ASIAir Beginner's Workflow | 2023 Edition
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 มิ.ย. 2024
- The ASIAir is a great tool for astrophotography, although many beginners get confused with the interface. In this tutorial I'll show my workflow that makes the entire process much easier, and more streamlined.
I'm sure you'll still have questions though, so check the pinned comment down below for even more tips.
For more information on astrophotography, be sure to check out my Deep Space Course:
www.peterzelinka.com/tutorials
00:00 - Intro
01:15 - Connect to ASIAir
02:22 - Check Lat / Long
03:55 - Initial Setup
05:26 - Connect Camera
06:33 - Step 1: Focus
08:45 - Step 2: Polar Alignment
10:00 - If Plate Solving Fails...
11:27 - Polar Alignment Continued
14:36 - Step 3: Go-To Object
17:39 - Nifty ASIAir Feature
18:59 - Step 4: Begin Guiding
21:16 - Increase Display Size
21:50 - Adjust Gain
22:29 - Cooler Settings
22:50 - Customize File Names
23:27 - Guiding Continued
24:17 - Step 5: Configure Auto-Run
27:00 - Step 6: Check First Image
29:33 - Recap
We covered a lot today, but there's still more to learn!
Let's start with Guiding. If you are photographing an object to the North, you may get a message when you start the Guiding Calibration - something like "Object is within 30* of NCP, please calibrate away from celestial pole". At this point you have two choices - ignore it and continue, or fix the problem. Basically what it's saying is that you should not calibrate your auto-guider when aimed up North. Since all the stars rotate around the North Celestial Pole (near Polaris), they won't move very much over the span of 5 minutes. Just watch a Star Trails timelapse video to see what I mean:
th-cam.com/video/zSjCeg3VxyE/w-d-xo.html
One of the best ways to improve your guiding is to aim the mount (and camera + telescope) to the celestial equator. That's a fancy term for the arc in the sky where the sun, moon, and planets move across throughout the day/night. Anywhere along this arc, from East to West, will provide better guiding results than the Northern sky. So, once you get to Step 3: Go-To, you could use the Sky Atlas feature to aim towards the celestial equator instead. Then start Step 4 - Guiding Calibration. Once the mount has completed the calibration, you can use the Sky Atlas to center up the object you actually want to photograph. The Guiding is smart enough to translate the calibration info to this new target destination. (This is assuming you have a go-to mount connected, like the AM5, and are not using an ST4 cable.)
I recommend turning off "Auto-Restore Calibration" in the Guide Settings. If this is turned on, there's a good chance you'll encounter problems. If you have any issues with guiding, it's always a good idea to "Clear Guide Calibration Data", using the button above the Begin Looping arrows. This will clear out your initial calibration though, and you'll need to re-do it. However, there's a chance this will fix the underlying issues affecting your guiding performance.
Another thing to keep in mind is just how sensitive auto-guiders are. Even walking around near your tripod can disturb the guiding. This is why it's best to walk away during the calibration. If I ever need to touch my rig at all, I'll Stop my guiding temporarily. Otherwise it will freak out. When I've finished what I need to do, I'll restart the Guiding.
Once you get the hang of the Beginner's Workflow you may want to try Dithering. This can be turned on in the Guide Settings Menu. Dithering will trigger after every photo, and cause your camera to move in a random direction. This movement will be very slight, between 1 - 10 pixels (which you can configure). However, this slight motion can actually help to remove hot pixels, sensor banding, color mottle, walking noise, and more! For more information, check my dithering tutorial:
th-cam.com/video/eFS1tOT0jy4/w-d-xo.html
Next up is Polar Alignment. I mentioned that there's an All Sky Polar Align feature, which can be enabled in the Info menu. This can be very helpful if your view of Polaris is blocked by trees, buildings, or anything else. You'll be able to aim towards the southern sky instead, and use that for the alignment. Watch my full tutorial here:
th-cam.com/video/QP2Z32e5ZcI/w-d-xo.html
Speaking of Polar Alignment, you may still run into problems with the Plate Solving step. While I covered this to some degree in the video, there are a few more tricks to try. If you cannot plate solve, click the stop button. Then change from PA back to Preview. Use the Sky Atlas to aim the mount away from Polaris, it doesn't matter where. When the mount has moved to the new position, take a photo in the Preview interface. Next, click "Solve" on the left. This should be able to Plate Solve the image now. If it succeeds, click "Sync Mount". This ensures the mount knows where it's pointing. Go back to the Mount Settings and "Go-To Home". Then restart the Polar Alignment steps.
