Skywatcher AZ GTI mount owners thread

[leo82]

I've come to use my az gti for the first time in a while. It won't align with any stars I try to align it with, brightest star or North level alignment. It's always about 4-5 degrees off target.

I only use it in alt az with no eq wedge.

I have tried using synscan and synscan Pro apps.

I have updated the mount to the current firmware.

I have put fresh duracell batteries in. 

When I first set it up, I make sure I'm pointing north by manually finding polaris in the telescope. I then lower the telescope so it's lying horizontal.

I then turn the mount on and try to align with polaris. It's always off target so I use the app buttons to centre it. Then off to second star. The same thing happens so I centre it up again and pick a target I want to observe. Again it's way off target.

I could get closer to an unknown manually than by using goto, which shouldn't happen.

I must be doing something wrong, I just don't know what?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[AstroNebulee]

7 hours ago, leo82 said:

I've come to use my az gti for the first time in a while. It won't align with any stars I try to align it with, brightest star or North level alignment. It's always about 4-5 degrees off target.

I only use it in alt az with no eq wedge.

I have tried using synscan and synscan Pro apps.

I have updated the mount to the current firmware.

I have put fresh duracell batteries in. 

When I first set it up, I make sure I'm pointing north by manually finding polaris in the telescope. I then lower the telescope so it's lying horizontal.

I then turn the mount on and try to align with polaris. It's always off target so I use the app buttons to centre it. Then off to second star. The same thing happens so I centre it up again and pick a target I want to observe. Again it's way off target.

I could get closer to an unknown manually than by using goto, which shouldn't happen.

I must be doing something wrong, I just don't know what?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi

What scope are you using and whucvh eyepie too? 

Is your tripod level that may help you. I've not used my az gti in ages for alt az or eq for that matter. I did use a compass app on my phone to get North level this one let's you set to geographical north and has a handy level part I think. 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.androgames.compass

Someone will be along shortly who uses in alt az mode and offer good advice. Though I woukd say trawl this thread it's long but others have had this issue. 

You coukd get a cheap talentcell battery pack to power the mount aways a lot more reliable on the az gti. 

Lee

[AstroNebulee]

15 hours ago, Ratlet said:

Cheers @LaurenceT.  Clouds galore up here just now but have had a play around with it.  I'll put the counterweight in and it works okay.  It's pretty handy for manually slewing it about (or it is inside anyway)  Updated the firmware and thought I might not get on with the mount as I had to view on the side the counterweight sticks out off.  After a bit more poking I realised I had installed the Right hand side version of the firmware!  Big fan of the extension pillar. 

The mount is a good bit noisier than the GEM28 that I use for imaging.  Anyone get complaints from the neighbours when slewing?  I'm very excited to try this beast out.  I love a bit of sketching but find the constant tweaking of the position on the AZ5 detracts a bit from the fun.

Good to hear your az gti is performing nicely for you a lovely piece of equipment. Ived not had any complaints yet when slewing mine and I'm in a tiny village surrounded by flats (attached old image) . I'm usually quieter than the owls and foxes nearby or one neighbour in the summer uhhum you know 😉😂

Lee 

[LaurenceT]

7 hours ago, leo82 said:

I've come to use my az gti for the first time in a while. It won't align with any stars I try to align it with, brightest star or North level alignment. It's always about 4-5 degrees off target.

I only use it in alt az with no eq wedge.

I have tried using synscan and synscan Pro apps.

I have updated the mount to the current firmware.

I have put fresh duracell batteries in. 

When I first set it up, I make sure I'm pointing north by manually finding polaris in the telescope. I then lower the telescope so it's lying horizontal.

I then turn the mount on and try to align with polaris. It's always off target so I use the app buttons to centre it. Then off to second star. The same thing happens so I centre it up again and pick a target I want to observe. Again it's way off target.

I could get closer to an unknown manually than by using goto, which shouldn't happen.

