ASIAIR quick session Astrophotography! - AZ-GTI + Samyang/Rokinon 135mm f2 Wide Field Setup

Topaz Labs Affiliate Link! - topazlabs.com/...
Topaz Labs Discount Code for my viewers! - FRIEND15 With the Summer solstice nearly here, the nights are incredibly short at this time of the year which makes astrophotography even more challenging than usual! I hope you'll join me for a quick session under the stars with my little lens based mini astrophotography rig!
Equipment used :
Samyang 135mm F2 ED Canon Fit Lens
ASIair Imaging Computer System
Skywatcher AZ-GTi Portable Mount
Zwo ASI2600mc pro
Optolong L-extreme filter
Zwo EOS filter drawer system
Thank you for all the support!
Find me on Instagram at
/ lukomatico
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#astrophotography
#zwoasi
#skywatcher
#optolong
#pixinsight
#deepspace
#space

[@paulwood6729]

Love the apparent depth of the image, especially as you first show it & zoom out.

[@lukomatico]

I'm glad you like it Paul! I really hope I can get some longer sessions underway soon! :)

[@LogansAstro]

Really like the way the crescent nebula pops out like it's sitting in front of the background, 3d like.

[@lukomatico]

Thanks so much Logan! - You sometimes get a sense of depth/scale that's really nice with wide-field shots! - I think it's a region deserving of a potential revisit, especially with just 55 minutes already looking quite good! :) Thanks so much for watching mate!

[@febsat]

Well done Luke. Sometimes simple is more fun. When you can carry the whole astrophotography rig with one hand and end up with such amazing results, that is a huge promotion for this wonderful hobby. I have spent the past two nights having a great time with my astrophotography gear; under dark clear skies. When gear is running well, it is not a bother to go to bed at 4 AM 😉

[@lukomatico]

Hey!! That's so true haha, when things are going well it's really no problem to have a bit of a tired day afterwards! :D afterall, having fun in our own way is what it's all about really! It's a really cool little rig, and so light/portable - things have moved on so far in the past few years with this hobby! Thank you for watching mate :)

[@AZ4Runner]

I got one of those adapters for my Nikon lenses. Haven't had a chance to test it out completely yet. Hope my tests come out as well as yours !! Clear skies

[@lukomatico]

Hey Jason! :) I'm sure when you get the chance to give it a proper test you'll be delivering awesome images right away! Thanks for watching mate :)

[@RussellsAstrophotography]

Great image Luke, especially fo such little data. That 135mm looks like a great addition, opens up so many different targets.

[@lukomatico]

Thanks Russell! - it's a lovely little lens for sure! :) I wish I could use it for broadband imaging a bit more sometimes, but the gradients are powerful over such a wide field with bad light pollution 😢 Thanks for checking it out!

[@JJherne]

Nice result there :). I bought the ASIair pro a few days ago and I'm blown away by it. Using it with my William Optics Z61ii and AZ-Gti has just got me my best ever shot of the North America Nebula - I reckon the sadr region could be high on my to do list now. Good inspiration, thanks.

[@lukomatico]

Hey J J! - oh man that's awesome to hear! Congratulations mate, the asiair is truly tremendous, and not too mention congrats on your best ever NAN image! :-) I'm really happy for you mate, good luck on capturing the Sadr region next then! 👍👍

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Wonderful video Luke. You gotta love widefield astrophotography. A great compliment to narrow views from the telescopes. BTW, I am STILL socked in with clouds and with MORE on the way ... ugh! (Patrick from Savannah)

[@lukomatico]

Hey Pat! - Absolutely agree - there's something nice about seeing nebulae with more context around them sometimes, it gives a sense of scale I think! :) I'm sorry to hear the clouds just won't part for you yet, here's hoping you get a break in them soon! 🤞 All the best, Luke

[@paulholdsworth2502]

Really great portable rig Luke that can clearly produce a quality image quickly. F2 matched with that sensor is a cracking combination. Great video and content again 👌

[@lukomatico]

Thanks Paul! It's a mighty little rig for sure! It makes me wonder if I ought to get a fast little newt at some point for the same effect on speed but at longer focal lengths! 🤔👍👍

[@astrojudebob]

Nice job. That came out great. I love that wide field view.

