ASI air plus plate solving

[Detec]

Good morning, Last night I actually had a clear night for the first time in weeks. I got out my new ASI 585mc camera and decided to take pics of Jupiter on my ED-120 refractor.

I hadnt connected the ASI 585mc to the refractor before, I had it on my celestron C8 and it worked perfectly. But last night I could not get the ASIair plus to polar align, it would not plate solve. I thought maybe my focusing was out so I used the bahtenov mask to obtain perfect focus. It found 43 stars but I still could not polar align & plate solve.  I tried powering off and starting again and still the same. The ASIair has version 1.91 (9.97) running which has been fine up till now. So I am wondering if the problem was connecting the ASI585mc to the refractor could be the problem or the ASIair?

In the end I tried ignoring the polar alignment, and tried to goto Jupiter. It missed Jupiter but found 212 stars but still wouldnt plate solve. So I spent 3 hours and didnt do anything.

Has anyone else had this type of problem?

[Elp]

I've had similar but sounds like you've got the experience using it to troubleshoot the usual issues. I've only ever had it due to the following:

1. The obvious doh moment but the scope is too low and pointing to a building/fence,

2. Dewed over scope, even a little,

3. FWHM stars around 4+, this sometimes happens also due to point 2.

Have you got another camera you can try whilst the 585 is doing its no-go as that will eliminate the asi air unit being the route cause, I sometime switch on the fly between guidescope cam and main cam if I get issues which sometimes helps fault finding whilst outside.

Edited September 25, 2022 by Elp

[Budgie1]

Did you change the scope focal length setting in the ASIAir from your C8 to that of the ED120, or are they the same?

[Detec]

1 hour ago, Elp said:

I've had similar but sounds like you've got the experience using it to troubleshoot the usual issues. I've only ever had it due to the following:

1. The obvious doh moment but the scope is too low and pointing to a building/fence,

2. Dewed over scope, even a little,

3. FWHM stars around 4+, this sometimes happens also due to point 2.

Have you got another camera you can try whilst the 585 is doing its no-go as that will eliminate the asi air unit being the route cause, I sometime switch on the fly between guidescope cam and main cam if I get issues which sometimes helps fault finding whilst outside.

I checked if the lens had dew but it was fine.

1 hour ago, Budgie1 said:

Did you change the scope focal length setting in the ASIAir from your C8 to that of the ED120, or are they the same?

I changed the focal length and also tried entering "0" so it would decide itself.

All I could think about in the end is that ASIair was a bit corrupted somehow. So today I have reset to factory and then updated. The only problem now is I probably have to wait five or six weeks for a clear night.