I picked up my new Skywatcher AZ-GTI wifi mount yesterday from Astro Anarchy in Brisbane. They have it on sale for $559, which is the lowest price i have seen for it. I just happened to be in Brisbane visiting relatives and called in to have a look at their new store.
The mount and tripod are pretty solid, and should be fine with my ED60 and TS80 refractors. I hope to have it setup next to my camper at SPSP and do abit of visual astronomy while my main imaging rig is doing its thing.
Thanks to Mike at Astro Anarchy for his help.
I am getting one of these mounts for the little FOA60 and am still trying to decide whether to use my Manfrotto MT055CXPro3 tripod instead of the SW one.
Keen to hear your thoughts on the tripod Glen.
Looks nice Glen. Are you intending to use the tripod fully extended or did you just want to see how high it goes?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kunama
I am getting one of these mounts for the little FOA60 and am still trying to decide whether to use my Manfrotto MT055CXPro3 tripod instead of the SW one.
Keen to hear your thoughts on the tripod Glen.
Re the tripod, yes I wanted to see how high and strong it was. It surprised me, it is capable and fairly stiff. I would be using it at a lower height. I initially thought I would use another tripod but think it will be ok now, at least for visual use with my small scopes.
I have been following a CN thread on this little mount and apparently the Star Adventurer Latitude Base ( a wedge) works well to convert this mount to an EQ. If you run the Synscan Pro app you can use the EQ alignment routine.
Looks good Glen I would be keen to have a look at it see you at the spsp
ALAN
Ok Alan I will be bringing the AZ GT I mount, and i have ordered the Skywatcher Adventurer Latitude Base (EQ), which i should have by the end of this week.
Ok, the Skywatcher EQ wedge and counterweight and bar arrived this morning, and I have installed it on the AZ-GTI mount.
The wedge fits the AZ-GTI fine but the dovetail lock screw handle (with its large plastic knob handle) fouls the base of the AZ-GTI but it is easy to replace with a regular bolt. One correction to my advice on the counterweight kit, the shaft does not screw into the AZ-GTI, the Star Adventurer countweight shaft (which is 12mm in diametre) has an M8 end thread which is too small and will need an adaptor to be used with this mount. I am trying to source a thread adaptor now. I suppose I could try to run the shaft through a die and see if that would screw in. The alternative may be to use a long Cap head bolt of the correct size, but one which has threads only on the very end, Bunnings sells these i believe . One of the guys on the CN forum in the US is using such a bolt arrangement. The counter weight itself can be used, it has a 12mm bore. You might be better off sourcing an alternative counterweight, as buying the Star Adventurer shaft and weight at $50, is going to need to be modded, money might be better spent on an alternative.
You will need to use the Synscan Pro app, not the standard Synscan app, in the Pro you get options for either Alt Az or EQ alignment. The Pro app also includes polar alignment and solar modes.
Photos below.
Hi Glen,
your setup looks great for a super portable EQ mount for small OTAs.
You'll need a quality die to cut a new thread on that SS CW rod! I'd search for shoulder screws or bolts instead. Plenty on ebay at various lengths. I use one as a CW shaft on my AYO mount, as I had spare CWs with 16 mm bore, rather than the standard 20 mm.
Last edited by AstroApprentice; 02-05-2018 at 02:41 PM.
Motor Controller firmware update has been applied (Ver 3.11 now, delivered with 3.10). Did some more testing and finally have the setup correct. The mount only works in the way setup in the photo below. In the photo assume south is to the right, counterweight shaft aimed down, elevation as per your latitude (mine is 33 degrees). I found that the elevation sticker on the wedge made no sense at all in the southern hemisphere when mounted with this head in EQ mode, so I removed the sticker and turned it around and oriented it to indicate my elevation. You can see I am using a bolt for my counterweight shaft right now. I have to source a longer one (EQ1 maybe). My counterweight does fit the bolt but I'd like to get one with just threads on the end and smooth bore on the rest of the bolt shaft.
One note on Home position, which I could find no reference to in the Synscan Pro software - until I pressed the Hibernate button, then it asked if I wanted to Home the scope. I guess I have become to used to the CGX home sensor and being able to start and shutdown from/to Home.
Finished the counter weight shaft today. Used a 12mm x 220mm bolt from Bunnings. Installed a collar on it with heat shink so it doesn't go too deep beyond the threads into the housing and it shims the bore outside (before) the thread as well. Works well countering my TS80, and I will not be using anything heavier on this mount.
Good stuff Glen! It looks like a great jigger and the wifi interface and app with a phone or tablet would really be wonderful. (It even knows your time and GPS location via the phone/tablet and/or you can override it if required). I've seen it in a couple of youtube vids.... a very desirable product
Here's 1 I watched with plenty of detail on the phone app.... (you may want to skip through as it's a little long)
I have been doing some EQ testing of this mount, with my ED60 onboard. The EQ alignment goes fairly well but some of the language the app uses is confusing.
One thing I don't like is you cannot find common names displayed for targets, unless you select "tonight's best". You can't search by name. You need to know a catalog reference to input to goto and there is no lookup function, and no sky display to select from. Pretty basic. I understand now why some people are using two devices, the app plus something else running Sky Safari Pro. Honestly it would be great to just use Sky Safari. What are others finding re usability?
A reminder, the only way to "home" the mount is to Hibernate it, where it gives you the option to Hibernate in place or Hibernate at home.
