Skywatcher AZ GTI mount owners thread

[LDW1]

30 minutes ago, Zermelo said:

If you are able to leave the tripod/mount undisturbed between sessions, you can get it to hibernate and continue on the next session. I have to bring all my gear in, so I do an alignment each time. I prefer the "north level" flavour, but if I'm trying to align at dusk then the stars may not be obvious, so "brightest star" is sometimes better.

You will get better with practice. I find that mine is always good enough to get me within my finder, and usually within a long eyepiece fov. That's all you need.

Thanx for this informative post, I bring my gear under shelter each night so I will do an alignment each time, its not a difficult or painstaking excercise.  I will use one of my larger more capable refractors and one of my Ultima Edge or Morpheus eps next time though.

[happy-kat]

I'm a fan of the ST80 and it's wide field of view potential can make for some great views such as M44 bees hive cluster

When aligning I use one star alignment and repeat on several different stars to suit what I can see 

[AstroNebulee]

Bit of a report on last night and first light on my second AzGti. Finally I had a clear sky last night and first light was given to my AzGti setup in az mode (bought 17th June) 

 

As it was a school night and I'm up at 4am, I just wanted to image Saturn and that was all I could manage in the time I had. I walked 5 minutes to the imaging area that would give me good low horizon views of Saturn, set up the SM90 scope, did the North level alignment using my eyepiece and finally slewed to Saturn. Attached my zwo asi120mc-s to the scope connected to the laptop and ran sharpcap. A warning popped up on the laptop saying needing a net framework install, wierd as sharpcap worked ok when I tested it a few days ago. So I had to pack up, come home and download the software, still nothing worked on testing, so uninstalled sharpcap and reinstalled and got it working. 

 

Back down to to place I wanted to image and finally got some captures of Saturn and with a x2 Barlow that was at its limit. Came home around 1am and found I left my glasses where I was imaging 🙄(as its easier to take off to look through the eyepiece and finderscope). So I had to venture out again to retrieve my glasses. 

I did have some views of Saturn through the zoom eyepiece and was amazing as always, with the SM90 doing a great job. The AzGti tracked well keeping the target in frame for as long as I needed and the mount was good and quiet when slewing too. 

I did have a quick test on how well the AzGti would put the target in the eyepiece and was in the fov but not bang on. I put this down to not being completely pointed North at alignments  stage (my phone compass was playing up) even though it was set to geographic North. I find North level the best for me and what I always used to do at home. 

I really enjoyed getting back to my roots with the alt az AzGti, when I wasn't being a baffoon. Looking forward to more clear nights soon? with the ST80 on the mount for some good observing sessions. Congratulations on getting this far, it was long winded. 

Lee 

Edited August 10, 2023 by AstroNebulee

[LDW1]

8 hours ago, AstroNebulee said:

Bit of a report on last night and first light on my second AzGti. Finally I had a clear sky last night and first light was given to my AzGti setup in az mode (bought 17th June) 

 

As it was a school night and I'm up at 4am, I just wanted to image Saturn and that was all I could manage in the time I had. I walked 5 minutes to the imaging area that would give me good low horizon views of Saturn, set up the SM90 scope, did the North level alignment using my eyepiece and finally slewed to Saturn. Attached my zwo asi120mc-s to the scope connected to the laptop and ran sharpcap. A warning popped up on the laptop saying needing a net framework install, wierd as sharpcap worked ok when I tested it a few days ago. So I had to pack up, come home and download the software, still nothing worked on testing, so uninstalled sharpcap and reinstalled and got it working. 

 

Back down to to place I wanted to image and finally got some captures of Saturn and with a x2 Barlow that was at its limit. Came home around 1am and found I left my glasses where I was imaging 🙄(as its easier to take off to look through the eyepiece and finderscope). So I had to venture out again to retrieve my glasses. 

I did have some views of Saturn through the zoom eyepiece and was amazing as always, with the SM90 doing a great job. The AzGti tracked well keeping the target in frame for as long as I needed and the mount was good and quiet when slewing too. 

I did have a quick test on how well the AzGti would put the target in the eyepiece and was in the fov but not bang on. I put this down to not being completely pointed North at alignments  stage (my phone compass was playing up) even though it was set to geographic North. I find North level the best for me and what I always used to do at home. 

I really enjoyed getting back to my roots with the alt az AzGti, when I wasn't being a baffoon. Looking forward to more clear nights soon? with the ST80 on the mount for some good observing sessions. Congratulations on getting this far, it was long winded. 

Lee 

I am very new with my gti so just to confirm, when doing a north alignment you level and point to True North rather than Magnetic North. There are a lot of degrees difference between them.

[AstroNebulee]

3 hours ago, LDW1 said:

I am very new with my gti so just to confirm, when doing a north alignment you level and point to True North rather than Magnetic North. There are a lot of degrees difference between them.