Finally we have Meridian Flips. I intentionally left this out of the video. There's simply way too many potential problems for beginners, and I don't want anyone's gear to get destroyed. However, a Meridian Flip will allow you to photograph your target all night long. All you need to do is turn on the switch for Meridian Flip in the Auto-Run menu, where you configure the shooting schedule. Once the Meridian Flip button is turned on, your mount will automatically move the camera and telescope when the object you are photographing crosses the local Meridian. If you draw a line from due North to due South straight overhead, that's the Meridian. If the object you are photographing is already to the West of the Meridian, than the Meridian flip won't actually trigger. For more information on Meridian Flips, watch my tutorial here:
th-cam.com/video/ok9UOe9l7OI/w-d-xo.html
I had issues with the AM5 and meridian flip. So I would image a target just before it crosses over and stop and go to another target, and when the 1st target passes the meridian, I would go back to it 😁.
You mention how sensitive autoguiding is. If occasional clouds occur, the guiding goes crazy. You think it's better to turn it off, and maybe lessen the sub exposure time?
@@mikehardy8247 if clouds start to interfere with the guiding, I would Stop the guiding until they blow over.
Thank you so much. I was running in to these issues.
I have one question Peter. I want to use the ASIAir just to run a guide scope camera as I'm using a DSLR ( a T6i ) for my main camera and do not want it to run through the ASIAir. Will that cause any issues?
I've had my asiair for a year. No one tutorial, or post has come close to explaining all the features it has. This proves that. I've learned a bunch of stuff here!
Brilliant. Thanks Peter.
Thanks! This really gave me confidence for first light!
Great video, and perfect timing. I just received all of my equipment yesterday and wanted a good tutorial on the ASIAir. There are several on TH-cam, but they're all 2 to 3 years old. Appreciate you doing a video on the more updated settings. Also on very similar equipment, I got the AM5, RedCat 51, ASI533MC.
Well done! I have watched several ASIair beginner tutorials and this one demonstrates several features that the others do not.
You're the man! You make it easy to follow and to understand the workflow, thnx for always bringing relevant good info to us. I've learned so much from you're vids.
I've been using ASIAIR since 2020, and this is by far the best beginners guide I've seen to date - excellent job!
I'll be recommending this to others.
Also, the tip about editing target names to include useful information such as filter used is very helpful.
Your guiding is to die for... I struggle bad with guiding....
By far the best ASI demonstration on the net, thank you sir, I’ve learned soooo much here. 🙏
Another AWESOME feature, is being able to use image management to back to a target you were working on the night before. Plate solving is a game changer
These tutorials are the best I have found. Very clear and informative! Thank you!
Thanks for great video.
This video picked up exactly where I am at with my new scope set up. Can’t wait to power up and get started
Great video, thanks!
Waiting for the cat and AA to arrive, really helpful having an overview of the whole process from the get go.
Thank you for the video ❤
wow it was very helpful!!! Thank You!
Peter - This is very helpful, thanks!!
Awesome this is very handy Peter!
This was truly fantastic. Many thanks.
Legendary tutorial, many thanks!
Excellent, thanks, Regards from Bogota
Great video and a reminder of unused features I've been missing out on. You mentioned a future video about grainy images and I'm looking forward to that.
Great tutorial! Thank you for putting together an excellent learning tool.
Very nice tutorial Peter 👍👏👏🌌🔭
Cheers Si
This was a fascinating video for me. I’m just starting out with my mirrorless camera, a Sony A7iv and a Samyang 135. But I have a feeling I will want to upgrade after some success in the field. Thank you!
Thanks for this video... I took my first foray into Guiding with my SA 2i a couple of days ago, despite having owned the ASIAir Plus since early spring this year.
I have to say, your videos have been a great source of help. You are clear with instructions as well as mentioning the pitfalls.
