18 replies to this topic

[Maritime]

I have an 8 inch Celestron edgehd sct, on an evolution mount. My asiair pro arrives Monday. I’ve been using an asi 290mc and a laptop to attempt learning planetary and some dark object imaging but find asi studio and sharp cap with a laptop inconvenient. I use an iPad for my evolution mount’s wifi and hope to do the same. I use starsense to align, and initially plan to continue using starsense, with the asiair pro being used to avoid connecting cables and a laptop-later, I may move to alignment and plate solving with the pro. 
 

I’d really like to hear the experiences of other evolution or other alt az users in this context. Thanks

Edited by Maritime, 04 December 2020 - 06:55 PM.

[alphatripleplus]

I have an 8 inch Celestron edgehd sct, on an evolution mount. My asiair pro arrives Monday. I’ve been using an asi 290mc and a laptop to attempt learning planetary and some dark object imaging but find asi studio and sharp cap with a laptop inconvenient

Not sure what "dark object imaging" is - Do you mean Deep Sky Object (DSO) Imaging by any chance?

[Maritime]

Yes. Bad whiskey. 

[HSTeach]

Hello Maritime,

 

I am somewhat of a noob and ended up sending the asiAir pro back.  I have a Evolution 8" SCT.  It seemed like the ASIair was primarily geared for EQ mounts (Icons, features, etc)  I had to do some research to figure out the best way to connect to the EVO Alt-Az.  Ultimately, I had to connect to the hand controller via Mini USB and use 9600 Baud (If my memory serves me correct)  Nevertheless, take my experiences with a grain a salt....   Perhaps, someone else on this forum can enlighten us on how to best use the EVO mount with the ASIair pro.  I like the concept and am considering ditching the EVO mount just to utilize the ASIair optimally.

 

Phil

[Maritime]

Sounds like my potential situation, but I’ve read posts by others who simply aligned the Evo, then connected its wifi to the pro and were off!  I guess I’ll find out....

[robglinka]

I've been looking into doing the same thing with my Evolution mount. Please post results so I know if it's worth picking up!

 

Thanks!

[Maritime]

When I told you my name I told you everything I know....

[HarveyDeckAstro]

Is there update on this topic? Both have Wi-Fi, do they get into each other’s way?

[Nightwatchers]

I have an 8 inch Celestron edgehd sct, on an evolution mount. My asiair pro arrives Monday. I’ve been using an asi 290mc and a laptop to attempt learning planetary and some dark object imaging but find asi studio and sharp cap with a laptop inconvenient. I use an iPad for my evolution mount’s wifi and hope to do the same. I use starsense to align, and initially plan to continue using starsense, with the asiair pro being used to avoid connecting cables and a laptop-later, I may move to alignment and plate solving with the pro. 
 

I’d really like to hear the experiences of other evolution or other alt az users in this context. Thanks

Have the same scope and mount here as well as the ASI290MC and ASIAIR Pro. I know there is a way to connect the asiair pro to the Evo mount, have not tried that yet. Am simply connecting the iPad to the asiair through WiFi and using the hand controller and starsense for controlling the mount. So only GoTo and tracking, no other guiding solution so far.

 

I was just using the setup for planetary and lunar imaging attempts and then stumbled, by pure chance, into what I call my first go at EAA. Wanted to test the 290mc on DSOs last month, was playing with gain setting and changed the WiFi frequency to 5Ghz and was able to get pretty neat views of M27 as well as of the Western Veil Nebula. And the WiFi connection was strong enough for me to step back into the house (am observing and imaging on the terrace) and show the rest of the family the basically live view through the scope.

Now, for full disclosure: while I was using the Evo mount, I wasn’t using the C8, but rather a faster WO SpaceCat scope piggyback on the SCT.

Here a snapshot of what it looked like:

 

 

Have just received the Hyperstar reducer from Starizona and am planning on using the same approach via asiair pro and ipad first chance I get to dive more into EAA. And without another scope piggybacking on the C8, the setup will look cleaner as the asiair usually sits on that spot for planetary. The asiair also powers the condensation heater and will power a cooled camera, once I use one. It has 4x 12V ports. Keeps the cable salad to a minimum.

Edited by Nightwatchers, 25 December 2020 - 04:08 AM.

[Maritime]

Nice. Do you align with starsense, first. 

[Nightwatchers]

Yes i do a full Star Sense align every time I set up and ensure tracking rate is set to the right category. Am thinking of adding a few additional reference alignments, apparently it improves accuracy.

[Maritime]

Thanks for posting. Zurich is a beautiful place. 

[Maritime]

What is the relevant of 5ghz versus 2.4?  Thanks

[Nightwatchers]

What is the relevant of 5ghz versus 2.4?  Thanks

Faster WiFi transmission between the asiair pro and the tablet (iPad in my case). Less range but I usually am not planning to go anywhere far from the telescope anyway, so fine with me.