I must be doing something wrong, I just don't know what?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

These adverse events seem to be quite common but they've never happened to me so I have no first hand experience.

However, many of them seem to be connected with the altitude/latitude settings as transmitted by the tablet or phone being used. Another thought is that it may be connected with power supply. Some people have found that power from batteries is more prone to errors than using an external power source.

I have always used a Talentcell power brick to power my AZ-GTI and I have had no problems.

[Elp]

I've been thinking of adding a talentcell to my many other things to play dew heater power duty or even mount powering and am wondering if this one's okay:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/TalentCell-Rechargeable-11000mAh-20000mAh-Portable/dp/B06Y5G3C8Z/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=FJNK5VJK3PGE&keywords=talentcell&qid=1673801642&sprefix=talent%2Caps%2C162&sr=8-1

 

 

[leo82]

3 hours ago, AstroNebulee said:

Hi

What scope are you using and whucvh eyepie too? 

Is your tripod level that may help you. I've not used my az gti in ages for alt az or eq for that matter. I did use a compass app on my phone to get North level this one let's you set to geographical north and has a handy level part I think. 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.androgames.compass

Someone will be along shortly who uses in alt az mode and offer good advice. Though I woukd say trawl this thread it's long but others have had this issue. 

You coukd get a cheap talentcell battery pack to power the mount aways a lot more reliable on the az gti. 

Lee

I'm using a heritage 130p with the standard 25mm to try and align with.

I've just been out and tried to reset alignment but it won't let me.

 

[AstroNebulee]

3 hours ago, Elp said:

I've been thinking of adding a talentcell to my many other things to play dew heater power duty or even mount powering and am wondering if this one's okay:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/TalentCell-Rechargeable-11000mAh-20000mAh-Portable/dp/B06Y5G3C8Z/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=FJNK5VJK3PGE&keywords=talentcell&qid=1673801642&sprefix=talent%2Caps%2C162&sr=8-1

 

 

I would think this will be quite adequate. 

Lee 

Edited January 15, 2023 by AstroNebulee

[AstroNebulee]

18 minutes ago, leo82 said:

I'm using a heritage 130p with the standard 25mm to try and align with.

I've just been out and tried to reset alignment but it won't let me.

 

The scope and ep combination are good to align with. 

Is the reset alignment greyed put when you are connected to your mount. 

Like Laurence said it's probably better to power via a power brick or mains to be more reliable. 

Have you tried other forms of the alignment process on the synscan app. 

Lee 

[happy-kat]

Different mount but altaz mode and synscanpro app. I like to use 1 star alignment (after level etc. setup), chose your star the mount moves to it, fine tune and accept, and repeat 1 star and choose a different star fine tune accept. this works well for me and can repeat 1 star fine tune several times to build alignment but I don't choose Polaris for my stars as I can't see it and I gather it's not the best to choose. Worth a try.

For fine tuning you could use the 10mm after the 25mm to get the star in the middle and always end in up and right movements the key pads show flashy red.

[LaurenceT]

2 hours ago, Elp said:

I've been thinking of adding a talentcell to my many other things to play dew heater power duty or even mount powering and am wondering if this one's okay:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/TalentCell-Rechargeable-11000mAh-20000mAh-Portable/dp/B06Y5G3C8Z/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=FJNK5VJK3PGE&keywords=talentcell&qid=1673801642&sprefix=talent%2Caps%2C162&sr=8-1

 

 

That is a step up from my Talentcells, you won't have problems using that. I have one with slightly less power and it powers my ASI533mc camera and a usb dew heater for some hours. I have a smaller one still and it powers the AZ GTi for hours also.

[leo82]

1 hour ago, AstroNebulee said:

The scope and ep combination are good to align with. 

Is the reset alignment greyed put when you are connected to your mount. 

Like Laurence said it's probably better to power via a power brick or mains to be more reliable. 

