Asiair Southern Hemisphere

[Contraindicated]

Hi,
I’ve just started out this year and have ended up at the stage of setting up a ZWO Asiair.

As with most of the tutorials on Utube etc etc, they are centred on the Northern hemisphere (which is of little use to me in Australia).
Hence this post....

Does anyone in the Southern Hemisphere have any advice or experience on alignment with the Asiair connected? Or, do I have to reconnect the hand control to complete a 2 star alignment prior to connecting the Asiair?

Any advice is welcome

[echocae]

Pa with asiair is simple, point ur scope to south then do PA routine from asiair
No need hand controller

[Nikolas]

No different for the southern hemisphere
I use eqmod no need for the hand controller

[Venter]

As others have said, it’s pretty much consistent with anything you see for the Northern hemisphere. What mount do you have?

I have a AZ-EQ6R Pro (2020 model). I connect my AAP directly to the mount via EQ mod cable, and use my iPad for control. No need to use the hand controller (mine is still wrapped in bubble wrap!).

Polar Align is straight forward, takes no more than a few minutes once you’ve done it a few times. Follow on-screen prompts for the AAP.

[Dave882]

Celestron mounts will prompt you to complete the star alignment with the hc prior to using the ASIAIR pro. Celestron EQ mounts will also prompt to do polar alignment. I’ve found that this is not always necessary but have found it to be more stable if the ASIAIR is connected direct to the serial port of the hc.

In Alt-Az i will need to do the 3star alignment with the hc as there is no other way for the ASIAIR to do the alignment other than platesolving and you’ll be going round in circles all night. But in EQ the PA routine on the ASIAIR will be sufficient to get you close enough so that platesolving can do the rest.

[Dave882]

Just another quick note on the ASIAIR PA routine... you don’t need to be able to see the celestial pole as long as you can get within about 30degrees from it....

[srmnm]

Hi Shayne,

Fellow QLD'er here. Follow these steps

-Get scope in switch position as close as possible to SCP. See attached image.

-Turn on mount & ASIAIR

-On hand controller make sure to hit 'Quick Align' (ASIAIR will get stuck during PA routine otherwise) or get to a mode where mount thinks its aligned. (Dont touch handcontroller for the rest of the night if you can avoid)

-Do focus routine

-Run a 5 sec preview to confirm

-Select Polar Align

-ASIAIR will run first subexposure and star count then prompt to proceed.

-Once you do this, it will slew 60deg on RA and take another subexposure to resolve

-After this you'll need to adjust your manual Alt & Az knobs on the mount until you've got the smiley face. I try to get < 05" on both so I can get good guiding too

-Slew to a target using ASIAIR. Either enter RA/DEC manually or use its (improving) target list

-Once you've done this take a 5sec Preview shot

-Then hit plate solve (option on bottom left). Once its plate solves, hit Sync Mount. *NOTE - it wont plate solve if you're within 5deg of SCP!

You're done. Now you can get to your preferred target and start your guiding routine!

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Will