SW Star Adventurer GTI owner thread

[Astroscot2]

Hello all.

Being a new product on the market there is very little info on the web with regards to user experiences other than the glowing YT videos pre launch.

I for one would be interested to hear other owners thoughts and experiences using the SW SA GTI. So would like to open this thread to share questions, images and comment's.

Thanks.

Mark

 

 

[Astroscot2]

I purchased the SW SA Gti with the tripod combo a number of weeks back. The Intention is  to pull together a portable rig to visit dark skies and work in conjunction with my ZWO camera and ASI air plus which I've also never used until last night. 

My first impressions on mounting the mount head on the tripod were not great, with the small refractor mounted it did not seem very stable, anyway I pushed on and cabled everything up. Total wt of the OTA and camera etc is around 4 kgs,  1kg under the recommended 5 kg wt limit. With the supplied counterweight all the way to the end of the CW shift I would not balance the rig. Thankfully I had a few small SW counterweights around to balance. 

So after a bit of a phaff with jumping between the home, mount and ASI air wifi I got everything connected.  So Last night was a quick trial, I had a 40 min clear spell.  Polar alignment was easy with the ASI, mount adjustments in RA & DEC are nice and smooth. Once I figured how to set my home point I slewed to various targets all of which were dead centre. BTW this mount is quite noisy slewing in the dead of night.  Onto guiding, this was the biggest surprise, RMS sat between 0.6 - 0.85 the whole time.

I noted a few issues one of which was the polar illuminator, when I Initially set up the mount I wanted to eyeball and centre the pole star prior to ASi polar alignment . With the polar illuminator turned to the lowest setting it was still too bright to see sny stars. I had to turn it off to see any stars.  Will look at this next clear night.

So picture of rig below. Still so cable manage but I think this is going to be a great portable set up.

 

Edited August 24, 2022 by Astroscot2

[Jiggy 67]

I’ve got the mount on order and should arrive next week I think with FLO receiving the latest delivery. I ordered the mount only, I already have a tripod and the extension pier. I’m a bit concerned with @Astroscot2 review but looking at the photo, the mount appears to be well loaded up, are you sure that is only 4kg? 
I have no experience of AP and intend to use it with a Canon 250D to start with. Looking forward to contributing to this thread 👍

[Astroscot2]

Hello Jiggy.  Yes only 4kgs, looks deceptive from that angle. 

[Astroscot2]

Back out again tonight for more testing. Skies were manky so just a few quick shots, Saw a comment regarding dithering so set dithering to 5 pixels after each image, pleased to say guiding resumed quite quickly, no longer than 10 seconds . Quite pleased with the performance of this mount combined with the ASI. Guiding behaved with only a few excursions in DEC. Test images below. 5 - 10mins subs. I do seem to have an issue with the polar illuminator, seems to flicker and too bright even on the lowest brightness setting?

 

Edited August 26, 2022 by Astroscot2

[Adam J]

Has anyone else noticed that its impossible to put the polar scope cover on if you have batteries in the holders?

Nice SW....nice.

Adam

[Elp]

Can't be as bad as the SA polar scope back cap constantly falling off can it?

[Adam J]

6 minutes ago, Elp said:

Can't be as bad as the SA polar scope back cap constantly falling off can it?

its identical, but now it wont go on at all if there are batteries in the mount. 

[Astroscot2]

Adam, I've not inserted batteries in mine yet but can confirm the polar scope cover falls off easily, Ive taken to removing mine when the mounts outside, afraid of standing on it. Will find a solution for that...  Adam have you been able to view through the polar scope yet? I'm unable to see any stars at the lowest illumination setting?

Mark

 

 

 

Edited August 28, 2022 by Astroscot2

[Tomatobro]

The polar scope cover has two forward pegs that go into slots in the battery holders. Remove the polar scope cover first then take the top cover screw out.

Lift the cover up from the rear rotating it as you lift to release the cover locating pegs. When the batteries are installed in the holders reverse the process.

[Adam J]

2 hours ago, Astroscot2 said:

Adam, I've not inserted batteries in mine yet but can confirm the polar scope falls off easily, Ive taken to removing mine when the mounts outside, afraid of standing on it. Will find a solution for that...  Adam have you been able to view through the polar scope yet? I'm unable to see any stars at the lowest illumination setting?

Mark

 

 

 

no only had it setup spend first day working out that the USB connection will not work unless you flash the motor controller. Few things about this saying rushed to market. 

Adam

[Astroscot2]

Adam , what are you intending to control the mount with, pc, ASI?

[Adam J]

21 minutes ago, Astroscot2 said:

Adam , what are you intending to control the mount with, pc, ASI?

I have a mini pc attached to the pier extender. 

[Adam J]

First image, (no processing).

Painful experiance all in all but i dont have the energy to expand on that right now.

 

Adam

[Astroscot2]

Look forward to hearing your report on first light.