Have you tried other forms of the alignment process on the synscan app. 

Lee 

Yes it's greyed out. I've tried the brightest star alignment with same results.

[leo82]

1 hour ago, happy-kat said:

Different mount but altaz mode and synscanpro app. I like to use 1 star alignment (after level etc. setup), chose your star the mount moves to it, fine tune and accept, and repeat 1 star and choose a different star fine tune accept. this works well for me and can repeat 1 star fine tune several times to build alignment but I don't choose Polaris for my stars as I can't see it and I gather it's not the best to choose. Worth a try.

For fine tuning you could use the 10mm after the 25mm to get the star in the middle and always end in up and right movements the key pads show flashy red.

Thanks, I'll try this.

[AstroNebulee]

16 minutes ago, leo82 said:

Yes it's greyed out. I've tried the brightest star alignment with same results.

Hopefully @happy-katadvice will get it sorted for you 😊

 

[bomberbaz]

13 hours ago, leo82 said:

I've come to use my az gti for the first time in a while. It won't align with any stars I try to align it with, brightest star or North level alignment. It's always about 4-5 degrees off target.

I only use it in alt az with no eq wedge.

I have tried using synscan and synscan Pro apps.

I have updated the mount to the current firmware.

I have put fresh duracell batteries in. 

When I first set it up, I make sure I'm pointing north by manually finding polaris in the telescope. I then lower the telescope so it's lying horizontal.

I then turn the mount on and try to align with polaris. It's always off target so I use the app buttons to centre it. Then off to second star. The same thing happens so I centre it up again and pick a target I want to observe. Again it's way off target.

I could get closer to an unknown manually than by using goto, which shouldn't happen.

I must be doing something wrong, I just don't know what?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Sorry if this has been answered already but don't you need to have the scope to the left hand side of the mount during point level north?

Also re-install the software from the link below rather than playstore. Apparently it can glitch in download and install from playstore.

https://www.skywatcher.com/download/software/synscan-app/

TBF I stopped doing point level north alignment, pain in the proverbial. 

[LaurenceT]

44 minutes ago, bomberbaz said:

Sorry if this has been answered already but don't you need to have the scope to the left hand side of the mount during point level north?

Also re-install the software from the link below rather than playstore. Apparently it can glitch in download and install from playstore.

https://www.skywatcher.com/download/software/synscan-app/

TBF I stopped doing point level north alignment, pain in the proverbial. 

It depends on the firmware version, if the dual mode firmware is installed then to use the mount in alt az mode then that mode is selected when the app starts and then the scope must be installed on the right of the mount.

If the single use firmware is installed then the scope is connected to the mount on the left as you correctly indicate.

[leo82]

9 hours ago, bomberbaz said:

Sorry if this has been answered already but don't you need to have the scope to the left hand side of the mount during point level north?

Also re-install the software from the link below rather than playstore. Apparently it can glitch in download and install from playstore.

https://www.skywatcher.com/download/s

9 hours ago, bomberbaz said:

Sorry if this has been answered already but don't you need to have the scope to the left hand side of the mount during point level north?

Also re-install the software from the link below rather than playstore. Apparently it can glitch in download and install from playstore.

https://www.skywatcher.com/download/software/synscan-app/

TBF I stopped doing point level north alignment, pain in the proverbial. 

oftware/synscan-app/

TBF I stopped doing point level north alignment, pain in the proverbial. 

Thanks. I've updated the app from the skywatcher website now through your link. I've not tried it  though. I've always wondered how do I know if the telescopes mounted on the left side or right side?

I think I'm on the correct side as when I press up on the app button, the telescope goes up.

[AstroNebulee]

2 minutes ago, leo82 said:

Thanks. I've updated the app from the skywatcher website now through your link. I've not tried it  though. I've always wondered how do I know if the telescopes mounted on the left side or right side?

I think I'm on the correct side as when I press up on the app button, the telescope goes up.

