My First attempt using my new Rig Never did it before. Andromeda Galaxy

[DSOBug]

Red Cat 51, ASIair Plus, 120 mm Guide Cam, AM5 Mount,  Canon 60D, iso 1600 with 5min Exposure.

[Bugdozer]

What does the ASIair plus actually do for you here? I have read descriptions of it but it's just confusing.

[tooth_dr]

I love the cable management. 

[DSOBug]

invisible wires LOL the Asiair app helps you go through the steps to setup your rig for taking great DSO objects....

[Elp]

More specifically it is the brains of the setup and manages the whole image acquisition process so once setup (focus, polar alignment, imaging plan) you can just leave it and it'll continue to image, control the autoguiding, meridian flip when required, even change targets and plate solve as long as it's within the plan and stars are still visible. It basically replaces the need for an actual PC to control everything.

Nice setup btw and a result, did you do a few hours imaging or just the one image?

[Bugdozer]

17 hours ago, Elp said:

More specifically it is the brains of the setup and manages the whole image acquisition process so once setup (focus, polar alignment, imaging plan) you can just leave it and it'll continue to image, control the autoguiding, meridian flip when required, even change targets and plate solve as long as it's within the plan and stars are still visible. It basically replaces the need for an actual PC to control everything.

Nice setup btw and a result, did you do a few hours imaging or just the one image?

I still don't understand this. Focus: it doesn't have a screen, so how can you tell if you're in focus? Polar alignment: you are still going to need to make physical adjustments to the setup if the alignment is out, right? 

[Elp]

5 minutes ago, Bugdozer said:

I still don't understand this. Focus: it doesn't have a screen, so how can you tell if you're in focus? Polar alignment: you are still going to need to make physical adjustments to the setup if the alignment is out, right? 

You use the phone or tablet app to interact with it and control it. In the app there's a PA routine which tells you how far off you are, and yes you physically adjust the mount to suit. There's also a focus routine which is real time, select a star and it zooms in and you can manually adjust focus on the scope to get the smallest FWHM you can. It can also control an attached ZWO EAF and ZWO filter wheel.

[Ouroboros]

19 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

I love the cable management. 

It’s ZWO’s new telepathic mode. You have to believe in it otherwise it doesn’t work. 

[Ouroboros]

@DSOBug.  That looks a very nice set up. Looks like your guiding is working and the stars are round out to the edges.

Are you planning to stick with the  DSLR for the time being or have you got your sights on a dedicated astro camera? 

Anyway, you should have some fun capturing some wide-field shots.  

[Adam-R]

I know you should judge a setup by the images you get, but damn that looks cool! 

[uhb1966]

@DSOBug Beautiful gear, looks pretty expensive! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[chewie]

22 hours ago, Bugdozer said:

I still don't understand this. Focus: it doesn't have a screen, so how can you tell if you're in focus? Polar alignment: you are still going to need to make physical adjustments to the setup if the alignment is out, right? 

The "Air" is a load of different functions in one box. A viewscreen is via your phone or tablet as from this the exact co ords and time data for your location can be pulled so it knows exactly where you are setup at.

Polar alignment, you start the app for it and it will snap an image in its Home position and then rotate the scope approx 60 degrees and snap another photo, from that it will tell you how far out in hrs/mins/secs that your polar alignment is out, you then manually adjust the mount incrementally whilst refreshing and this allows you to dial in the PA down to within a few seconds of error.

Target acquisition, it has a built in planetarium akin to stellarium, this can be used to plot mosaics or single images.

Plan mode, you create the imaging sequence within this function, exposure lengths, shot number, filter etc etc, once plan mode is engaged it will then goto the target, plate solve and set guiding, set auto focus (if you have an EAF) , set filter (if you use an EFW) and start the imaging plan until completion whereby it will return to home and power itself down.

Connectivity, I run mine via a lan cable into a mains plug in extender, they also have there own wireless connection for near hand connection to a phone or tablet, the lan cable can also go straight to a router.

They have limited storage onboard around 20gb for the mk1 plus with the mk2 plus now having 256gb i believe though you can just plugin a thumb drive for image storage.

They are a fantastic piece of equipment and they remove an awful lot of the headaches anyone starting out will encounter in trying to get various programs and bits of gear  to talk to each other and run more or less flawlessly. The one big downside to it is as almost everyone says is that it limits you to the ZWO line of equipment other than Canon, Nikon and Sony DSLR's for main imaging camera. Now though instead of a laptop and 3 cables (power, eq mod and usb) coming out from my shed to run my setup I now just have 1 (power). Those are the main functions of it though they do have more.

[DSOBug]

I used a Ipad and this was a one shot image with half moon behind me. with no filters

Edited October 26, 2023 by DSOBug