Asiair Pro and Canon DSLR in practice - Forums

Topic starter

Apr 26, 2021

Hi all,

I have an Asiair Pro that I use with a ZWO ASI183MM Pro and two « mini » ASI cameras for guiding (plus EAF and EFW).

I also have a Canon EOS Ra that I plan to use with the latest version on the Asiair Pro software running on iPad (I read recently it would finally be compatible with the 1.6 version, now in beta).

I would like to know from the people currently using the Asiair Pro with a (currently compatible) Canon DSLR how it works :

- Do you plug your DSLR to the AAP with a USB cable + a bulb cable ? Only bulb / mini jack cable ? Only USB ?

- What functionalities do you get ? Like : Liveview on the iPad (I guess no) ? Do you have the result of the shot once you have shot something in Preview mode on the iPad screen ? What about storage and accessing subs of a session (SD card of the DSLR or USB storage of AAP) ?

- How auto- focusing of the EAF works with the DSLR ? Does that still work with temperature changes etc… ?

- Dithering is synchronized correctly with the shots taken by the DSLR (I guess yes…

.

Thanks !

Götz Golla

Apr 26, 2021 · Edited: Apr 26, 2021

Hi Jérémie,

I have been using a Canon EOS 40D with the ASIAir. I just plug in a USB cable and all the features are working. It is easy and straighforward. I have never used live view, didnt know it exists. When focussing there is special mode with smaller images coming in quite fast. With an exposure time of 0.5sec you pretty much get an image every 0.6-0.7sec and thats all you need to focus comfortably.

Autofocus has never been working well with ASIAir for me, no matter what camera I used (I now have an ASI 6200MM). My experience is that you are always much faster focusing "manually" with the ASIAir than with the autofocus feature. When you have clear skies you want to observe instead of waiting 10 minutes for the autofocus to converge. And often, even after 10 minutes it still can be improved manually.

ASIAir gets the sensor temperature of your Canon, at leasts thats what it does with the EOS 40D. It is displayed as you observe and it is also included in the filename.

For any full frame camera, its important to have a high bandwidth connection between your ASIAir and the mobile device, and also to your PC. When you use your IPad just 1-2meters from the ASIAir, preview images take a few seconds to come in. For anything else I recommend an ethernet cable to a good WLAN router to get the same speed. I have a cable to a gigabit WLAN connection (W60G standard at 60Ghz, thats not classical WLAN) and a cable connection from the other W60G router directly to my PC 50meters away in my office. I control everything from a tablet in the office and download the images to the PC and process them while ASIAir is observing. I get a bandwidth of 600MBit/sec. When you only have a slow connection to your AIRAir I recommend to use the USB stick to transfer the data to your PC.

Yes, dithering is also working.

Hope thats helpful

Götz

BTW: I have an astromodified Canon R, and I also cant wait to use the 1.6 release of ASIAir, which is supposed to have the R(a) support.

Helpful

Jérémie

Topic starter

Apr 26, 2021

Thanks @Götz Golla !
Pretty excited to use it with the dslr once the 1.6 is available to all.

Jérémie

Topic starter

May 1, 2021

Finally tested it ! I subscribed to the Apple beta testing program and could download the beta 1.6 version.
Results are here : https://astrob.in/it9vtk/0/

Jérémie

Topic starter

May 1, 2021

My feedback :
- works exactly like if it was a ZWO camera in terms of Preview : but consider disabling the option to shoot continuously as the files are big to transfer (in Wifi…

- binning was an option but didn’t seem to work….
- you can save your images locally in the DSLR as well as fits files in the ASIAIR usb key

I din’t try the new Plan part of the software.

I really like the features about the Meridian Flip, the GoTo functions with automatic platesolve and adjustment. If it wasn’t for the batteries of the DsLR (i bought the dummy battery for Canon afterward) you could really go to sleep without any problems…

Frank Szabo

May 9, 2021

Götz Golla:
Hi Jérémie,

I have been using a Canon EOS 40D with the ASIAir. I just plug in a USB cable and all the features are working. It is easy and straighforward. I have never used live view, didnt know it exists. When focussing there is special mode with smaller images coming in quite fast. With an exposure time of 0.5sec you pretty much get an image every 0.6-0.7sec and thats all you need to focus comfortably.

Autofocus has never been working well with ASIAir for me, no matter what camera I used (I now have an ASI 6200MM). My experience is that you are always much faster focusing "manually" with the ASIAir than with the autofocus feature. When you have clear skies you want to observe instead of waiting 10 minutes for the autofocus to converge. And often, even after 10 minutes it still can be improved manually.

ASIAir gets the sensor temperature of your Canon, at leasts thats what it does with the EOS 40D. It is displayed as you observe and it is also included in the filename.

For any full frame camera, its important to have a high bandwidth connection between your ASIAir and the mobile device, and also to your PC. When you use your IPad just 1-2meters from the ASIAir, preview images take a few seconds to come in. For anything else I recommend an ethernet cable to a good WLAN router to get the same speed. I have a cable to a gigabit WLAN connection (W60G standard at 60Ghz, thats not classical WLAN) and a cable connection from the other W60G router directly to my PC 50meters away in my office. I control everything from a tablet in the office and download the images to the PC and process them while ASIAir is observing. I get a bandwidth of 600MBit/sec. When you only have a slow connection to your AIRAir I recommend to use the USB stick to transfer the data to your PC.

Yes, dithering is also working.

Hope thats helpful

Götz

BTW: I have an astromodified Canon R, and I also cant wait to use the 1.6 release of ASIAir, which is supposed to have the R(a) support.

I always seem to get a better focus with a bathinov mask and visually just looking at a bright star through it, than doing autofocus for like 10 minutes. I know all the backlash and everything and I let the thing run its course, but a quick check with a bathinov and it's not very well focused so i adjust manually.

Ian Dixon

May 10, 2021

Anyone know when version 1.6 will be released? It has multistar guiding.

Ian

Steven

May 13, 2021

Ian Dixon:
Anyone know when version 1.6 will be released? It has multistar guiding.

Ian

I was able to download the IOS update today.
Looks like it was released yesterday

Can't wait to try it out! Multi star guiding and plan modes should be awesome!

Ian Dixon

May 13, 2021 · Edited: May 13, 2021

Yes, thanks! I received the update two days ago and used Multistar for my latest image. I hve about 15kg of equipment on my imaging mount (an NEQ6) and it ran at .7 RMS - which is a nice improvement over .9 RMS on single star guiding. At one point I was getting .45 RMS!!! That lasted for an hour or so.

. Here is the image.

https://www.astrobin.com/8bwg1c/D/?nc=user

Kind regards,
Ian

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