Struggling to guide my Star Adventurer GTi

Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer GTi ZWO ASI120MM Mini Guiding Troubleshooting
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Roberto MR avatar
Roberto MR avatar
Hello 

the setup i have used is
- Star adventurer GTI
- asiair mini
- Svbony 165 and
- Asi 120mm Mini

but i had lot of issue during my first guide night 

my polar alignment was that:

https://i.imgur.com/pDnzSNA.png

 

but still lot of issue with the calibration using default settings, on the first try was so slow and never complete https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkzDGi3r2Mc...calibration steps 2000, max ra/dec step 2000 , guiding speed 0.5 and Ra aggr 70% and Dec aggr 75%

 

the guide scope was overall in focus, is difficult say if was perfect and probably not without a bathinov mask but mine is so small as guide scope, but i have tried to have the smaller size of the star when i have did focus.

 

i have tried also to change position in the sky but still anything was very good and was very slow to calibrate.

 
  • i have tried calibration step 1000 -500 or 4000 but still struggly, is maybe better use 0.75 or 0.9 for my mount ?



 



 

in this stage i set north because i see lot of correction in Dec and still is not possible to see the red line on the graph:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaWWqGRP750&list=PLbknhnjWQGJV7kyVfMID_6oihf4y6MniQ&index=2 and here when i set north: https://youtu.be/PaWWqGRP750?list=PLbknhnjWQGJV7kyVfMID_6oihf4y6MniQ&t=517

 

after that i have tried to do lot of changes but still anything good, if anyone has the patience to give me some advice because it's really difficult to understand what to do.

 

Here some other video of the session:

https://youtu.be/jRCr3n3O62o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_xZ15A3Wlg from that video that i'm watching again, i was back to calibration steps 2000 and max ra/dec step 2000 looks like better guide is at 0.75 or 0.9 speed and with good aggression level.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Dhh6P48GX4 watching that video looks like is so slow every time i start a new guide/calibration and i don't understand how is possible !

 



It's always so unstable also there : https://youtu.be/_Dhh6P48GX4?t=332

 

 i need some advice please 
Nino Polanec avatar
Nino Polanec avatar
Have you tried guiding with different Gain setting? I dont see that mentioned in the post. My guiding frames are looking more gray, i live in Bortle 4 class and have the same mount and camera, i use gain 80 but that also depends on nights and stars.
François Bréard avatar
François Bréard avatar
j'ai cette monture depuis plus d'un an, dès que j'ai reçu j'ai contrôlé les serrages du trépied et autres, c'était pas bien fait. Après j'ai contrôlé le jeux des axes RA et DEC, là s'était trop serré, rectifié. Je vous conseil vivement de contrôler cela
J’utilise cette monture avec un ASKAR ALC200 (Focale 200) ou un objectif Sigma 135 (focale 135) cam Astro ASI6200MC - Guidage SVBony 165 et AASI120MN, je pilote sous NiNa via un mini Pc Asus en  I3.
En poids je ne dépasse pas 4.2Kg… je m'assure d'avoir la mise à niveau parfaite ainsi que l'équilibrage.
Sans auto guidage donc avec uniquement le suivi Goto les photos sont parfaites, étoiles bien rondes  jusqu'à 120secondes
avec l 'auto Guidage j'ai un suivi RMS sou sPHd2 entre 0.5 - 0.8 ce qui est parfait
Helpful
Roberto MR avatar
Roberto MR avatar
Nino Polanec:
Have you tried guiding with different Gain setting? I dont see that mentioned in the post. My guiding frames are looking more gray, i live in Bortle 4 class and have the same mount and camera, i use gain 80 but that also depends on nights and stars.

yes i have reduced the gain to have more small star. what settings you have as guiding speed and calibration steps max ra/dec value ?
François Bréard:
j'ai cette monture depuis plus d'un an, dès que j'ai reçu j'ai contrôlé les serrages du trépied et autres, c'était pas bien fait. Après j'ai contrôlé le jeux des axes RA et DEC, là s'était trop serré, rectifié. Je vous conseil vivement de contrôler cela
J’utilise cette monture avec un ASKAR ALC200 (Focale 200) ou un objectif Sigma 135 (focale 135) cam Astro ASI6200MC - Guidage SVBony 165 et AASI120MN, je pilote sous NiNa via un mini Pc Asus en  I3.
En poids je ne dépasse pas 4.2Kg... je m'assure d'avoir la mise à niveau parfaite ainsi que l'équilibrage.
Sans auto guidage donc avec uniquement le suivi Goto les photos sont parfaites, étoiles bien rondes  jusqu'à 120secondes
avec l 'auto Guidage j'ai un suivi RMS sou sPHd2 entre 0.5 - 0.8 ce qui est parfait

yes i have reduced the gain to have more small star. what settings you have as guiding speed and calibration steps max ra/dec value ?

