First night using ASiair Plus - Questions

tbhausen

Howdy everyone! Just had first night with ASiair Plus (new version) and Star Adventurer GTi carrying Takahashi FS-60C. Cameras are ASI535MC and guiding with ASI120mm Mini and 30F4. I'm connected via EQmod (USB cable that came with the mount running at 9600 baud). I managed to get both scopes focused (the Tak's drawtube is a bit less than 1cm from fully retracted--ideal). I could plate solve reliably and even got the guiding to settle in at under .7 arcsec at one point, which I thought was pretty remarkable (it usually hovered between 1.5 and 2"). I do have a handful of questions, because I couldn't get the mount to target objects successfully after polar aligning to within one arcminute.

Do I turn on tracking before or after polar alignment?
I'm setting up pointed to magnetic north with counterweight down. Do I need to somehow tell the ASiair this is "home position" before polar aligning?
After polar alignment succeeds (when RA rotates 60 degrees west), if I go to Polaris, it's usually in my scope's 1.8 x 1 degree FOV, but centering fails. So I think I'm missing a step somewhere...
Finally, when switching modes (PA, Preview, Live, etc.), the 585MC will sometimes seem to lose connection with the ASiair and immediately report "Exposure Failure". I've been restarting ASiair when this happens. Any suggestions on this issue?

Thanks... this is a great community!

enaiman

tbhausen

Do I turn on tracking before or after polar alignment?

Tracking turns on automatically after first successful GoTo - no need to turn it on manually

I'm setting up pointed to magnetic north with counterweight down. Do I need to somehow tell the ASiair this is "home position" before polar aligning?

"Home Position" is whatever position the mount is found to be when AA starts up. Before turning on anything, put your mount manually in the desired position. Turn on mount then turn on AA.

After polar alignment succeeds (when RA rotates 60 degrees west), if I go to Polaris, it's usually in my scope's 1.8 x 1 degree FOV, but centering fails. So I think I'm missing a step somewhere...

Plate solving is not working very well (sometimes not at all) near the NCP

Clavius_001

Hy ... Have you set up the " home position " in the mount ?

tbhausen

Clavius_001 I think that might be what I’m lacking. Do I need SynScan to do that? Or is it done on ASiair?

Clavius_001

Try this first : put both axis ortogonal with a bubble level. May be better accurate than you have now.
Take a picture , plate solve and hit align the mount.

Clavius_001

Or .... Much more accurate https://www.myastroscience.com/homeposition

tbhausen

I think that’s my problem… not turning mount on first. I’ll try again tonight.

tbhausen

Got everything working last night. I’ll get some images posted somewhere. The ASiair is tons of fun!

Horsehead

Don’t worry about trying to go to Polaris or plate solving within 5 degrees of the north celestial pole, because it ain’t gonna happen. The ASIAIR will tell you that. Your best shot at Polaris will come right after your polar alignment. Just use the ra and dec controls to center the object. It IS somewhat difficult, so don’t give up and ask the mount or ASIAIR to try. It will meridian flip back and forth until you destroy something.

tbhausen

Horsehead haha yeah, I've learned that... ASiair will usually put Polaris in my 1.8 x 1 degrees FOV, but never can center it.