Skywatcher AZ GTI mount owners thread

[GrumpiusMaximus]

Unfortunately managed to get COVID so haven't been able to play too much with my new setup but am feeling better now!

I've been through considerable portions of this thread and either I'm missing something or I have a fundamental misunderstanding on how to Polar Align all of this.  I understand how to Polar Align with a polar scope, so the concept isn't new - it's just the implementation for this particular setup.  From what I've read, I need to have the scope in a 'Home' position (pointing upwards?) and have the mount itself pointing towards Polaris.  So when I do this, the scope is going to be pointing southwards?

I have PHD2 on the Astroberry but I don't have a guide camera.  Am I right in thinking I can use drift alignment through my primary (and only) camera to set this up, even if the telescope is pointing 'over the shoulder' with respect to Polaris?

If I'm being dense, please tell me!

Edited November 13, 2023 by GrumpiusMaximus

[AstroNebulee]

10 minutes ago, GrumpiusMaximus said:

Unfortunately managed to get COVID so haven't been able to play too much with my new setup but am feeling better now!

I've been through considerable portions of this thread and either I'm missing something or I have a fundamental misunderstanding on how to Polar Align all of this.  I understand how to Polar Align with a polar scope, so the concept isn't new - it's just the implementation for this particular setup.  From what I've read, I need to have the scope in a 'Home' position (pointing upwards?) and have the mount itself pointing towards Polaris.  So when I do this, the scope is going to be pointing southwards?

I have PHD2 on the Astroberry but I don't have a guide camera.  Am I right in thinking I can use drift alignment through my primary (and only) camera to set this up, even if the telescope is pointing 'over the shoulder' with respect to Polaris?

If I'm being dense, please tell me!

Covid is horrid. I've had it twice and it's not nice. I'm pleased you're well and ready for done astro. This is how you want your set up to look with the scope pointing towards Polaris. Use one leg of your tripod as the North leg and make sure when your scope is in the home position its in line with the North leg, makes it so much easier. I'm don't know anything about drift aligning though, sorry. 

Clear skies. 

Lee

Edited November 13, 2023 by AstroNebulee

[GrumpiusMaximus]

14 minutes ago, AstroNebulee said:

Covid is horrid. I've had it twice and it's not nice. I'm pleased you're well and ready for done astro. This is how you want your set up to look with the scope pointing towards Polaris. Use one leg of your tripod as the North leg and make sure when your scope is in the home position its in line with the North leg, makes it so much easier. I'm don't know anything about drift aligning though, sorry. 

Clear skies. 

Lee

It's the second time through for me on the COVID train too.  Not as bad as the first time, not exactly 'fun'.  Ironic considering that I work 100% remotely and don't leave the house much!  My partner is a teacher and brought it home.

That's incredibly helpful, thank you.  The complete opposite of what I had thought but that also makes sense and makes the whole process potentially a lot easier than I first considered!  The mount ends up the 'opposite' way around to a conventional Equatorial then.  I was overthinking it!

Edited November 13, 2023 by GrumpiusMaximus

[AstroNebulee]

14 minutes ago, GrumpiusMaximus said:

It's the second time through for me on the COVID train too.  Not as bad as the first time, not exactly 'fun'.  Ironic considering that I work 100% remotely and don't leave the house much!  My partner is a teacher and brought it home.

That's incredibly helpful, thank you.  The complete opposite of what I had thought but that also makes sense and makes the whole process potentially a lot easier than I first considered!  The mount ends up the 'opposite' way around to a conventional Equatorial then.  I was overthinking it!

At least your recovered now and all good. 

No problems on helping out anytime just ask in here. Always happy to help and others more knowledgeable. You coukd search druft alignment on the forum and see what pops up. 

Clear skies and look forward to your reports back when you finally get out under the stars. 

 

Lee 

[Lo_rm]

Hello Az GTI users, 

I got a brand new az GTI mount as a gift. I noticed the alt axis motor didn't seem to work : it wouldn't move vertically, with the synscan app arrows, and couldn't align or track because it only moved on the az axis. I figured maybe a firmware update would help, so I upgraded to 1.40 with no results, then back to 1.32. But then, I can't even power it on anymore. Red light doesn't flash and wifi is not found. I use an omegon powerbank, and I tried to power it with AA batteries with no more luck. I've read some people had similar issues, both with power or motor issues, but I can't find any solution. I'm about to cry. Any advice before I consider returning it ? 