[@lukomatico]

Thank you J G! - I'm glad you liked it :)

[@IcedReaver]

Beautiful end result, Luke. That samyang/rokinon lens is amazingly fast, you managed to get quite a lot of data (in narrowband too) for our British summertime. I like how the crescent nebula has just popped its head into the frame haha, for once it wasn't the focal point of the image.

[@lukomatico]

Heya mate! - I'm glad you liked the end result! - having fast optics is definitely such a huge advantage at times of the year like this, especially with our summertime like you said! :) I do like how the crescent photobombed it a bit, haha! :D Thanks for watching mate!

[@Dorkyand40]

Ah that’s a nice one luke!!

[@lukomatico]

Thank you mate!! :)

[@peterturner1919]

Lovely image I've just got myself a skywatcher star adventurer, cannon 650d, skywatcher ed72 can't wait to get started , I'll let the night's draw out a tad yet,but can start on moon,managed to get nice shot of last week's partial eclipse. Keep Emm coming, I'll be getting the samyang soon as well.

[@lukomatico]

Hey Peter! - That's a nice rig by the sound of it, I think you'll have a lot of fun! I don't blame you at all for letting the solstice pass before starting properly, these nights are next to useless compared to how it'll be just a few months from now haha! I'll do my best to keep the videos going, I just want some dark skies again now! :D Clear skies mate, Luke

[@avt_astro206]

Thats Intresting!! Using a Dedicated Astro Cam For Widefield. Love The Image! So much Details, The Cresent Nebula and The Sadr Region, you killed it man!! Looks Awesome. Enjoy The Milky Way Season. Keep looking Up! Clear Skies!🌌👍🏻

[@lukomatico]

Hey mate! - Thanks so much, I'm really glad you've enjoyed the image, I'm enjoying the season but I can't wait for some true night-time again! :) Cheers for watching!

[@ianmacdonald2307]

Love this video - because I’ve just bought the Samyang lens at a great price from Amazon and have also bought a modded DSLR camera. Yet to use either of them because of the very short nights here in the northern UK. I intend mounting the lens on a Star Adventurer with a 3D printed bracket which I bought from a guy in France ( looks like a great bit of kit!). Only started astrophotography 9 months ago and up until now have used an unmodified DSLR attached to a Skywatcher 72ED. Looking forward to a much wider field of view and hopefully some more imaging variety. I’m still trying to work out where to put a light pollution filter but don’t really want to spend a lot of cash on a clip filter when I already have a 2” LP filter. Thanks for sharing - I’m now subscribed to your channel 🤝

[@lukomatico]

Hey there Ian! - Thank you so much for watching and giving your support mate, I really appreciate it! :-) Congratulations on the lens!! - It sounds like you're going to have some fun with your new kit when the nights start drawing in a bit more! - definitely more variety, and you should be able to get some fantastic shots of the Orion region especially! regarding the light pollution filter, as you are using a DSLR + Lens, i'm afraid the only real option is to use either lens-mounted front filters, or a clip-in body filter, that said - with a lens this fast it's always worth just pointing it and giving it a go anyway regardless of light pollution, it can collect an amazing amount of light so you are probably still going to get nice images regardless! :) Thank you so much again, and clear skies! Luke

[@jupiter_tv]

Amazing image! Nicely done👍 The red light is really fascinating

[@lukomatico]

Thanks mate! - it's such a rich Ha region, really dramatic! :)

[@OlliesSpace]

Pretty awesome work for an hour of data Luke, what a great little rig that is. Keep the vids coming mate 👍

[@lukomatico]

Thank you Ollie!! - I really need some longer sessions now haha, I just had another short one on the Dumbbell nebula which I'm unsure if I should even edit into a video, I feel bad about the quality of the reveals on short sessions! Thank you for watching mate :)

[@OlliesSpace]

@@lukomatico I reckon go for it mate you can only work with the sky you have at the moment. BTW are those Kendrick heater bands? I just had to get a Kendrick band as my cheapo ones weren't doing the job once it got very cold.(they were only 20 quid each).

[@lukomatico]

@@OlliesSpace Hey Ollie! - Thanks for the push forwards mate, I'll edit it together! :) They are not Kendrick exactly, but they are Lynx astro - very similar as far as I know! Thanks again mate!

