How to Set Up the ASI AIR Meridian Flip

[@ArmitageLeather]

Super helpful, thank you. (liked and subscribed)

[@larkinsen]

That's the kind of tutorial that I like.First the theory plus images and then showing in practice with the mount and again the app what has been explained in the first part.That way the newbies,like me, can put two and two together.Good job.

[@AstroEscape]

Thank you! It was fun making those animations. Hopefully one day they are even more entertaining!

[@yervantparnagian5999]

At 3:14 of the video you state, "The mount will stop guiding. It actually keeps tracking, but stops guiding." Is it not the other way around? The mount stops tracking. We don't want the mount to move anymore so it won't hit the tripod, so it has to stop tracking. Tracking terminology is for mount. Guiding is for autoguiding. I know what you meant, but just trying to eliminate confusion. The menu also states, "Stop tracking X minutes before meridian." Oh, and thanks for answering people's questions. There's some other Tubers who post a video, but never answer questions.

[@AstroEscape]

You're right. Tracking would indeed cause problems if it kept going with a large refractor! Thanks for the kind words. I try to keep on top of it but sometimes I might go a few days if I'm busy with the day-to day stuff.

[@yervantparnagian5999]

@@AstroEscape We all have a life outside this hobby! Some forget that lol

[@josephluciani5531]

Love the ASIAIR tutorials! Keep em coming! Thank you

[@AstroEscape]

I'm planning on it! I hope this helped clarified things for you if you had questions about the flip. Thanks for swinging by!

[@lavers_1]

great video! Right to the point, thankyou!

[@stevez2400]

Thanks for the video. Loved the graphic with the lines and the galaxy. I use 0 minute for "Stop tracking x min before Meridian” and 1 minute for “Do AMF x min after Meridian.” My mount is a Takahashi EM-11 with a Temma-2z controller. I connect it to the ASIAir Pro through an ST-4 cable. I think that is my only option, but I don’t know for sure. The ASIAir behaves oddly during an AMF. While the mount is slewing during the flip, the ASIAir will start to take images and attempt to solve them. Of course, this won’t work while the mount is moving. The ASIAir ultimately times out, tries again with another image to solve, times out again, etc. Eventually when the mount has completed the flip, the ASIAir will finally solve, auto-center, and wait for the guider to settle. Typically, the first frame after the AMF is wasted because the mount and/or guider hasn’t settled yet. Subsequent frames are fine. It takes about 13 minutes for the mount to flip, then after the wasted first exposure, its about 18 minutes of downtime at the peak of imaging. I’m not sure there is much I can do to improve this, but I wanted to share. You don’t hear much about Tak mounts and the ASIAir. Also open to any ideas. Thanks again!

[@AstroEscape]

That's interesting. Only other thing I can think of is what The Narrowband Channel mentioned in another comment: manually flip it. Not ideal if you were letting it run while doing other things, but for sessions where you can do it manually, that might be worth it. You'd keep those frames that way.

[@ChristianProulx]

For me I always do a manual flip, cause we loose way to much time for acquiring our data. And in my area we don’t have clear sky as often as we like. By the way I wait 20-30 mins past the meridian before I’ll place my mount to the home position (600sec subs). Then I restart my plan and my scope goes to the good side of the mount. If I am asleep, I plan an alarm on my watch to wake me up to do the flip and watch my cables during the operation.

[@AstroEscape]

I feel your pain on the clear skies front! Manual flipping can be a time saver to maximize data gain from a session, but for simplicity, auto-flipping is nice to have.

[@TheMalbroughs]

I liked your video even though it didn't work for me. I'm using the ASIAIR_PRO, asi183mc pro, and ioptron cem60ec. Asiair did meridian countdown, but camera just kept shooting away. Will try again another night.

[@AstroEscape]

That's interesting. When I shot the part where I actually showed the flip, I was using the Pro (there was a wifi bug with the Plus). Did you have the app up to date?

[@Dances_With_Skies]

I’ve got the Asiair plus and it did the same thing. Counted down to meridian flip then just kept on shooting like nothing happened.

[@anthonybevis6939]

Excellent video, Raylon! Being a "somewhat not quite newbie" but by no means experienced, how does one deal with post meridian subs that are now way off in orientation from the orientation of the pre-meridian subs? Is that a subject for a possible video?

[@AstroEscape]

It'll always be flipped when you do a meridian flip, but as long as you are still centered, stacking software can rotate the image and line everything up with no issues. But if it doesn't center properly, I'd recommend sending the mount to the home position, then re-centering to see if it ends up where you need it to be.

[@toddweiler227]

Great video. Best explanation yet on a meridian flip. Now…what happens when the flip occurs during a Total Solar eclipse? Looking for solutions as Stellarium simulation shows a flip coming 20 minutes before totality. I’m looking at central Texas. Am5, AsiAirPlus. Hoping my Meade 60mm SolarMax II on a pier can clear if I start it on the east side before the eclipse and it tracks straight through rising as it looks west following the sun. Thoughts?

[@AstroEscape]

Have you practiced with it on a regular solar imaging run? My thoughts are to tell it to flip early or do what you mentioned. It should be able to handle it. but at minimum, you have a cushion of 20 minutes to get the flip done. If you don't mind missing a couple of minutes of partial, you'll still get stuff like the corona shot or Bailey's Beads.