Yes that is correct aim for geographical North not magnetic and make sure the tripod and mount are level too. 

Lee

[LDW1]

41 minutes ago, AstroNebulee said:

Yes that is correct aim for geographical North not magnetic and make sure the tripod and mount are level too. 

Lee

Thats what I use the Geodetic North using my ipad compass and level it very close to perfect. After I did that I aimed for M13 and it was well within the fov of my 90mm f5.5 refractor using my 24mm Ultima Edge ep ( 3.5° tfov ), as the finder. After that several other easy deep sky targets did not appear in the fov but I will admit the seeing conditions were classed as poor for that nite on my Clear Sky chart. Amazingly though even the Beehive Cluster was off the fov. I even tried realigning but it didn't help and the tripod never got moved by accident.

[AstroNebulee]

10 hours ago, LDW1 said:

Thats what I use the Geodetic North using my ipad compass and level it very close to perfect. After I did that I aimed for M13 and it was well within the fov of my 90mm f5.5 refractor using my 24mm Ultima Edge ep ( 3.5° tfov ), as the finder. After that several other easy deep sky targets did not appear in the fov but I will admit the seeing conditions were classed as poor for that nite on my Clear Sky chart. Amazingly though even the Beehive Cluster was off the fov. I even tried realigning but it didn't help and the tripod never got moved by accident.

The alignment should get better as the targets are selected. I know a few people do a brightest star alignment and do this several times to align and works well for them. 

As long as your tripod and mount is level when you can spin the mount freely 360 degrees. 

I'm just getting back to az mode and alignment, so a bit rusty. 

Lee 

[Ratlet]

Been a while since I had it out, but Once I'm aligned, if I want to look at something in a particular region I'll do a goto to a nearby star.  If I land on it I'll slew to my target and all is good.  If I miss the star I'll centre it in the scope and do a sync.  This seems to improve the accuracy of getting to a nearby DSO and it's easier to find the missing star Vs a dso

[LDW1]

3 hours ago, Ratlet said:

Been a while since I had it out, but Once I'm aligned, if I want to look at something in a particular region I'll do a goto to a nearby star.  If I land on it I'll slew to my target and all is good.  If I miss the star I'll centre it in the scope and do a sync.  This seems to improve the accuracy of getting to a nearby DSO and it's easier to find the missing star Vs a dso

Agree there are various ways to correct it but my only concern was / is why did it happen, what caused it to stray off what I consider a pretty good alignment ? Was it just the poor sky conditions but you would think the Beehive would be there, after shutting down the goto it took me a bit to find it close by.  But as was said practice makes perfect, I will just keep working it, using it.

[LaurenceT]

I found when I relied on the mount levelling bubble I had persistent errors so I used a levelling base that I already had from my landscape photography, that seemed to clear up the problems for me.

ARTCISE LH6 Leveling Base,Ergonomics Locking Knob +/-15° Tilt Horizontal Adjustment Tripod Head Monopod Head for Canon Nikon Sony DSLR Camera,Max Load 20kg: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

[LDW1]

9 minutes ago, LaurenceT said:

I found when I relied on the mount levelling bubble I had persistent errors so I used a levelling base that I already had from my landscape photography, that seemed to clear up the problems for me.

ARTCISE LH6 Leveling Base,Ergonomics Locking Knob +/-15° Tilt Horizontal Adjustment Tripod Head Monopod Head for Canon Nikon Sony DSLR Camera,Max Load 20kg: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

It easily attached to the gti mount / base ?

[LaurenceT]

5 minutes ago, LDW1 said:

It easily attached to the gti mount / base ?

I've realised that I use it with the bubble on the mount as reference but it seems more accurate and much easier than levelling with the tripod legs, apologies🙄.

[LDW1]

6 minutes ago, LaurenceT said:

I've realised that I use it with the bubble on the mount as reference but it seems more accurate and much easier than levelling with the tripod legs, apologies🙄.

Yes but as I asked does it easily attach to the gti mount / tripod if one decided to buy one and use it as you mention its better performance ? Can you attach a photo or two ?

Edited August 11, 2023 by LDW1

[LaurenceT]

19 minutes ago, LDW1 said:

Yes but as I asked does it easily attach to the gti mount / tripod if one decided to buy one and use it as you mention its better performance ? Can you attach a photo or two ?

Yes indeed you did. It does attach easily but you can't then have sight of the bubble on the levelling base as it's smaller than the mount so then have to rely on the mounts bubble. It's only when used when the mount is in eq mode that the based bubble is visible. I'll try and provide some photos later.

[LaurenceT]

As you can see when in alt az mode the levelling base is not visible so the mounts bubble must be used but when in eq mode the bases bubble is visible, sorry for the confusion.