[@noddyonice]

Superb stuff Luke. Been debating (with myself, not the boss thankfully!) about the Samyang. Could be a goer!! 👍🏻 Noddy

[@lukomatico]

Hey there Noddy! - It's a great lens mate, really works well - I do sometimes find myself wishing I had a little more focal length though, like the William Optics Redcat sort of thing! I guess there's never a one-size fits all solution to astrophotography, haha! :) Thanks for watching mate!

[@noddyonice]

I’ve a spacecat, but I love with wide field stuff. Thought of quicker capture in dubious northern skies is tempting. The long focal length stuff will come with time no doubt! 👍🏻 Noddy (astronoddy on Instagram)

[@lukomatico]

Hey Noddy! - I've just checked out your instagram mate, I'm following you :D you've taken some lovely shots already, and what a nice looking rig, top stuff! :) If I had loads of money I'd have more different size scopes than pairs of socks, but unfortunately for me, that's not the case haha :D Clear skies mate!

[@astrojourneyuk]

Cool image at the end with the floating brain. :) Nice video and it’s good to get more simple rigs out every now and then. Although this is still a very capable setup!!!

[@lukomatico]

Thanks mate! - I do love getting out the little rig from time to time for short sessions like that :) Cheers for watching!

[@KopLamp]

It's a lens which is on my wishlist as well... Not to mention a beast of a camera like that 2600 you are using. I only got the 294MC Pro ;) And I keep saying it, but man how do you get all the time to churn out so many videos. Keeps being impressive. My video's usually take so much time producing that having your video-posting-speed would mean that I would be working on KZbin vids all of my spare time!

[@lukomatico]

Hey Martin! I hope you are doing well mate :) It's a great lens for sure! - I'm sure you'd be happy with one, I do sometimes wish I'd gotten one that was slightly longer FL though, only occasionally. I guess the style of videos I make means they take less time to produce, I generally set aside 5-6 hours and get it done in one sitting :) Looking forwards to your next one mate! Clear skies

[@IcemanAstro]

One of the reasons I bought my Spacecat is just cause I just absolutely love the wide shots. 55 minutes but damn you gave it justice!! Jason, I believe is trying to build a setup such as yours for some fall/ winter constellations but we will see!

[@lukomatico]

Hey Isaac! - I'd love a redcat/spacecat at some point, they really do look like a beautiful scope to own and use for those widefield shots! - It'll be interesting to see what Jason decides to do! :) Thanks for watching mate

[@DrNat1]

Truly amazing…..I’ve put 1.5 hours in to this region with cheap scope and I’m no where near……Still doesn’t stop me tryin tho 👍🏼👍🏼 wicked dude 👍🏼👍🏼

[@lukomatico]

Hey mate! :) That's absolutely the best way to approach it! - as long as you are having fun and learning, then you're definitely on the right path man :) Keep it up mate, you've got the right attitude to do well at this game! :) Thank you for watching!

[@cityspaceastro]

Great video and image Luke got to get a Samyang 135 F2 lens.

[@lukomatico]

Hey mate! They are a really solidly built and capable little lens, properly impressive! :) Thanks for watching!

[@AndrewThomas73]

Just love your channel only just subcribed and slowing going through all your videos, back to this video im running almost the same set up, just differnent Zwo camera, cant afford the 2600 at the mo. Highly recommend you look into switching the Optalong L extreme filter out for the IDAS NBZ ( best 2 be the Z variant ) Nebula booster filter, its pre shifted for fast ratios, the Ha transmission is only around 30% at F3 on the L Extreme so your losing loads of data...Keep up the great work

[@lukomatico]

Hey Andrew!! - Thank you so much for watching and subscribing mate, I'm really thankful for your support! I definitely do appreciate the advice about phase-shift with NB filters at high speeds, it's a good point! - going forwards though I'll be mostly using this filter now at either f4.9 or f7 :D between the two main scopes I have. - I may be parting with the samyang at some point, just need to figure out if it's going to get much use anymore now I have a redcat :-) Thank you so much for watching and leaving a thoughtful comment mate, and thanks again for subscribing! Clear skies :D

[@siegfriednoet]

Great little handy setup Luke, great image as usual, nice video to watch again 👍 From now on the nights are getting longer again ;-)

[@lukomatico]

Hey Siegfried! - Thank you! - I'm very glad you liked the video and image mate :-) you make a great point, we're past the solstice now - roll on the longer nights! Thanks for watching!