[@robb7342]

Enjoy following your video's always easy to understand and informative. Do you know if the meridian flip within the ASIAir pro is influenced by the time? ZWO recommends that daylight savings not be used and I can't help wonder if this would shift the timing?

[@AstroEscape]

I don't think it is... at least fully influenced. It's more based on where the object is in the sky. You really only worry about the time during setup and telling the AIR where your mount is located on the planet, from there it figures out where everything is in the sky. I've had it properly flip the night of a time change, it was just watching where the object was :)

[@danthomas9414]

Daylon, is there a way to do a m/f using asi air plus while in Live Stacking mode? thx

[@AstroEscape]

It should flip on its own. I will have to check next time I am out doing some outreach as I tend to do EAA using live stacking, which should be in a couple of weeks at the next star party for my local club.

[@alcopa1fan]

Daylon, I just found out that you are from Pittsburgh, just like me. I lived in Elliot and Westwood many years age. Now to my question; the images taken on the pre meridian flip are orientated normally, that is, as shot. Now post meridian flip, the images are reversed, that is 180° to the pre-meridian flip. Now how does Deep Sky Stacker compensate for this pre and post flip images?

[@AstroEscape]

Well, I'm not privy to the coding as to HOW it does it, but it does compensate. The ASIAIR won't get it 100% exactly on point, as camera orientation can create the artifacts on the edge of the stack, but it's very close!

[@Ben_Stewart]

Does it centre the flip based on East image or is based on what you have set on the goto target?

[@AstroEscape]

It's set on the Go-To even if it's custom (example: you moved a little in one direction for better framing).

[@Chorge1972]

What about an SD in the Slot?

[@AstroEscape]

Nothing wrong with that! Go ahead and use it. Thumb drive is just my preference.

[@arshadwm]

Thank You

[@AstroEscape]

You're welcome, I hope it helped!

[@arshadwm]

@@AstroEscape in my AAP it’s not flipping even I set same parameters but it keeps solving plates.

[@daniellesanders5982]

There is no Meridian timer at the bottom of the screen for me. Does this mean it’s not going to do the flip? Or does the timer only pop up once you’re actually near the meridian? I don’t want to go to sleep and wake up to a disaster 5 hours from now.

[@AstroEscape]

It should show it all the time, whether or not it will flip during your session. Is the app up to date?

[@refetastro]

After flip objects are upside down from pad image’s

[@AstroEscape]

That's normal. When you go to stack it, the processing software will compensate for that.

[@refetastro]

Ohh I didn't know that I had to cancel my shooting because of that does the DDS doing it itself or i have to do flip them one by one ? Thanks @@AstroEscape

[@TheNarrowbandChannel]

Never understood why it has to wait at all. Just do a flip sometime between subs.

[@AstroEscape]

Not sure why either, but that's what it does. You could just set the first time to zero, and the second time to whatever (to guarantee it's past meridian). Either way, not sure what ZWO's logic is for adding it that way lol.

[@TheNarrowbandChannel]

@@AstroEscape Once I tried messing with the setting. Every number I tried cause it to fail to flip indefinitely. So I leave it at the default now. Which seams to take about 20-30min to actually flip. Horrible waist of the best part of the sky I know.

[@danthomas9414]

Daylon..where is our new Monday video at?

[@AstroEscape]

It'll be out this coming Monday. Had some real nasty winds cause some power outages over last weekend, set me back a bit!

[@astrokev99]

Good video. But I can't see the point of the post meridian delay before flipping. What is this for, apart from wasting time? Once it hits the meridian, surely that is when it should flip. Furthermore, if the mount stops tracking X minutes before reaching the meridian, then by definition, it will NEVER reach the meridian. There's something I'm not getting here! :) This is a frustration with ASIair, not your video! Thanks for your work - appreciated

[@AstroEscape]

It's more about making sure the object has passed meridian to make sure there's no issues like the scope hitting the mount. But I agree. I think an option to flip within 10 minutes before meridian would be doable with most setups. Just flip and get it over with.

[@astrokev99]

Thanks for the reply. I guess I need to experiment!

[@gunnarjensen5910]

Tried my ASIair plus, Zwo533 and William Optics Z81 for the first time last night. Polar alignment, perfect, guiding good. ZWO533 total crap. unusable pictures..

[@AstroEscape]

Awww man, it's not always total crap. A not good imaging session is still a learning experience. Did you use the 533 since with better results? If so, can I see one of the pics?

[@Nico.75]

Don't you waste 10 min of your best imaging time as the object is highest in the sky?

[@AstroEscape]

You do if you leave it default. If you set the pause setting to zero, and tell it to flip 10 minutes after meridian, it won't pause. I left it at default for the video to better illustrate what each setting does. Thanks for stopping by!

[@astroagashi2541]

Same settings will apply for ASIAIR Pro too? I have not tested yet cause EQM-35 is not in stock. Imagine having your whole rig ready and only the mount is left. Though I am trying untracked. BTW great info :)

[@AstroEscape]

Yep, works for both. When I recorded, the parts where I'm inside, I used the Plus for the video of that, but when I popped outside, I got hit with a nasty wifi-related bug going on with the Plus and couldn't connect to it (ZWO is aware of it and working on it) and had to use the Pro to shoot Andromeda. Thanks for the compliment!

[@astroagashi2541]

@@AstroEscape Thanks for helping. I honestly think only Astrophotographers reply to people as they know the struggle :)