Made good use of the guiding yesterday to image the Pleiades with a Sony a6000 and the Sony 70-350mm at 350mm. I managed 2-minute exposures at f8 and ISO 1600. Just need to wait another night to try again.
Keep up the good work!
I ran an Ethernet cord out to my setup location and plug it in directly makes connecting to the air so much easier and more stable.
Thanks Peter. Useful video. In the Autorun menu I choose to return the mount to the home position but not to turn off the ASIAIR when the imaging session finishes. That way the power is still running to the dew heater strap and I can do my flats first thing in the morning without running the risk of having condensation on my optical train (and thus screwing up my flats). Dr B from Manitoba, Canada 🇨🇦
When entering Lat/Long info on the ASIAir, if you're using an iPhone and have the compass app, it also has your GPS-derived Lat/Long and elevation when you open it. Handy location reference.
Just a note that you should always pay attention to when your object is goint to cross the meridian. I have AM5 so I just turn on auto-flip. That may sound like it is not a beginner tip but if a beginner selects an object that is going to cross meridian in an hours and does nothing with meridian flip then it is going to be confusing as to why your autorun didn't complete.
As a total newbee to the ASIair i have watched many many videos on TH-cam on how to set it up and use, i have to say this is by far the best video for that, you take you time to show every step from start to finish which is not what of other videos show, I raise my hat to you and thank you for a most informative video and now look forward to my first shoot once we get clear sky's here in the UK. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you :-)
I am a fairly experienced imager using a more conventional set-up but now just embarking into using the AM5 + ASIair combo and was really happy to find your excellent video, which is comprehensive + well explained and at a good pace. Many thanks, I'll certainly be checking in to your channel in the future. Particularly pleased to see you touch on the All-sky PA option as I have not sight of Polaris (my house is in the way!) - you mention another video covering this subject in more detail, could you pleased point me to the right video for this? Also - is there any way to warm up the sensor when finished imaging using ASIair to avoid thermal shock?
HaHa, you solved an issue with my asiair mini. I started with the asiair +, and bought a mini to use with other combinations of gear. My previews are green on mini, not on +. I asked tech support at Highpoint. They didn't know why ( in no way a criticism, we're all constantly learning)! You just explained it with white balance settings.
I'm not an android guy, but the iphone will connect to a wifi, figure out it doesn't have internet, ask if you want to stay on wifi, then use wifi *AND* get its internet from LTE. Works great when connecting to other wifi cameras or devices.
Thx for this vidéo, a lots of détails ! After the polar alignment, you don't reposition the mount in its home position? And don't forget to retighten the azimuth and altitude locking screws - This has happened to me many times! 😅
One other thing I found that can prevent plate solves in the polar alignment is not taking into account if you have a field flattener/reducer installed. The effective focal length in my case needed to be multiplied by 0.8 to get the true FL to enter into the main scope FL setting. Then it worked perfectly.
This is a little bit of a tangent, but I hope still appropriate. Instead of a pad or a phone I am trying to use my laptop (Win 10) with the BlueStack program. I haven't had a problem with connections, etc., so it seems to be working--on the surface. Have any idea of problems that I will encounter using this setup? For reasons I won't go into, I can't use a portable device like a phone or a pad and I will be stuck using the laptop. Can you see any problems in using this setup? Anyone else trying to run using this setup? Any comments would be appreciated. Absolutely great video. Very informative. Goes at exactly the pace I need. Great work and much appreciated.
Would you happen to have a video of how to make the photos not grainy. 27:14 you had mentioned! Thank you!
Peter 2 clrofocations that you have probably discovered by now. First polar align doesn’t need Polaris just polar align from the home position when you are generally pointed at the pole. We don’t have a suitable star in the southern an PA works fine from a mount align Sputh. Also the Asiair will accept the name of the object in the search window, you don’t need to know the catalogue number.
Can you do as much as you can with the setup while you have the telescope inside the house? Such as everything to get the specifics turned on and entered (ASIAIR initialization, camera types, focal lengths, mount type, etc) up to the point of taking pictures to establish focus and aligning? The weather here has been crap and I have few nights available just to get set up, much less do any image gathering.