[@peterkudzinowski1274]

Nice image Luke considering the short exposure time👍👍👍

[@lukomatico]

Hey Peter! - I was pleased too, thank you very much mate :) Clear skies!

[@CosmuzzAstro]

Nice video Luke, Thanks. Love this region. Great Image and not even an hour. Awesome. ASI Air Pro keeps popping up and i'm hearing good stuff about it. Think it may be a near future buy for me.

[@lukomatico]

Hey mate! It's such a full region, with enough different focal length scopes you could shoot it all season long and still have stuff left to do! :) The ASIair Pro really is a fine bit of kit, if it fits the rest of your kit then it's really worth it in my opinion! BTW, I've just subscribed to your channel, keep up the great work mate!!

[@CosmuzzAstro]

@@lukomatico Thanks for the support Luke, appreciate it! Think your channel is great, some brilliant content on it! Still finding my feet with the new set up and not a fan of all the cable. Its only going to get worse when I eventually start guiding so I want to get it sorted earlier rather than later.

[@d.fresh.750]

That's quite an amazing image Luke! I might have to give this a go with my 135mm f/2 & the ASI294MC Pro! Although I only have the Move Shoot Move for a small tracker, which doesn't track too well at that focal length. Makes me want a SGP or Star Adventurer...something that accepts guiding. 🤔

[@lukomatico]

Hey there! - I'd say you could definitely get a great image with that rig as it is :) the 294 is a lovely sensitive camera so you'll be okay even with short exposures I think! Thanks so much for watching mate, I really appreciate it!

[@d.fresh.750]

@@lukomatico I'm still learning the camera, so I'm still getting an idea of what it's capable of. Maybe I wouldn't have to throw away many 30s subs? I enjoy your videos quite a bit, keep up the good work!

[@CuriousRiz]

Very nice final image dude. :)

[@lukomatico]

Hey! :D thanks very much mate :) Just checked out your latest video and dropped you a sub, keep it up dude!

[@Outlander1963UK]

Hi Luke, great video and love the image. The cables you have plugged into the AAP are they the ones that come with the unit. Haven't had mine out of the box yet as still waiting for a few bits to turn up. Sure been a long wait as a lot of gear is out of stock. Many thanks for sharing your work and look forward to seeing your next project.

[@lukomatico]

Hey there Paul! - Yes they are the ones mate, it actually comes with a really healthy collection of cables! - very nice to see :) The wait times for certain bits of gear has been brutal hasn't it? I hope the rest of your kit arrives soon!! All the best, Luke

[@DSOImager]

Good stuff! I believe Samyang is the same as Rokinon in the states. How do the stars at the corners look? This lens is on my radar, as well as the 14mm.

[@lukomatico]

Hey mate! - that's right, it's the same as the Rokinon :) the stars in the corner on an APS/C sensor are good even at F2, but I prefer the extra sharpness from F2.8, plus it lessens the effect of spectral shift when used with my L-Extreme filter! It's a really great lens, sometimes though I do wish I'd got a bit more focal length, 135mm feels a bit too wide at times! Thank you for watching mate!

[@HogarthsAstrophotography]

What an image. Fantastic..

[@lukomatico]

Thanks so much mate! :D I appreciate you taking the time to have a look!

[@seanmuller5145]

Great video, I have the same lens, I have it mounted to my Canon 6D and 80D, it's just amazing . It's perfect for deep sky Astrophotography very light weight . Best bang for your buck. I'm amazed how sharp it is even a f2. I also use it for Portrait and Bird photography .

[@seanmuller5145]

I also wanted to add this lens for Deep Sky makes life easy for stars tracking if your new to the game. My first deep sky lens was the Sigma 150 to 600mm f5-6.3. That's is a great lens as well and I love it. But it's so big and heavy it took me a few frustrating nights to get it working right. With the 135 f2, in 10 minutes I had it balanced and tracking.

