The Amateur Astronomy Thread

[stephec]

Looking forward to a full review!!

According to the Clear Outside app there's a slight chance of clear skies tonight and Monday.

I've already had the mount set up in the garden doing an imaginary two star alignment using Stellarium, then getting all giddy when I tell it to go and find Jupiter. 😂

 

[Bazzer]

I've just taken delivery of something new and shiny, all I need now is a clear night to try it out properly - https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-watcher-az-gti-wifi/sky-watcher-skymax-127-az-gti.html

I hope the instruction manual is better than that with the Star Adventurer GTi. That was the source of hours of frustration for me.

 

[stephec]

I hope the instruction manual is better than that with the Star Adventurer GTi. That was the source of hours of frustration for me.

They're not too bad, although I did the manly thing of putting it all together before even looking at the book. 😂

 

[Bazzer]

They're not too bad, although I did the manly thing of putting it all together before even looking at the book. 😂

View attachment 752120

View attachment 752121

Putting it together was easy bit. With as yet, not having plate solving equipment, It was the software conflicts with Stellarium that did my head in.

 

[stephec]

Putting it together was easy bit. With as yet, not having plate solving equipment, It was the software conflicts with Stellarium that did my head in.

Does it link to Stellarium, I've got the Skyscan app going at the moment?

 

[Psamathe]

Does it link to Stellarium, I've got the Skyscan app going at the moment?

I'm a great enthusiast of IndiLib, Support for a massive range of gear but it's distributed processing support is excellent (eg leave a Raspberry Pi running IndiLib outside with the scope (controlling the pointing, corrections, etc as well as collecting data from any camera and indoors control it all from your main computer using KStarts (planetarium software. Very wide range of computer platforms. And all free.

Ian

 

[Profpointy]

I've just taken delivery of something new and shiny, all I need now is a clear night to try it out properly - https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-watcher-az-gti-wifi/sky-watcher-skymax-127-az-gti.html

That should be a very nice piece of kit, in a quite handy small sized package. I'm given to understand Maksutovs are optically superior to the Schmidt Cassgrains

 

[Bazzer]

Does it link to Stellarium, I've got the Skyscan app going at the moment?

I can link and control the GTi through Stellarium. However, at least with my hardware/software set up, there is a conflict between Stellarium and the Synscan app. This is irrespective of whether the mount control is configured to run with either ASCOM or the Synscan app driver.
So, for example, currently I have to do the intial polar aligment visually. The app, particularly the phone app, I found helpful for this and I also sought to fine tune the alignment using the app by doing a two or three star alignment. However, whether it was fine tuning for polar aligment or using the go to function to another star, the mount would never settle down. I could leave it 15 mins and it was still not settled on the star.
Long story short, after hours of frustration, I found that the way that worked for me was to use the mobile app to set up the polar alignment, with the only usb connected being that to my camera for live view. Once that had been done, then I could connect my mount's usb that linked to Stellarium. If the mount's USB was connected whilst aligning, even if it was switched off, the go to function would never settle down.

 

[stephec]

I'm a great enthusiast of IndiLib, Support for a massive range of gear but it's distributed processing support is excellent (eg leave a Raspberry Pi running IndiLib outside with the scope (controlling the pointing, corrections, etc as well as collecting data from any camera and indoors control it all from your main computer using KStarts (planetarium software. Very wide range of computer platforms. And all free.

Ian

I can link and control the GTi through Stellarium. However, at least with my hardware/software set up, there is a conflict between Stellarium and the Synscan app. This is irrespective of whether the mount control is configured to run with either ASCOM or the Synscan app driver.
So, for example, currently I have to do the intial polar aligment visually. The app, particularly the phone app, I found helpful for this and I also sought to fine tune the alignment using the app by doing a two or three star alignment. However, whether it was fine tuning for polar aligment or using the go to function to another star, the mount would never settle down. I could leave it 15 mins and it was still not settled on the star.
Long story short, after hours of frustration, I found that the way that worked for me was to use the mobile app to set up the polar alignment, with the only usb connected being that to my camera for live view. Once that had been done, then I could connect my mount's usb that linked to Stellarium. If the mount's USB was connected whilst aligning, even if it was switched off, the go to function would never settle down.

As someone who's not a lover of playing around with software a lot of that is like this to me, I'll see what I can do though. 😂

 

[stephec]

That should be a very nice piece of kit, in a quite handy small sized package. I'm given to understand Maksutovs are optically superior to the Schmidt Cassgrains

Never tried an SCT but the smaller 90 mak that I've already got made my mind up for the new 127.

 

[wheresthetorch]

According to the Clear Outside app there's a slight chance of clear skies tonight and Monday.

Did you get a clear night last night to try it out? It was beautifully clear here on the south coast.

I took this shot of the moon,and had some fine views of Jupiter - spent time watching Io slowly reappear from behind the planet.

 

[Drago]

It was clear early on here in Poshshire, Jupiter rising just south of east. Sadly, by the time I'd returned with Mini D from her piano lesson it had clouded over.

 

[stephec]

I was out for an hour before the clouds came over, Jupiter was still hiding behind a neighbour's house at that time though.

Got some good views of Saturn but not super clear so the seeing probably wasn't perfect, and thanks to the focal length of my new scope the moon more than filled the frame with a 32mm ep, a good excuse to get a 40mm ep I think. 🙂

Had some fun playing with the goto, didn't take too long and that could be done whilst the scope was cooling down.

I don't know if it was my alignment or not but it didn't go exactly where I asked it to, Saturn was towards the edge of a lower powered eyepiece, plenty accurate enough for me to centre it and then switch to a higher power though.

One thing that seems to be common with it, there's a few posts on the Stargazerslounge.com forum about this, is that when you manually centre an object to you can confirm it's location, but when you go back to it after looking at something else it returns to the original position, and not the updated one that you confirmed last time.

Once I've had a few goes at it I should be alright with it, last night though I felt like I was in an episode of Thunderbirds watching it sliding round and whirring away. 😂

 

[MontyVeda]

there's an annoying bank of cloud on the western horizon obscuring Mercury and Saturn in the great procession... can't see Jupiter or Mars either due to being indoors, but Venus is looking nice tonight. Maybe tomorrow.

 

[stephec]

There's an annoying lot of peeing it down go on round here, so nothing at all to look at.

Nice and clear last night though as I was walking the dog.