[HarveyDeckAstro]

Nice setup!

[Kabookiep]

I am looking at an EAA setup myself for a 8" Evolution by Celestron.  I like the idea of connecting to an ipad but what made you go with ASIAIR and ASI290MC equipment?  I am looking into this and there are so many items to choose from.  Just trying to find some ground

[Nightwatchers]

When I started on my astroimaging journey, I wanted a platform around an interface which was fully compatible with iPad and iPhone OS. ZWO‘s ASIAir was one of those few I came across. Reviews were good, so I gave it a go.

The ASI290MC was mainly meant for planetary imaging and I never really intended to use it for EAA. It just kind of happened one day  . I have since upgraded to the ASI294MC, which I intent to use for DSO imaging as well attempt EAA more purposefully. It‘s larger sensor also makes for a much wider FOW. Now that I am more interested in EAA, I could also connect a Mac directly to the camera, ZWO has a desktop/laptop version of the ASIAir Pro’s interface, called ASICAP. Works very well on Mac, I gave it a try a few weeks ago to bench test the new camera.

[cpl43uk]

This is very interesting. Where I am based I have no sight of Polaris or indeed much of the Ursa Minor region so I have always used my StarSense on my 8" SCT/AVX in a routine that does not need Polaris and I find it accurate enough to see resulting targets in the FoV bit not always in the centre of a high mag eyepiece. I usually set the alignment up with wide field of view EP and then recalibrate GOTOs in SkySafari app thereafter. I then control the scope via iPad/Sky Safari.

 

If I were to use the ASIAIR with a camera chain I would lose the visual check for the initial alignment (unless I align visually and then replace the optic chain with the camera chain).

 

So my questions.

a) Can you continue to use Starsense to do the initial alignments and then switch over to ASIAIR to view the image from the camera and get live stacking to improve the image quality to see the "faint fuzzy". I assume you can focus with the Celestron OTA.

b) Could ASIAIR actually control the scope after Starsense alignment and thereafter do its own plate solving and GOTOs via Safari or must AIR always need its own polar alignment routine before it will control.

c) How do you find ASI camera cope with Moon/Planet imaging as well as Deep Sky in a single package when "astroimage quality" is not a goal? Is is really hard to get the initial GOTO to work with such a small sensor vs the initial alignment errors that will creep into play using Starsense?

 

Personally I am not looking for accurate guiding but enough to get to objects and then stack a few images to improve the chance of seeing some of the DSOs

 

Any thoughts would be welcome before I pull the trigger... Thinking ASI224 or 533...

[HarveyDeckAstro]

This is very interesting. Where I am based I have no sight of Polaris or indeed much of the Ursa Minor region so I have always used my StarSense on my 8" SCT/AVX in a routine that does not need Polaris and I find it accurate enough to see resulting targets in the FoV bit not always in the centre of a high mag eyepiece. I usually set the alignment up with wide field of view EP and then recalibrate GOTOs in SkySafari app thereafter. I then control the scope via iPad/Sky Safari.

 

If I were to use the ASIAIR with a camera chain I would lose the visual check for the initial alignment (unless I align visually and then replace the optic chain with the camera chain).

 

So my questions.

a) Can you continue to use Starsense to do the initial alignments and then switch over to ASIAIR to view the image from the camera and get live stacking to improve the image quality to see the "faint fuzzy". I assume you can focus with the Celestron OTA.

b) Could ASIAIR actually control the scope after Starsense alignment and thereafter do its own plate solving and GOTOs via Safari or must AIR always need its own polar alignment routine before it will control.

c) How do you find ASI camera cope with Moon/Planet imaging as well as Deep Sky in a single package when "astroimage quality" is not a goal? Is is really hard to get the initial GOTO to work with such a small sensor vs the initial alignment errors that will creep into play using Starsense?

 

Personally I am not looking for accurate guiding but enough to get to objects and then stack a few images to improve the chance of seeing some of the DSOs

 

Any thoughts would be welcome before I pull the trigger... Thinking ASI224 or 533...

I have used ASIAir Pro with NexStar 130 slt and ASI462MC. The camera has a small chip; it is mainly for planetary imaging. But it can also do a limited DSO EAA with ASIAir Pro. I have recently started experimenting with this set up for live stacking, and it definitely gives a lot of enjoyment. Attached is the core area of Orion Nebula with this approach, live stacked for a few 10 s shots. This is the FOV of the camera  with the f5 primary focus.

 

I do alignment visually, switch on the camera, focus, and use ASIAir Pro + App thereafter. I can go inside house and play with live stacking or taking series of shots on iPad with AIRAir App. The App can control the telescope.

 

This is of course not a serious astrophotography of DSOs. But seeing these DSOs popping up on the iPad is quite exciting!

 

A camera with a bigger chip would be nice.

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