[@lukomatico]

Hey there Sean! - Man I really know what you mean! it's such a great little lens, and so capable - it's like it was made with the astrophotographer in mind! :) I had a similar lens at one point, the Sigma 150-500 - A pretty big chunk of glass, so I can only imagine how much larger the 600 is! Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to leave a comment mate! Clear skies, Luke

[@trevsastrophotography]

Beautiful capture!!

[@lukomatico]

Thank you very much Trev! I appreciate that mate :)

[@trevsastrophotography]

No problem, keep up the great work! Can’t wait to see more!

[@N4GW]

Really nice image

[@lukomatico]

Hey Mike! Thanks very much mate :) 👍 Hoping for you some clear skies!

[@AstroParkAstrophotography]

Well done Luke! You even captured the Crescent Nebula in the corner which is cool! I had a question regarding the AZ-GTi. I'm considering picking up one of these as it would make a great compact equatorial travel mount with the firmware update. I was wondering how do you accomplish your polar alignment routine with this mount? For polar aligning, I use a QHY Polemaster and it looks like there's no place to attach it to the AZ-GTi nor does it come with a polar alignment scope. So I was curious as to how you were able to overcome that. Keep up the great work!

[@lukomatico]

Hey there mate! - I'm sorry about the late reply, unfortunately your comment disappeared off KZbin for a while but it's showing now, so all is well! So to answer your question, I do my polar alignment routine with this little rig by using the ASIair's app on my phone /tablet, it uses plate solving to get you very accurately polar aligned, it works like sharpcap pro's polar align routine if you've tried that? I do have a video on my general workflow with this rig on my channel if you'd like to see it in action! It's called 'compact & portable astrophotography imaging system' - I'd link you directly but I had to block links in my KZbin comments to protect people from spam bots! 😅 Anyhow, I got that helps! Thank you for taking a look, and I just subscribed to your KZbin channel! Clear skies 👍

[@geotechlb]

If you use the WiFi and sync scan Pro app under the advance option there a PA option it ask you to center a star and then it auto move the mount to calculate driff align I have got 1m to 2 m unguided with this option

[@lukomatico]

@@geotechlb that's really good to know!! Awesome info, thank you :)

[@geotechlb]

@@lukomatico found by accident really handy just center star in eyepiece or dslr screen it move and ask to center using altitude then move again and ask to center using az very handy if you can't see north star I still wonder why its hidden in advanced options and not under align menu 🤔

[@lukomatico]

@@geotechlb Yeah that definitely shouldn't be hidden away! It sounds quite similar to the routine on the synscan handsets from your description, it's brilliant they've included it! :)

[@Excessus1978]

Hi, the L-extreme is not suppose to be a good option on fast systems with bigger aperture than f/5.6. Have you noticed a drop in Ha strength when using it on the Samyang . 135/2? Transmissions at f/6 is 60% for Ha and only 10% at f/2 accoriding to Jim Thompsons report.

[@lukomatico]

Hey there! - It's true, definitely the system suffers from the effect of bandpass shift at faster f-ratios, it still works well enough though! :-) Thanks for watching!

[@simonpepper5053]

Great work Luke!

[@lukomatico]

Thank you so much Simon!! :) Cheers for watching mate!

[@julianhoe9909]

Another great image Luke, you are really nailing them! Is there any reason why you don’t use the asiair pro with your main rig?

[@lukomatico]

Hey Julian! - it's partly because I don't have an ASI autofocus unit for my main rig, so would be back to manual focusing, and the other part is just that it's easy sometimes to record directly from the laptop screen while making videos, though if ever I did switch I could perhaps show the iPad screen instead haha? :D Thank you for watching mate! - I hope to be able to start completing some longer sessions soon! :)

[@tonymarsh3541]

Nice. Tried this same target last night at 135mm on my newly-modded mirrorless camera. What lens collar are you using? I have one but it doesn't hinge open like yours, so I have to slide it off the back of the lens with the camera removed.

[@lukomatico]

Hey Tony! - I was using a wrongly sized one from amazon, I can't remember the exact model I'm afraid, slightly too big for the lens so I bushed it up to fit as I really wanted that quick-release nature :-) Hope that helps!

[@tonymarsh3541]

@@lukomaticoOK, thanks. Reckon I'll stick with mine then since it grips rather well.

