Having two skywatcher mounts and all camera's from ZWO, the purchase of an ASIair Plus is a good alternative in stead of an extra PC.
I installed the ASIair Plus on my TAL200K f/8.5 telescope. The main camera and guiding camera was connected using USB A 3.0 cables. After powering, connection was made with my mini Ipad. In order to make connection, the wifi should be swithed to ASIair signal. Then open the ASIair app. There are numerous youtube video's how to start using the ASIair Plus. Below some learnings using the ASIair Plus with a skywactcher EQ8-R mount.
- polar allignment and 3-star allignment was done without connection of the mount to the ASIair plus.
- allignment was done using the maincamera which was connected to ASIair Plus (experiment with the exposure time)
- once allignment completed, I connect the synscan of the mount via a USB B cable to USB A 2.0 port of the ASIair Plus.
- polar allignment was redone; take first a picture and plate solve before running the PA - polar allignment.
- to find an object, just select the target and through imaging and plate solving, the object is set in FOV.
- same with guiding, connect the camera and calibration starts automatically; guiding is done using multistar guiding.
- autorun set up was used to make the pictures.
- afterwards bias, darks and flats were made using the autorun. Pictures are saved under the folders on the e-MMC
- I used a 32Gb micro SD card to copy the images and to transfer them to my PC.
- I disconnect the USB A2.0 - USB B cable between ASIair Plus and syncscan when I finishing my imaging session and to park the telescope. Keeping the cable on and choosing the park function in ASIair Plus did not gave the proper coordinates
- so far, no experience with meridian flip, live stacking and planning function. Also no experience with autofocus.
- connection inside the house was lost a couple of times but the session kept running.
Conclusion:
Connection with camera's went well, guiding was done properly, finding the object through plate solving was fantastic (first time experience). I made 24 pictures (24x300s) on day 1 and 20 more on day two. Transfer via micro SD card was easy.
Result:
M81, Bode's Galaxy
TAL200K f/8.5, ASI2600MC, ASI224MC on 50x240 guiding scope with EQ8-R
Lights: 40x300s, darks, bias and flats
Software: ASIair plus, APP, CS4, DeNoise AI