[david_taurus83]

5 hours ago, Adam J said:

First image, (no processing).

Painful experiance all in all but i dont have the energy to expand on that right now.

 

Adam

Be interested to see how you got on with guiding and dithering Adam..

[Adam J]

On 24/08/2022 at 13:54, Astroscot2 said:

I purchased the SW SA Gti with the tripod combo a number of weeks back. The Intention is  to pull together a portable rig to visit dark skies and work in conjunction with my ZWO camera and ASI air plus which I've also never used until last night. 

My first impressions on mounting the mount head on the tripod were not great, with the small refractor mounted it did not seem very stable, anyway I pushed on and cabled everything up. Total wt of the OTA and camera etc is around 4 kgs,  1kg under the recommended 5 kg wt limit. With the supplied counterweight all the way to the end of the CW shift I would not balance the rig. Thankfully I had a few small SW counterweights around to balance. 

So after a bit of a phaff with jumping between the home, mount and ASI air wifi I got everything connected.  So Last night was a quick trial, I had a 40 min clear spell.  Polar alignment was easy with the ASI, mount adjustments in RA & DEC are nice and smooth. Once I figured how to set my home point I slewed to various targets all of which were dead centre. BTW this mount is quite noisy slewing in the dead of night.  Onto guiding, this was the biggest surprise, RMS sat between 0.6 - 0.85 the whole time.

I noted a few issues one of which was the polar illuminator, when I Initially set up the mount I wanted to eyeball and centre the pole star prior to ASi polar alignment . With the polar illuminator turned to the lowest setting it was still too bright to see sny stars. I had to turn it off to see any stars.  Will look at this next clear night.

So picture of rig below. Still so cable manage but I think this is going to be a great portable set up.

 

That's way more guide scope than you need on that setup. Get a little 30mm and you will save quite a bit of weight. 

[Astroscot2]

4 minutes ago, Adam J said:

That's way more guide scope than you need on that setup. Get a little 30mm and you will save quite a bit of weight. 

I originally had a ZWO guidescope, 30mm I think, found the optics really poor, bloated guide stars,  a UV filter didn't help. The optics in the WO are excellent? It's only a 50 f4 guidescope not heavy at all

 

[Adam J]

10 minutes ago, Astroscot2 said:

I originally had a ZWO guidescope, 30mm I think, found the optics really poor, bloated guide stars,  a UV filter didn't help. The optics in the WO are excellent? It's only a 50 f4 guidescope not heavy at all

 

Odd I have a cheap 50pound Svbony 30mm guide scope with an IR cut filter on the camera. No bloat worth mentioning. That ZWO one must be a bit rubbish then. It won't be much but in a mobile rig I take every bit I can get, not needing that second counter weight would be a big advantage. Did not know the red cat 51 was so heavy. Counter weight is about half way down with my FMA180 setup . 

Edited August 28, 2022 by Adam J

[Astroscot2]

 I'm just under 4kgs at the moment, I could swap out the guidescope and use my OAG, would possibly allowed to balance with the supplied CW?

 

How did you get on last night? 

[Elp]

If it's built anything like an azgti you can put more load onto it if you don't get any guiding or mechanical issues, I'm currently at 6kg imaging payload only with the azgti and get 0.5-1.5 RMS typical autoguiding at around 200mm guidescope FL.

Edited August 28, 2022 by Elp

[Adam J]

On 27/08/2022 at 15:34, Astroscot2 said:

Adam have you been able to view through the polar scope yet? I'm unable to see any stars at the lowest illumination setting?

 

I have not touched my illumination setting from default and I can see Polaris. Check the following. 

1) You have focused the polar scope. 

2) you have removed the polar scope cap. 

3) you have rotated the deck to position the hole in the deck correctly. (look down through the hole from above). 

Adam 

[Astroscot2]

Hello Adam,  yes all of the above. I can see star's clearly with the illuminator switched off. At lowest setting on the light swamps the view and flickers slightly. Will check tonight. 

 

Thanks

[edjrgibbs]

Mine arrived! Haven't tested it beyond checking that it connects etc. Need a clear night. Compared to my AZ GTI there's really not much in it. I was worried it would be much bigger. 

 

[Doversole]

Thanks for starting this thread!

I am a happy owner of the Gti!

I use it with a Redcat 51 and ASIAIR to control it. I have conntected the mount using a standard USB cable and the same parameters than for the EQ6r-pro (Eqmod mount, 115200 baud).

It works pretty well except after a Meridian flip when the guiding will go all wrong as if the mount stopped tracking at all. It's not due to the ASIAIR as I exoerienced the same problem using a laptoo, APT and PHD2. If I stop the autorun sequence, go back to the object,  start guiding again and restart the autorun sequence, it will work fine again. Anyone did experience a similar issue?

Thanks for the 5 pixels dither tip, I will look into it.