 

 

[LDW1]

4 hours ago, LaurenceT said:

As you can see when in alt az mode the levelling base is not visible so the mounts bubble must be used but when in eq mode the bases bubble is visible, sorry for the confusion.

 

 

 

4 hours ago, LaurenceT said:

As you can see when in alt az mode the levelling base is not visible so the mounts bubble must be used but when in eq mode the bases bubble is visible, sorry for the confusion.

 

 

Ah Ha !  It was confusing to say the least !

[LDW1]

4 hours ago, LaurenceT said:

As you can see when in alt az mode the levelling base is not visible so the mounts bubble must be used but when in eq mode the bases bubble is visible, sorry for the confusion.

 

 

I am sure you noted we weren't talking EQ mode ?

[LaurenceT]

3 minutes ago, LDW1 said:

I am sure you noted we weren't talking EQ mode ?

I've apologized for the confusion already, is that ok?

[LDW1]

29 minutes ago, LaurenceT said:

I've apologized for the confusion already, is that ok?

Just confirming the reason for your apology !

[happy-kat]

getting ready for the season and it's new installs all round, Ascom, Ascom driver and Synscan Pro pc and mobile all very recently  new

[AstroNebulee]

18 hours ago, happy-kat said:

getting ready for the season and it's new installs all round, Ascom, Ascom driver and Synscan Pro pc and mobile all very recently  new

Good luck and hope you have a great season. I'm looking forward to hearing all about it. 👍

Lee 

[AndyM001]

Hi all, 

 I had a few telescopes a good number of years ago, decided to get back in to the hobby and wanted something portable, so finally decided to get an AZ-GTi after reading mostly positive reviews, and a Bresser MC100.

 The mount arrived yesterday, and as my OTA needed to be on the right-hand side, I tried to upgrade the firmware. Initially I had trouble connecting my Windows 11 PC to the mount (no problems with my iPhone), so I decided to try my old Windows 7 Laptop and it connected first time. Firmware update was successful, so I decided to take it outside to try the single alignment on the Sun as the Bresser came with a solar filter. The alignment wasn't particularly accurate, but I managed to centre the Sun, and after that it tracked it pretty well. It was the first time I'd seen the Sun through a telescope, and decided to take a photo with my iPhone. Now, I know it's not great, but my iPhone was just held up against the eyepiece. 

 Tonight, I took a look at Jupiter, again, initial alignment wasn't great, had to slew a bit to get it centred, but tracked Jupiter very well after that.

 Looking forward to my trip to Cornwall next month, seeing should be considerably better than my current Bortle 5 skies, assuming the weather is on my side.

[LDW1]

I was told some time ago on this site to use True North not Magnetic North ( compass ), in my part of the world Magnetic North has a west declination of about 10° from True North, when setting my Gti alignment and levelling. But when I do use True North my targeted dso object is about 10° to the left of where my telescope stops ie I have to manually shift my scope to the left to make it line up. This tells me that I should be using Magnetic North to set my alignment for the nite not True North. Its quite consistent with every object. Did some one give me the wrong instructions when I asked or what am I doing wrong ?

[powerlord]

Posted in compo thread, but anyhoo - azgti still delivers the goods: canon 6d, 70-200 L usm f2.8. Uhs filter only.

 

[AstroNebulee]

9 hours ago, AndyM001 said:

Hi all, 

 I had a few telescopes a good number of years ago, decided to get back in to the hobby and wanted something portable, so finally decided to get an AZ-GTi after reading mostly positive reviews, and a Bresser MC100.

 The mount arrived yesterday, and as my OTA needed to be on the right-hand side, I tried to upgrade the firmware. Initially I had trouble connecting my Windows 11 PC to the mount (no problems with my iPhone), so I decided to try my old Windows 7 Laptop and it connected first time. Firmware update was successful, so I decided to take it outside to try the single alignment on the Sun as the Bresser came with a solar filter. The alignment wasn't particularly accurate, but I managed to centre the Sun, and after that it tracked it pretty well. It was the first time I'd seen the Sun through a telescope, and decided to take a photo with my iPhone. Now, I know it's not great, but my iPhone was just held up against the eyepiece. 

 Tonight, I took a look at Jupiter, again, initial alignment wasn't great, had to slew a bit to get it centred, but tracked Jupiter very well after that.

 Looking forward to my trip to Cornwall next month, seeing should be considerably better than my current Bortle 5 skies, assuming the weather is on my side.

The alignment shoukd get better with every object slewed to. What alignment process were you using? 

If it was one star alignment it will be slightly off. I usually use North level alignment and the first one is off a bit the but the next and next one are centred. 

I think @happy-kat uses 1 star alignment but does this alignment more than once and gets accurate gotos and works for them. 

Enjoy your holiday in Cornwall it's beautiful here. 

Lee 

Edited September 16, 2023 by AstroNebulee