Your workflow should generally go something like this (especially when doing things for the first time or if it has been a while). This is what I do for my setup - ASIAIR Plus, C8 SCT, ASI294MC Pro camera, HEQ5 Pro mount.
Note: I don't use a guide scope or guide camera. So you will need to set up guiding after doing this. Unfortunately, I'm not the best help there since I do use guiding.
Late afternoon before sunset. Set up and level tripod (N to True North or True South depending on hemisphere). Attach mount and gear. Connect everything but leave it all powered off. Balance it all. Place your rig in the correct physical Home position (counterweights down). Leave cover on front of scope.
Turn on ASIAIR. Connect with App and go past initial settings screen. Go to WiFi icon and turn power on to camera. Go to Main Camera settings and enable camera. Ensure cooling is on to desired temp (with limits based on ambient temp).
Turn on mount. In ASIAIR App- go to Mount settings and enable mount.
Once camera has settled on target temp, while still in Preview Mode, user mount controls to slew the mount (increase slew rate) so that the telescope is pointing at a distant object at least 500m away AND away from the sun. Use finderscope (or just eyeball it) to check where you're pointing.
Now remove cap from telescope. Put ASIAIR into Video Mode. Adjust the exposure - you'll need to drop it right down - so that you can see the object you're looking at. If you're out of focus - you'll see nothing or just blurry screen. Slowly adjust your focussing knob until you finally start seeing something. See if you can get it as sharp as possible. If you need to slew the mount to get your distant daylight target in the middle of your view do so. Check alignment with finderscope. Adjust finderscope alignment if necessary.
Note: if you have an SCT make sure the last turn of the focus knob is counter clockwise.
Once you have distant object daylight focus you have rough focus that'll be close to star focus. Put ASIAIR back into Preview mode. Put cap on telescope. Go to mount settings - choose the option to Go Home. Check if the ASIAIR correctly sends mount to physical Home position.
In ASIAIR App - select option to shut down ASIAIR. Once it shuts down, turn it off. Turn off mount. Power off to everything. Wait for night.
Night. Do steps 2-3. Remove telescope cap. Wait until camera reaches desired temp.
Use finderscope (or just eyeball it) and mount slew controls in ASIAIR to slew telescope to a part of night sky with stars. Take a single exposure in Preview mode. See what it looks like. Adjust focus, and repeat until stars look closer to dots. You could also do this in video mode or focus mode (again, adjust exposure as needed).
Note: if you have an SCT make sure the last turn of the focus knob is counter clockwise.
Now go to Main Camera settings. Set focal length to 0. Go to Preview Mode. Take an exposure and see if it can plate solve. If successfully done it should set the focal length. Use whatever it calculates. Go to mount settings choose Go Home.
Once mount goes to Home position now start Polar Alignment routine (if you need to enable All Sky Polar Alignment of you can't see NCP/SCP then do that). Once you finish this, go to Mount settings, choose Go Home, once it reaches Home position, go to Mount settings, choose Sync.
Now you're ready to refine focus. Choose a bright star from the sky atlas to track. Once it's tracking, go into Focus mode, refine focus using your preferred method (I use a bahtinov mask). When you're done, go to Mount settings, choose Go Home.
Note: if you have an SCT make sure the last turn of the focus knob is counter clockwise.
- Start your viewing/ imaging session. [I think here is where you would set up your guiding for the night before beginning your viewing/imaging session]
Hope this is a bit clearer.