Thanks ! 

 

[Elp]

Were the clutches locked? If it doesn't even power on and you're certain the input power is working I'd return it.

[Lo_rm]

The clutches were tightened yes. Ans it used to power well, it just stopped for no reason after the last firmware update... 

[happy-kat]

If you undo the altitude clutch will the altitude move by hand turning it

[Lo_rm]

Yes, everything moves smoothly when clutches are unscrewed

[jjohnson3803]

On 09/10/2023 at 14:47, happy-kat said:

If you are using 1 star alignment after selecting I just use goto and the mount slews there and sidereal tacking turns on by default (caveat. mount is level, tube is level and pointing north)

Point and track is where you might be randomly pointing somewhere and want the mount to track from there

 

Possibly covered somewhere above, but:

If I took a GTi outside, leveled it, pointed it to a random star, and hit sidereal tracking on the app, will it track the target?  In other words, is any kind of alignment aside from leveling the tripod necessary to use sidereal tracking?

I ask because I'm more interested in an altaz version of a tracking mount and less interested in goto capabilities right now.

[Elp]

I would have thought it needs to know what it's pointed at otherwise it'll just move as it sees fit based on its last alignment, it doesn't have the optics to see what it's pointing at unlike a solarquest version (solar use only) or how an autoguided setup works.

Once levelled you need to make sure it's pointed to true north before switching it on then doing one of the star alignment routines. Once this is done I believe all you need to do is level and point north on the next run.

Edited November 26, 2023 by Elp

[happy-kat]

in altaz I use only level and point north horizontal then turn on. I think if tracking is enabled it will track but there'll be drift as it's not aligned, this was how the virtuoso mount worked and I think the az-gti is likely similar, I might try this next time using the mount

[Jim L]

3 hours ago, jjohnson3803 said:

Possibly covered somewhere above, but:

If I took a GTi outside, leveled it, pointed it to a random star, and hit sidereal tracking on the app, will it track the target?  In other words, is any kind of alignment aside from leveling the tripod necessary to use sidereal tracking?

I ask because I'm more interested in an altaz version of a tracking mount and less interested in goto capabilities right now.

You can point your scope at any star, planet, or any other celestial object listed within the Az GTi SynScan Pro menu, choose that object from the menu, press the “Point and Track” button on that object’s info page, and it will track that object. While using the point and track function here’s no need to align the mount, nor any benefit to do so, though I suspect tracking will be better if the mount is level.

This is how I usually use my Az GTi mount as I find the point and track seems to work far better than it’s goto function.

 

[Zermelo]

3 hours ago, Elp said:

make sure it's pointed to true north

Yes. If you think about it, in order to track an object, the mount needs to calculate (instantaneous values for) the direction of motion of that object, and its speed. This will vary with both the object's altitude and azimuth. Extreme examples might be an object on the Eastern horizon, rising, and one in the West, falling.

The best way to allow the mount to do that is with trial alignments on other known objects, which allow it to orient itself against the sky. The alternative point-and-track method relies on you first levelling the mount (so that it can then use your subsequent elevation as the altitude of the object to be tracked) and pointing it North (so that it can use your slewing about the vertical as its azimuth). It then "knows" which part of the sky it is pointing at, and can use differential equations to calculate the speed and direction for tracking, but the accuracy of the results will depend on the accuracy of your previous alignment.

[Ags]

1 hour ago, Jim L said:

You can point your scope at any star, planet, or any other celestial object listed within the Az GTi SynScan Pro menu, choose that object from the menu, press the “Point and Track” button on that object’s info page, and it will track that object. While using the point and track function here’s no need to align the mount, nor any benefit to do so, though I suspect tracking will be better if the mount is level.

This is how I usually use my Az GTi mount as I find the point and track seems to work far better than it’s goto function.

 

Agreed. I do make sure the mount is as level as possible and then I just use point and track, both for visual and photography.

[tico]

The  mount can support  well the SW ED80/600 refractor? 

Thanks, 

Tico

[happy-kat]

Are you thinking visual or imaging?

[Jules Tohpipi]

On 26/11/2023 at 16:56, jjohnson3803 said:

Possibly covered somewhere above, but:

If I took a GTi outside, leveled it, pointed it to a random star, and hit sidereal tracking on the app, will it track the target?  In other words, is any kind of alignment aside from leveling the tripod necessary to use sidereal tracking?