[@CDigata]

Hey, dont worry mr past Luke, future luke tells me you will have a bigger scope soon.. and maybe your own Observatory one day - 🤡👽

[@lukomatico]

Lmao!! :-D how things have changed!

[@tomdaigon8707]

Do you have an account at Astrobin? I would love to see your images (like the Cygnus Wall) at full resolution. Its free to post there and there are many talented folks like yourself that display their images. Also, do you have any cool techniques to shoot luminanace data with a mono camera and combine it with your OSC chrominane data? Some images Ive seen that have done that have crisp detail and look extremely good when enlarged.

[@lukomatico]

Hi Tom! I do have an Astrobin, it's just under Luke Newbould - I've let my subscription slip for a while though, I'll have to resubscribe soon and get it thoroughly updated with all my newer stuff! re: adding mono/osc data, I'm afraid it's not something I've ever tried before! I'd expect though that you could split the OSC channels into their components, r/g/b, and then recombine with the L - as an LRGB combination? - that said, it's just a guess! I'd hate to give misinformation mate! Thank you for watching Tom! :) Hope you have a great rest of your week!

[@billvinson7859]

I have the L EXTREME . It works great.

[@lukomatico]

Hi Bill! - Awesome stuff, It's a really great filter isn't it mate! Clear skies :)

[@billvinson7859]

@@lukomatico It’s not just that, it saves me a lot of gas for not having to drive 100 miles to a dark sky site.

[@mikelockwood2104]

Nice change up from your large rig. Are you able to slew to targets through an app with this rig ( same as a Goto mount ) ? I have an iOptron Sky Guider Pro and it's all manual - trial and error centering on targets.

[@lukomatico]

Hey there Mike! - You've got it mate, you can do full GoTo with this mount, and when coupled with the ASIair, that also means true plate-solving too, for super accurate alignment! it's a really great little rig :) I know what you mean about trial and error centering, it can be a frustrating business! Thanks so much for watching, I hope you have a great week! Clear skies

[@astronomycrazyman2940]

So, if I am adding correctly or estimating, you have about $3,200.00 into this outfit ? Is that sound about right ? Of course, minus the computer. Also, did you say you are using a wedge ? I didn't see that in the equipment list. Ahh, I also forgot the guidscope.

[@lukomatico]

Hey there! - I think that's about right yeah - I've got a little less into it than that because some parts were bought used of course :-) I am indeed using the wedge on the AZ-Gti, it's a brilliant addition that really opens up your options with the mount! Thank you for watching mate!

[@Kevachino1]

I know it been a while since you posted this, but could you by chance tell me or link me the lens collar your are using for the rokinon 135mm f2? i have been looking all over the place and cant find out that people seems to agree works

[@lukomatico]

Hey Kevachino! - I'm afraid the collar I used was not actually intended for the lens!! It was a slightly oversized one which I made fit the lens by using packing between it and the lens itself! Sorry I couldn't help more there buddy

[@mdees88]

What dew heaters are you using? I would like some 12v ones to plug straight into the asiair. Mine are 5v.

[@lukomatico]

Hey mate! I'm using some 12v straps that terminate in RCA, then I use an RCA to 5.5x2.1 converter to have the ASIAIR control them :-) You can find these kinds of thing from most astro retailers luckily!

[@tezza0905]

Nice video, Luke, - I've enjoyed all the stuff you've put out, especially the one on processing duo-band colour images. I was particularly interested in this video as I've just recently started trying to get my AZ-GTi working for wide-field astrophotography (a RedCat51, so not as wide or fast as your Samyang lens). I cannot seem to get DEC guiding working though - it seems to work for a while and then it goes shooting off in one direction or another. Do you guide in DEC or do you rely on accurate polar alignment and then turn DEC guiding off? If you do guide, how on earth did you get it to work? I've seen some comment about the 3.26 version of the MC firmware being a problem and that the 3.20 version was OK - what is your experience?

[@lukomatico]

Hey there Terry! - I'm so happy to hear you are enjoying the videos mate, that's really motivating! RE: the DEC issue, I had the exact same thing! - going back to the earlier firmware fixed it right away, I would highly recommend it mate :) I can now guide in both axes no problem, everything working as intended, I hope that helps mate! All the best, Luke

[@tezza0905]

@@lukomatico cheers, Luke, yes it does, that's brilliant. I was hoping that's what you would say, so I've dropped back to the earlier firmware and I've just got to wait for some clear skies to try it out.