Did you install this version (shown in my screenshot) if so your scope needs to be mounted on the right hand side. (old image of set up attached on right side) 

Lee 

[leo82]

23 minutes ago, AstroNebulee said:

Did you install this version (shown in my screenshot) if so your scope needs to be mounted on the right hand side. (old image of set up attached on right side) 

Lee 

I will have to have a look how mine is mounted. This is what I downloaded 

[Elp]

Think this is the one most of us use, don't know why there's a universal one to cover all their smaller mounts as per your screenshot:

Firmware: AZGTi Mount, Right Arm, AZ/EQ Dual Mode, Version 3.40

[AstroNebulee]

7 hours ago, leo82 said:

I will have to have a look how mine is mounted. This is what I downloaded 

With the firmware update that you downloaded and installed, your scope should be mounted on the left hand side. 

If you can try a different power source to your az gtiit will rule out a power issue. 

Basically just try all the suggestions you receive here and different alignment procedures. 👍

Lee 

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

On 15/01/2023 at 07:38, leo82 said:

I've come to use my az gti for the first time in a while. It won't align with any stars I try to align it with, brightest star or North level alignment. It's always about 4-5 degrees off target.

I only use it in alt az with no eq wedge.

I have tried using synscan and synscan Pro apps.

I have updated the mount to the current firmware.

I have put fresh duracell batteries in. 

When I first set it up, I make sure I'm pointing north by manually finding polaris in the telescope. I then lower the telescope so it's lying horizontal.

I then turn the mount on and try to align with polaris. It's always off target so I use the app buttons to centre it. Then off to second star. The same thing happens so I centre it up again and pick a target I want to observe. Again it's way off target.

I could get closer to an unknown manually than by using goto, which shouldn't happen.

I must be doing something wrong, I just don't know what?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

You're doing it wrong...

North Level alignment is accurate:

Level the telescope, keep it level and point it north with the aid of a compass.

Don't use Polaris as an alignment star.

Pick two stars like so:

CHOOSING ALIGNMENT STAR:

Alt-azimuth mount

 – Altitude is between 15 and 60 degrees 

– Difference between altitudes is between 10 and 30 degrees

-  Difference between azimuth is between 45 and 135 degrees

- For 3-Star alignment, the first two stars should have similar altitude and the 3rd star should have 30 degree or more variant in altitude compared to at least one of the first two stars. 

Initial alignment requests will usually be off. Centre the alignment star using the manual movement keys and a wide field eyepiece.Then swap to a mid range eyepiece, centre the aligned star and then finish using up and right key presses.

Edited January 16, 2023 by ScouseSpaceCadet

[Elp]

Synscan pro app usually does this by default, it won't allow you to select two or three stars which are near to each other.

[happy-kat]

1 star alignment is useful as there are no restrictions great if sky visible window is small, it will slew to first star chosen useful if can't use  a finder, and can repeat on different stars building an alignment picture

[TerraC]

Just wanted to thank you guys for all the help with the AZGTI over the past 2 years.  My time with the mount has come to an end and i've sold the unit to move to an EQ5.  

This has to be one of the best and most supported mount threads on this forum and a pleasure chipping in and chatting with you all.  Once again thank you for all the support and answers you have helped me with.

Ray

[AstroNebulee]

2 hours ago, TerraC said:

Just wanted to thank you guys for all the help with the AZGTI over the past 2 years.  My time with the mount has come to an end and i've sold the unit to move to an EQ5.  

This has to be one of the best and most supported mount threads on this forum and a pleasure chipping in and chatting with you all.  Once again thank you for all the support and answers you have helped me with.

Ray

Thank you Ray, that's very kind of you to say about the thread and mount. Thank you for all your input and advice too. It still does punch above its weight in the astrophotography world. It's a delight to use. I would lije another for my visual set up but yet to win the lottery. 

Good luck and happy times with your EQ5. 

Lee