next time i will try to keep the tripod close to its minimum extension and change the vixen bar by putting a longer one on which to mount the guide tube. the previous owner had this star adventurer and he also guided at 0.6 arc/sec of error but he no longer remembers the values ​​he used because it's been a while since he had it anymore.

i can't notice any backlash in ar/dec touching the ar/dec arms when the clutches are tightened

I would like to understand which calibration step to use, if it's ok leave 2000 and set max ra/dec always at 2000 and maybe very important also the guiding speed, could be 0.75 better ?
Stelios_Stergiou avatar
Stelios_Stergiou avatar
What is your main scope and camera? I hope you don’t overload the mount is only 5kg load
Peter Hofmann avatar
Peter Hofmann avatar
Hi, did you use a 12v power supply or batteries? Note that rechargeable batteries are not 1,5v they normally only have 1,2v and that's not enough for the mount.
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Roberto MR avatar
Roberto MR avatar
What is your main scope and camera? I hope you don’t overload the mount is only 5kg load

my main scope and camera is MTO 500 and canon 2000d

no i was much under.

Peter Hofmann:
Hi, did you use a 12v power supply or batteries? Note that rechargeable batteries are not 1,5v they normally only have 1,2v and that's not enough for the mount.

  mhh i use AA batteries, they are at 1.35v fully charged and drop slowly but the day after when i check are usually at 1.30v Standard AA batteries are a bit higher voltage but they drop quickly...anyway i don't think it can be the issue because it track well also without guide and with guide i did 3 minutes exposure and was not too bad.
Mateusz Turzyński avatar
Mateusz Turzyński avatar
I’ve got a similar setup and managed to get guiding working quite well.
  • I usually keep the total polar alignment error below 10". Be gentle when adjusting the knobs—you want to stay within that 4" circle.
  • Where do you point your scope for calibration? It should be near the meridian and close to the celestial equator. (Also, the side of the meridian matters.)
  • Try to get the west step count to around 12. I had to increase the calibration steps in the ASIAIR settings to about 3500.
  • Check out this tutorial—it’s very helpful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXRbFBeKf84



Good luck!
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Travis McGeehan avatar
Travis McGeehan avatar
Did you build a dark library? I would do that, I use a higher gain with really good results, I usually get ~.8 arcsecond guiding and I have the gain on hi with the sv165 40mm and asi120mm, and I have seen stretches of my GTI guiding at .4-.5 arcseconds.
François Bréard avatar
François Bréard avatar
Roberto MR:
je ne remarque aucun jeu dans l'AR/DEC touchant les bras de l'AR/DEC lorsque les embrayages sont serrés


Il faut du jeux, je l'ai réglé et en comparaison à mon autre monture une AZEQ6 il est légèrement plus important. Si il est trop serré, la guidage n'est plus bon, c'est à dire avec des pics incontrôlables ... 
Roberto MR:
mhh j'utilise des piles AA, elles sont à 1,35 V complètement chargées et chutent lentement mais le lendemain,

Alors là, c'est tout ce qu'il ne faut pas faire, et ici en France tout les sites Astro l'indique clairement sur la page produit qu'il ne faut pas utiliser la monture avec des piles : à bannir
Roberto MR avatar
Roberto MR avatar
Mateusz Turzyński:
I’ve got a similar setup and managed to get guiding working quite well.
  • I usually keep the total polar alignment error below 10". Be gentle when adjusting the knobs—you want to stay within that 4" circle.
  • Where do you point your scope for calibration? It should be near the meridian and close to the celestial equator. (Also, the side of the meridian matters.)
  • Try to get the west step count to around 12. I had to increase the calibration steps in the ASIAIR settings to about 3500.
  • Check out this tutorial—it’s very helpful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXRbFBeKf84



Good luck!

so are you using calibration steps 3500 ? and what guiding speed and aggression ? what guide scope and camera for guiding do you use ?
François Bréard:
Roberto MR:
je ne remarque aucun jeu dans l'AR/DEC touchant les bras de l'AR/DEC lorsque les embrayages sont serrés


Il faut du jeux, je l'ai réglé et en comparaison à mon autre monture une AZEQ6 il est légèrement plus important. Si il est trop serré, la guidage n'est plus bon, c'est à dire avec des pics incontrôlables ...

do you mean that if the clutches are tightened too much does it make it difficult to guide and driver properly ?
François Bréard avatar
François Bréard avatar
Roberto MR:
voulez-vous dire que si les embrayages sont trop serrés, cela rend-il difficile de guider et de conduire correctement ?


oui complètement... la vis sans fin, engrenages et backlash ... longue histoire d'amour :=)
c'est plutôt simple à faire par exemple une nuit avec la lune... il faut "sentir" dans les axes un petit mouvement, de toute façon il faut passer du temps pour régler cela, ce n'est pas du temps de perdu ...
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