[@lukomatico]

@@tezza0905 That's brilliant to hear, I'm confident it'll all be sorted for you now mate! - hoping for some clear skies for you to test it! Best of luck mate!

[@SimonsAstro]

That’s a nice portable setup Luke. Do you always plug your guide cam into the usb on the asi air pro and not into the 2600mc Pro direct, or is it only on this setup? and do your dew heaters have a controller or are they on full blast all the time? Sorry for the 20 questions mate! Really nice final image especially with that little crescent on the right of the image😀

[@lukomatico]

Hey Simon! - Thanks very much mate :) - no problem at all with questions!! I just leave the little guide cam plugged direct into the asiair on this rig, it's been its permanent home for a while now :D RE: the dew heaters, unfortunately they are on full all the time haha! - not a problem really when power is in abundance like at home, but out in the field it'd lead to me needing to take a beefy power bank I think! I'm glad you liked the image mate, thank you for watching! :)

[@SimonsAstro]

@@lukomatico No prob Luke, I I always look forward to your vids! Saturday I made a point of sitting down at 1pm and left the wife shopping, cost me 250 quid, she went mad!! That’s a filter I could of bought! I suppose as you say it’s no prob at home for power, I use the Jackery 500 in the field! Cheers Luke.

[@lukomatico]

@@SimonsAstro Hey Simon! - That's ace to hear mate :D I'm sorry about the loss of a potential filter purchase, but at least your wife had a brilliant time by the sound of things! haha :) I wish I'd bought maybe a slightly bigger battery pack, the big Jackery's like your 500 are an amazing looking unit!

[@SimonsAstro]

@@lukomatico Big congrats on 1500 subscribers today Luke 🥂👍

[@lukomatico]

@@SimonsAstro Thanks Simon! It's a really good feeling! :) I appreciate all your support mate!

[@potatounboxes6691]

Hey mate! What are the wires connected to the AZ-GTI? thanks!

[@lukomatico]

Hey there! There should be 3 wires going into the Az-gti, the power supply and the Ftdi-USB cable for mount connection (not required, it can be connected to asiair wirelessly instead!) Hope that helps mate!

[@potatounboxes6691]

Thanks so much mate! Adding to my question, how will the filter affect the star colors on the samyang 135? I also plan to use the same setup as you, however with a SkyGuider Pro. Thanks so much for this vid as it clears up some of my questions. Thanks!

[@lukomatico]

@@potatounboxes6691 Hey there! Depending on which filter you use the effect will be bigger or smaller, most filters will change the colour somewhat of course, the Samyang deals with this quite well though :-) I think your setup will be great! 👍👍 Clear skies mate

[@potatounboxes6691]

Hey there again! That a quick reply… I do plan to use the L-eNhance and everything else u have 😂 except for the mount. I really do appreciate you answering my questions. Thanks so much! Clear skies to you as well. :)

[@schmaehtandla]

Which tripod are you using with your az-gti?

[@lukomatico]

Hey there mate! - I'm using a surveyor's tripod, designed for a laser survey/leveling device :-) It cost around £45 from ToolStation here in the UK, I had to make a tripod spreader for it though because the legs were hard to get right without one! :D Thanks for watching!

[@schmaehtandla]

@@lukomatico Thx, exactly as i thought. :D Seems very sturdy, i was thinking about buying one for months now, but didn't see anyone actually using it. Does it have a 3/8" screw at the base, any other adaptations needed?

[@lukomatico]

@@schmaehtandla Hey mate! - I drilled and tapped two holes in the baseplate for the wedge's locking screws, and removed the 3/8" bolt at the bottom as it was no use really, I instead swapped it out for a 3/8" eye bolt, washer and matching nut to tighten into the underside of the baseplate - this allows you to hand-tighten to a really satisfactory level :-) the only other thing I'd say is really required for ease of use would be a tripod spreader - again just a case of self-tapping bolts, metal brackets and a plywood spreader plate - all pretty easy to DIY! :D I hope that helps mate, it really has resulted in a sturdy and lightweight tripod for very little money! on a side note- i believe Draper sell a good option at a slightly higher price that might not need as much modding! Clear skies!