cashd115 Still sad that this company refuses to support other focusers.

Considering how much resources they have to put into ASIAIR, the product might actually be a loss leader.

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/lossleader.asp

Unlike open sourced programs, ASIAIR's main reason for existance is not to make the user happy, but to capture novice users (who are the ones wanting "easy as 1,2,3," instead of "better than 1,2,3" programs) into their eco system. ASIAIR exists to sell more cameras (and thus also OAG), electronic focusers, EFW, Mounts, etc, etc.

Supporting other manufacturers' focusers would just defeat the purpose of marketing the ASIAIR.

Their recent release of an even cheaper ASIAIR is further example of that strategy.

Chen

      Hi all, I just cannot plate solve. Everything was working fine until the most recent update 2.1-10.71. And really I have had issues with plate solving continually since the updates hit v2, before then I have never had issues with anything. Everything all went smoothly.

      Celestron EdgeHD8 with 0.7 reducer
      Celestron 0.7 Reducer
      Celestron OAG
      iOptron CEM40G
      533MC Pro
      174MM Mini guide cam
      AIR Plus
      ZWO EAF

      I have made sure the focal length is correct that the scope is focused. I have set it manually and set to 0 for the air to calculate it, with no success.

      I have uninstalled and re-installed.

      I really do not know what more I can say, I am completely lost as to what to do.

      Regards

      • w7ay replied to this.

        ShinyAstro I have made sure the focal length is correct that the scope is focused. I have set it manually and set to 0 for the air to calculate it, with no success.

        Before asking ASIAIR to auto plate solve, try doing it manually from the Preview window where you can adjust gain and exposure times. Plus, you can also use the Detect Star tool in the Preview window to check if ASIAIR can actually see a good number of stars.

        First, make sure that you have tack sharp focus. This is crucial. Try focusing first with a Bahtinov mask.

        Next, adjust gain/exposure time so that the plate solver can detect between 50 and 200 stars. I have seen it solve with as few as two dozen stars. Try to adjust gain/exposure time so that not too many of the stars are saturated, otherwise you have fewer stars in the database to rely on -- as far as I can tell ASIAIR rejects over-saturated stars (stars whose diameter are over some amount) when plate solving. This is also why unfocused stars don't plate solve.

        Make sure there are no shadows, such as chimneys and tree branches, or a small patch of clouds in the camera's view. It confuses the heck out of the ASIAIR plate solver.

        Finally, don't even waste time plate solving above +60º or below -60º declination angles (i.e., within 30º of the poles). ASIAIR does not have sufficiently good database in those regions. Use the astrometry.net web plate solver for those regions.

        Plate solve only involves your OTA and the main camera. Nothing else matters -- the OAG does not come into play (unless the prism casts a shadow), the mount does not come into play, and the guide scope does not come into play unless you are plate solving the guide camera.

        Chen

          Tree things please:

          1. "center here" does not work with my RASA36 (a one mirror-telescope, so mirrored image). This function was very helpful for widefield image composition.
          2. with the new Sony support please produce the discontinued the Sony E-mount adapter (or a better version).
          3. Please remove the rotating splash screens, they makes me really angry and nervous (I use a a holder in my observatory for my iPad in fixed landscape mode). This make your software from the beginning look like cheap crab - but in fact ist a high quality, expensive product. www.possi.space

          Hey I have a problem, I'm not sure if it is related to the Beta.
          First my Setup: ASOAIR Plus with Beta Software and a Sony a7iii with a 420mm APO attached to an SkyWatcher StarAdventure 2i.
          Yesterday was my first night in the field with the ASIAIR Plus, the setup PolarAlignment etc. was no big deal, then i searched my target M33 also no big deal.
          I took some Preview Pictures to test, and it looked perfect to me, then I set up an AutoRun and Started it, but with the first picture taken I was confused it was Low Resolution I mean 984x662 Pixels i stopped the Autorun and took another Preview and the Resolution was Ten times better and accurate to the FullFrame 6000 x 3376 pixels big Sensor.
          I thought maybe it's just a Preview and let it run further, after 2 Hours I run into the Horizon so i changed my Target To the Pleiades same thing Preview looks awesome, but now the Actual size is 1312x882 pixels.
          After some time I packed up and today I wanted to process them and I saw that the Size from above is the real size of the .fits.
          So now my first question is there a setting parameter that i don't know or is this a Bug. I searched a lot but cant find anything.

          And my second question is there an Option to save the Pictures also directly to the SD Card in the DSLR:

          Greeting Jake

            pxljake the filenames do reference binning (Bin3 for the Pleiades and Bin4 for M33) so the reduced resolution kinda makes sense. Have you set it manually to those values or did it on its own?

                @PMTeam@ZWO just noticed the shut down label on the power off slider is misaligned in 2.1.53 and previous versions. Also, is it just me or two buttons would have been better? I do understand that this way it would be harder to accidentally restart/power off the unit, but still I find them awkward to use.

                erossi Ohhh now everything makes sense and yeah im pretty sure I changed it.
                I know Binning and used it with my old camera but I was not even close to connect one to another, In my head bin 1-4 were folders or sorting options of some kind.

                Thanks al lot i can’t think around how stupid i was

                  PMTeam@ZWO Can you guys take a look at my topic regarding the problem with All Sky Polar Alignment (ASPA)?

                  After the update to 2.0/2.1, I was never able to polar align again through ASPA (AzGti and Asiair v1). The Tracking seems to be Off, even though it shows On in the menu, and the error just accumulates at a constant rate during the adjustment phase (after the 3 plate solving routine).

                  I managed to downgrade to 1.9.1 using a 3rd party app manager (Aptoide) (was a huge pain since ZWO seems to have complicated the access to previous app versions during the resource download within the app). It completely solved the issue!

                  I have a topic with many discussions and a video showing the problem. This has been almost 3l4 months now not being able to PA!

                      23/03 [2.1-10.74] New Public Beta Version
                      DATE-OBS of FITS header: change to exposure start time
                      Fixed the problem of inaccurate calculation of plan estimated time
                      Fixed the problem that Canon EOS Rebel T8i does not recognize
                      Fixed the problem of white balance in video
                      Fixed the display exception when the camera returns an odd number of image pixels
                      Fixed the star selection exception in Guiding

                      This version still doesn’t recognize my Canon T8i. Is there anything else I need to do?

                      This Sony Support is very interesting. I don't own an ASI Air but I will buy one in a a minute if it will support autofocus with a Sony A7R4 camera. I know Gphoto2 supports this but Sony limits a single focus move command to 7 steps and Kstars/Indi doesn't understand this.

                      Kurt

                        Ispybadguys why would you want to use autofocus for astrophotography? Even with f2.8 and a 600mm lens you will have poor focus. this is why you would use an eaf and a belt with the lens set to manual focus. The asi air can then iteratively adjust focus

                          @PMTeam@ZWO please get the Canon R6 Mark II added! I already worked with the dev @ libgphoto2 and he added the USB ID and included the camera!

                          Can the next build version have the feature of park position and home position?

                          The park position is whatever you set it to. People with roll-off roof observatories, often want a park position where the counterweight arm is horizontal and the scope is horizontal. This minimizes the height of the rig to allow for roof clearance.
                          Thanks

                            YES, I also want the park feature for my Comec 10Micron HPS3000 mount. There are a lot of roll-off roof users out there...

                            neptune2015 there is home but it's buried at bottom of mount settings. Would love a much easier/faster way to go to mount home. great suggestion on park and making it easy to get to.

                              Beta 2.1 even worst experience for my CGX mount than the latest stable version (if that is even possible). I will sell this Asiair Plus, it was a total dissapointment.