All Sky Polar Align with the ASI AIR

[@richards3192]

Couple of pointers that folks might find useful, after a year of using all sky PA: 1: Make sure TRACKING is ON when using All sky polar alignment IF your scope is not roughly N/S, otherwise the star movement will mean that you will end up chasing the movement and the polar alignment will not converge / be accurate. 2: As noted in the video, get the mount aligned North and at the correct elevation so the initial tracking is good enough for all sky PA to work

[@AstroEscape]

Thanks for adding that in Richard. That's a good point I didn't cover!

[@RobertKarlBerta]

Have used the ASI AIR Plus All Sky polar align for a few months now and it works great with my AM5. One way to improve your pointing and GOTO accuracy is to AFTER the polar align have your AM5 mount go back to the par position which is a mechanical rather than software park position. Now use your GOTO and it works perfectly. I have started doing Mosaics last night and the ASI AIR plus seems to work perfectly for this. I do recommend ignoring the 10% overlap at first to ensure you don't have sliver of uncaptured sky. I set mine to 20% and no issues. The ZWO system is really excellent....I can have my entire setup of mount, scope, AEF, guider and the main camera ready to go in about a minute from the time I take it out of my car. Takes around 5-10 minutes to cool the camera down. Polar alignment now takes me about 3-5 minutes....less if I setup at home where I have my tripod leg tips marked on the concrete to duplicate my last setup. My permanent setup is a Astro Physics 1100 GTO with a 6" APO refractor, flat field lens, and full frame SBIG mono camera with motorized filter wheel. That is in my observatory. Yes it is fantastic and can do things the smaller setup can't but the ZWO gives fantastic results in just minutes and is SOOO easy to transport and get operating. Just keep the scope size reasonable...I use 80 and 85mm APO scopes or a 8" Celestron SCT HD with focal reducer. That scope works great with the mount also. And as Richards3192 pointed out below....make sure you turn on tracking soon as you power up the mount....as it won't plate solve without it turned on.

[@AstroEscape]

Thanks for watching. I kinda disagree with the overlap comment, I'd say still overlap so stacking software doesn't have issues. But thanks for those tips.... and your setups are giving me gear acquisition syndrome.

[@RobertKarlBerta]

@@AstroEscape check latest update to ASI AIR software. Many tweaks and features added. Big one is on my ASI AIR PLUS the wifi is now very robust and powerfull. I can put om my patio and go into basement on opposit end of house and it doesn't disconnect. Does slow transmission but that is expected. 5Ghz also much longer range. You can now search by object name such as Thor's Helmet. You can also put AM5 into cold mode which increases capacity by reducing slew speed. I don't know if it works with older ASI AIRS though as I don't have one.

[@benwilliams9627]

Thanks for this video it was really helpful. I am new to all of this and you guys are doing a great job of educating me on all of this.

[@AstroEscape]

I'm glad it helped! What issues were you having?

[@DonkeyTaming]

Learning this tonight!

[@AstroEscape]

I saw your results on our IDA discord. Well done!

[@DonkeyTaming]

​@@AstroEscapeOne thing I've noticed when using it. It's not always precise, so I tend to do the all sky twice. The first time to obviously get it polar aligned. Then followed up by a second time to ensure it calculated accurately. I had one or two occasions where the pole "moved." But doing it twice tends to mitigate any confusion by the mount or algorithm. I believe this is more due to miscommunication between the AIR and the EQMOD. However, it appears to be a solid work flow for now. Also, I find this extremely useful for setting up away from home even if you can see the pole. First run the all sky to get you pointed in the right direction, then run the standard polar alignment to add a precise capture. It seems to work very well - and I find it doesn't add additional time to my alignment process.

[@spex357]

Two weeks ago I managed to use the focus part of the app, on a weekend. It took a while as the days contrails still covered the sky. So it said it had found stars then it couldn't find stars, and the night was disappearing, but finally I achieved focus, and I took one photo of the stars. Plate solving hasn't been achieved yet, mainly due to high clouds and it doesn't get dark enough until its nearly midnight. So I moved on to overexposed Solar, but July has been infested with loads of micro showers, so that has been intermittent as well. The Jet stream and the Polar vortex and the wind are working against me. Here's hoping August is better.

[@mikehardy8247]

I can relate. Even though we're in drought conditions, it's been pretty cloudy, and persistent Canadian wildlife smoke 😢

[@AstroEscape]

Ah man that's a huge bummer. Here's hoping that the coming months play nicer for you!