I ask because I'm more interested in an altaz version of a tracking mount and less interested in goto capabilities right now.

Just to be 100% clear, you can use the ‘Point and Track’ feature in the app to achieve this. It is not necessary to perform any alignment nor point the scope north and horizontal to begin with. The only requirement is that mount must be levelled. 
 

From page 15 of the SynScan manual (link at the bottom):

To perform Point And Track, ensure that the mount tripod is level, as indicated by its bubble level. Next, choose the object to track from the catalog and select Point And Track. If you then manually (motor- driven and/or push-to) center the object in the telescope field of view, the mount will keep it there.

https://inter-static.skywatcher.com/downloads/synscan_app_manual_en_20201008.pdf

 

 

 

[jjohnson3803]

I was wondering about targets like lesser-known doubles that might not be in the catalog(s), but I saw this in the manual:

You can use User Objects to save your own coordinates in a list. You can later retrieve the coordinates for [GOTO]. There are two user object lists: • Celestial Objects where you enter RA Dec coordinates.

Thanks for the link!

[Zermelo]

22 minutes ago, Jules Tohpipi said:

Just to be 100% clear, you can use the ‘Point and Track’ feature in the app to achieve this. It is not necessary to perform any alignment nor point the scope north and horizontal to begin with. The only requirement is that mount must be levelled. 
 

From page 15 of the SynScan manual (link at the bottom):

To perform Point And Track, ensure that the mount tripod is level, as indicated by its bubble level. Next, choose the object to track from the catalog and select Point And Track. If you then manually (motor- driven and/or push-to) center the object in the telescope field of view, the mount will keep it there.

https://inter-static.skywatcher.com/downloads/synscan_app_manual_en_20201008.pdf

 

 

 

Yes, this is true, though the crucial difference is that you have identified your target before pointing. The mount can then use your location and local time to work out where in the sky the object ought to appear, and use that to orient itself and calculate the tracking parameters. My interpretation of the OP question was just a point at a target without identifying it (or perhaps even knowing its identity).

[tico]

17 hours ago, happy-kat said:

¿Estás pensando en imágenes o imágenes?

Visual. 

[jjohnson3803]

7 minutes ago, Zermelo said:

My interpretation of the OP question was just a point at a target without identifying it (or perhaps even knowing its identity).

Yes, I should have been more clear.  I often randomly scan around with a low power EP and stumble across interesting asterisms and double stars whose identity I don't know at the time.  It would be convenient to engage tracking to keep the scope centered on the (unknown) target like using an old-style RA clock drive.

 

Edited November 29, 2023 by jjohnson3803

[happy-kat]

I think for imaging the 80ED is pushing too heavy and big, my concern for visual use would be is the telescope tube too long. I would look for others users who have actually used the 80ED on the az-gti before committing to getting one

[fwm891]

Short break in the clouds last night so out with the AZ-GTi with my 80mm frac mounted. Control via ASIAIR Plus and captured letting it  live stack 30 second subs. 1st was of NGC281 with 24 subs collected. 2nd was part of the Califoria nubula (NGC1499) with 63 subs collected.

These were transferred to my desktop PC via usb stick and processed in PI. Really pleased as it is a quick and easy mount to set-up. Provided you take it back to its 'home' position after a PA alignment goto's are very close and ASIAIR alignment completes the job. I need to cut down on the dither movement as it's ended up needing a good crop on the California neb image after 63 subs.

Hope you like

 

Edited December 14, 2023 by fwm891
Images swaped

[AstroNebulee]

9 hours ago, fwm891 said:

Short break in the clouds last night so out with the AZ-GTi with my 80mm frac mounted. Control via ASIAIR Plus and captured letting it  live stack 30 second subs. 1st was of NGC281 with 24 subs collected. 2nd was part of the Califoria nubula (NGC1499) with 63 subs collected.

These were transferred to my desktop PC via usb stick and processed in PI. Really pleased as it is a quick and easy mount to set-up. Provided you take it back to its 'home' position after a PA alignment goto's are very close and ASIAIR alignment completes the job. I need to cut down on the dither movement as it's ended up needing a good crop on the California neb image after 63 subs.

Hope you like

 

Very good images indeed. I'm really pleased your AzGti performed well for you last night. 😊

What camera were you using and how many pixels did you dither? The asiair should goto and plate solve your target for you I thought. That's what my asiair pro does. 

Lee