I have a Nikon Z6ii and have been moderately successful in shooting basic sky objects like planetary conjunctions, the moon's surface and basic Milky Way images using Samyang / Rokinin 14mm f2.8 or Sigma 70-200 f2.8 lenses on a SkyWatcher Star Adventurer 2 Pro wifi mount. I want to do better and have a almost never used SkyWatcher Explorer 150P-DS on an HEQ5-Pro mount but I don't get it out very often as setting it up takes lots of time. I live in a Bortle 5 area (and it is never going to get better) of the UK so I get many failed sessions due to clouds and we have had many rainy nights over the past year too.
I have been advised that I should start off with the ASi120mm camera in a ZWO mini-guider scope to control my Explorer 150 and use the Nikon on the Explorer's viewfinder until getting good enough to go with the ASi585mc. So:
1 - Do I need to add the ASiAir-mini to get it all together? I think I could avoid that to start but would it be easier all round to start with that in the set-up?
2 - Can the ASiAir package do anything to manage my Star Adventurer (which is only an Alt-Az mount)?
Obviously I can't access the ASiAir software to see how it performs without a camera installed so I'm a little "blind" at the moment. All suggestions gratefully received. I should also point out that I am all Mac OS - with an iMac, a MacBook Pro and an iPad Pro.