[@AstroEscape]

Yeah.... I feel that one Mike. So many good nights lost due to smoke this year. All other conditions indicated a good night... except for the haze and the smell...

[@fatehnajmi1828]

Hi there, sorry newbie questions here. Before u did the polar alignment, did u use "goto" of that asiair function to move the telescope? Or mount Hand remove? Or by hand ? I am asking since i never get my scope PA. Thanks in advance

[@danthomas9414]

Invaluable feature to use in the heavy tree and hill terrain of PA Daylon. Can you do future vid on filters Daylon?

[@AstroEscape]

I am planning on getting some more so I can do a thorough comparison. But, yeah! I can add a review of the ones I have to the schedule :)

[@jayhalloween]

Always wondered about this version of alignment. I think I have had it on this whole time because I didn’t understand how to implement it. I’ve still aligned with Polaris, but never bothered to purposely align using any other stars. Now I know! I had originally thought this would be something where it would plate solve no matter the orientation of the mount and then be calibrated. When that didn’t work I resigned to just polar aligning. Trees always blocked Polaris just enough to make it iffy, I finally just got a longer extension cord and moved further back/up in my yard to where Polaris would be more visible to the camera. It has its trade offs though since more of the western and eastern sky is obstructed now. Since we’ve had some better weather I might try and give this a go. Do you notice any trade offs for all sky aligning?

[@AstroEscape]

So far, no bad tradeoffs. Works just as good as the original method.

[@gerryhigton5014]

I have a west facing enclosed balcony and try starting out facing south west (southern hemishphere). To get the alignment it makes me face south which i cannot do due to the wall and roof so i can never achieve alignment. Is there a way around this?

[@sushantacharekar]

I am in the same boat, also for some reason my asiair can’t resolve the third image , I tried different angles for solving this but it always gets stuck at the third image . 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@michaelm.7389]

Hey Daylon....always enjoy your videos and they have helped me a lot. I tried to join your patreon but it wouldn't let me ?? I was hoping to pick your brain regarding using the ASI AIR Plus with a Celestron Nexstar 6se with the stock mount and a STARSENSE Auto Align ?? I wanted to incorporate the ASI AIR for the ease of taking and stacking images. Have a great weekend.......Mike / Ohio

[@AstroEscape]

At that time my patreon was closed. It's open again, but sure, if you haven't figured it out I am down to help!

[@choppermontana8212]

I'm very frustrated in that I can't get my scope to focus using my DSLR so moving on to PA with my ASIAIR is a non-starter. I watch these great videos and think "Wow, it would be nice to even get a change to try that!"

[@AstroEscape]

A method to use to get started is to find a light off in the distance.... over a mile/kilometer away. Or, manually point at the brightest star visible to you for the night. Focus your camera on that with live view if your camera has that. Then, set the mount back to home, restart it so the home position within the AIR resets, and try polar aligning. Doing that gets you close enough that it can make out the stars for PA.

[@choppermontana8212]

@@AstroEscape Yes, the issue seems to be that even with two focus extenders attached I can't back the camera back far enough to reach focus. Do you think a focus reducer would help? Thanks for responding! Your videos have been a great help in my learning the ASIAIR Plus!

[@tomj8969]

Thanks!

[@AstroEscape]

You're welcome!

[@Q_Bits]

I have this enabled, I didn't realize that it replaced the PA entirely. I can see Polaris, but it's very close to trees. I have polar aligned and gotten down to 19" off and still end up getting poor tracking (.5" to 1.5") and it's driving me crazy. Have you experienced wildly different tracking results on different nights or are you usually pretty cleanly tracking consistently?

[@AstroEscape]

It's usually pretty clean. Has things improved since you commented this?

[@Q_Bits]

I still have bad days. I got an OAG for my refractor and that seemed to have helped a bit. I’ve also in the meantime switched to NINA… so that’s been a whole new level of learning and frustration 😂 thanks for checking in! Hope you’re doing well!

[@travelanddrones]

Good ideo. How accurate is this method for those of us who live in the South Hemisphere and do not see our polar star? I mean, I have full access and clear vision to the area where our polar star is, but I do knot know if this will be successful. Any thoughts about this? Thks for answering

[@AstroEscape]

The polar align works out fairly well for those that can't see the pole.

