased the yellow/green saturation ever so slightly

[AstroNebulee]

This could make interesting viewing for anyone having issues eith the synscan pro app. 

 

[chiltonstar]

A bit of a change from the topics above....

Is there any way of expanding the rather limited list of doubles available via the Synscan app other than by entering data manually or by using 3rd party software like SS? I bought an az gti a few weeks back and I'm having great fun with it  but I need a much bigger doubles list.

TVM for any replies....

Chris