October 2, 2019

Guiding

I bought an ASIAIR, an ASI 120MM mini mono cam and the tiny ZWO 30120 guiderscope.

Here is the #1 tip:

You need to connect to the ASIAIR wi-fi FIRST. From scrarch (use “Forget network” if you have connected in the past). Then say “Yes, remain connected” to the Android notification. Then, and only then will the ASIAIR app see the network and be able to connect to the little ASIAIR. I hope they fix that bug.

Here is the #2 tip:

ASIAIR will not refresh the preview accurately and generally sucks at generating previews, at least with my Nikon D7500. So you take one photo with the preview function, then take a second one but you still see the first one in the preview. Now, this is important: ASIAIR thinks the first one is the second one, and uses that e.g. for purposes of goto.

Let’s take a simple example where the mount is 2 minutes off from your target. You take a photo, solve, sync and goto. The mount is now in the right position, and you take a second photo to make sure. The preview does not refresh but you do not notice. So you solve, sync, and goto again. Now you are 2 minutes off. Repeat, and you are 4 minutes off. And so on.

I actually managed to go up to 30 minutes off until I found out what was happening.

The only solution is to turn off the ASIAIR and reconnect from the beginning.

Here is the #3 tip: Some times, the preview is not good. ASIAIR renders a crappy image. This is probably a problem with whatever it is that produces JPEG previews. Only solution is to take another pic, and hope #2 above does not apply.

Here is the #4 tip: Sometimes ASIAIR will start failing to detect stars for plate solving, even if the image is perfect. Turn off, reconnect.

If you have the above tips in mind, it is actually a very pleasant experience. You set up everything, start guiding, and then tell the ASIAIR to take e.g. 30 photos of 1 minute and 2 photos of 5 minutes. Then go downstairs and have a drink.

Needless to say, guiding has made a huge difference with my relatively not-so-to-notch SmartEQ Pro+. Above 2 minutes is still hard, but 90% of 1 minute exposures and almost 100% of 30 second exposures are keepers. Hooray!