[@travelanddrones]

Thks for answering. I already tested it here in Chile and the PA worked perfectly well@@AstroEscape

[@Rubik3x]

Any chance AllSky Polar Align will work with my Celestron NexStar alt-az mount running ASIair Pro?

[@AstroEscape]

It should work.

[@EastSideAussieQuest]

with a 8'" celestron sct hd do you need a guilding scope for planets.

[@AstroEscape]

You don't need one for planetary but it doesn't hurt. Since you are taking short videos guiding is less important than deep sky.

[@groundhoppingwlkp3622]

Hi, I've a question - do you need to aim still near polaris? I've read on zwo page that it can be max 30 degrees west/east from pole to polar align. Or you can point even on south sky?

[@AstroEscape]

Yep, you need to aim the mount. As long as you can aim the mount to the North as best as you can without seeing Polaris, you'll still be able to polar align. The telescope can be pointed almost anywhere except where ZWO warns not to.

[@groundhoppingwlkp3622]

@@AstroEscape Ok, I aim the mount to the north celestial pole (but I dont see it), and for example then I can point telescope near zenith and it will plate solve correctly?

[@RobertKarlBerta]

ZWO says to aim away from Polaris but NOT due West or East. I always aim mine half way to N/W to start and no issues. As I recall if you do leave it due North it will tell you that you are to close to Polaris. Also as you go through the adjustments on a AM5, do not completely loosen the AL/AZ locks completely. I find it best to leave a bit of tension so you can use the adjustment knobs and lever to be more precise in your movements. That smiley face is cool.....as you get closer the mouth stays flat line until you get a good acceptable alignment when the mouth changes into a smile. You can still tweak it to get it even closer but I found once you get the smiley face it is good to go. The auto guider will have no problems with keeping the stars nice and round.

[@andesastro]

I havent had any luck with this one, really frustrating. I dont know if I should look for updates, restart to factory settings or if its just worse for the southerns users or wth. I keep chasing the tail of a ghost which gets me way far off as I can confirm with drift alignment afterwards. Did this about 3 times . I made sure the AM5 was facing south (already have some reference points in my neighbors building which kindly block my southern view), tracking was on, i started at northwest as it slews towards east in the southern hemisphere, and it made no sense. I even refreshed without touching anything and it bounced from one place to another.

[@AstroEscape]

Since it has been 7 months, has it gotten better? I know ZWO did some updates.

[@andesastro]

@@AstroEscape hey thanks for the follow-up. Its been so cloudy for the last 4 months and with a newborn at home that its been impossible to test it out. Will try again soon I hope although i feel very comfortable with PHD2 drift alignment and i think its more accurate. Ill let you know if I give it a go anytime! Hope youre better, best wishes for you in 2024

[@jimbob4484]

I have an issue when I do the all sky alignment using my AM5 mount. The polar alignment error keeps drifting even when I haven't actually made any adjustments to the Alt or AZ. The tripod and mount head are security fixed and stable so I'm at a loss. I'm wondering if it's a software bug causing the tracking to turn off? Has anyone come across this issue?

[@AstroEscape]

I did early on, but recently haven't had the issue. I'm hoping an update fixed your issue.

[@Pawel-rv1ek]

Did you fix it? I have the same issue.

[@jimbob4484]

@@Pawel-rv1ek I haven't tried it recently. Unless one of the firmware updates fixed it then it still doesn't work. There was clearly a bug in the software that causes the Polar alignment error to keep increasing. ZWO call the All Sky Alignment Workflow an experimental feature, which is their way of saying that cannot be bothered to properly release it. I love ZWO products generally but their customer service (and software development) is piss poor. Very disappointing!

[@Pawel-rv1ek]

@@jimbob4484 This is exactly what support told me today, lol.

[@randallpatrickc]

as a professional video editor and also a viewer, I personally find you chopping to the next clip irritatingly quick! How about adding just a little time 😊

[@AstroEscape]

Noted! Since I am returning back to youtube, I will keep that in mind for future videos :)

[@leonardoleo5250]

This feature doesn’t make much sense. I have a wall in front of my SCP. The device auto refreshes and I can’t advance with alignment because it stops to see the night sky and photographs a building 😢

[@AstroEscape]

It's all about where you have it pointing. As long as you don't point directly east or west, or in a direction that would cause a meridian flip, it should work.