Love your videos. One thing that I can’t find a lot of documentation on is the Sky Atlas feature in the ASIAIR. How to use it to search for targets would be very helpful using the filter search. I live around 123ft pine trees so degree above horizon & which direction is visible to me are a consideration. So inputing that data in the ASIAIR to see what targets I can shoot is confusing. Also no one has made a video on it as far as I can tell.
Excellent vid - very timely just got my ASI Air+. You recently did a vid on using SkySafari as well as the ASI app. Can you advise how to do that again on SS 7 Pro?
I appreciate the detail you have gone into in presenting your workflow and have learnt a lot from it. I mainly do planetary imaging using ZWO MC camera, ASIAir etc. I have one question that does not appear to be addressed in most instruction videos on the ASIAir which is: When inserting a 3 x Barlow into the imaging train does one alter the focal length of the OTA entered in the ASIAir menu for the main camera to 3 x the focal length of the OTA or leave it at the original setting? Any advice you or your followers can give would be much appreciated.
Thanks Peter, this is very relevant for me because I recently acquired the Mini and the AM3. I am confused about the red and blue boxes that appear when choosing an object to image, namely the rotation of the boxes. Right now, I am using a mirrorless Nikon. Does the box correspond to the angle of the sensor with respect to the image? If so, if I adjust the camera angle (say, landscape to portrait), will that change on the ASI Air interface as well? Thanks.
Very good Tutorial . Thank you . When you pause the Run and slightly change the composition , does the Guiding have to refind new Guide stars ? Anyway , since the ASIAir won't support my current Mount , Focuser or Camera I'll just have to keep hoping that ZWO will release a "Universal" Model where everyone can use their Product . Cheers .
Thanks Peter. You have many good videos. I know the guide pulse setting is the maximum time of the pulse. But exactly what is aggression? Does it shorten the guide pulse or does it make it stronger or what?
Hey Peter, TIA for all of your amazing videos. You are so helpful. I just got my ASIAir Mini, and have the Sky Watcher Star Adventurer GTI and my Nikon Z7 with a variety of lenses. I can't get my ASIAir to see my camera. I looked in to wifi settings, and don't see an option to turn on power for it, like there are for the Plus. Do you have any ideas?
The thing that irks me, and I cannot find any documentation on, is in the Guiding Window, you have these 2 icons on the right side "Flip" and "Clear". Now, I do not calibrate that often because observatory so don't need to tap "clear", but often I do not use the automatic meridian flip, but instead manually slew the mount to the "other side" when I want to continue imaging. Now, should I tap on "Flip" after I have done this, or not? And, since I slewed the mount using Asiair, then shouldn't Asiair "know" that the mount is now already "flipped" - in which case why would i need to manually tap on "Flip"??
Peter Great video, I also noticed that when I focus and polar align with an narrowband filter, I have to increase the exposure time and the gain to allow for focusing and polar alignmemnt to work.
Have you had the same issues?
I have to as well using narrowband filters
"and are not using an ST4 cable" I recently ran a Ethernet from my inhouse router out to my HEQ5 mount, and plugged it into my ASIAR+.. My ASIAIR and my mount just could not get pointed in the correct direction. And I did get the message "Object is within 30* of NCP, please calibrate away from celestial pole". multiple times. Never got it before. Can you explain what this issue might be with an ST4 cable? Thankyou for the terrific video. Anyone new to this pursuit would be well advised to purchase Peters course. Saved me a lifetime of trial and error. Thanks Mike
How accurate does the leveling need to be? I do under 1 degree in 2 directions.
Great video but what about the Focus tool. I think it's powerful but I have problems to move the green boxes around the frame if asiair has it chosen for a star once.
If im using a crop dslr, on main FL i put the original FL of my lens or the FL with the crop factor? thanks :)
Ditto. Am using a crop APS-C Sensor with a RedCat 51 for main telescope. So do I use 250mm or with crop factor, so 375mm? Thanks Peter, you astrophotography videos are brilliant, really got me into this - super easy to follow. Clear and concise. Best I've found.
Peter whats the diffrenece between live and Autorun?
Peter I am waiting for fedex to deliver my am5 mount and asi air plus, is it safe to mount the air plus on the side of the mount
Last I used my asi air with my zwo rig, how is the best way to take the darks, flats and bias frames.
Has anyone managed to get the Sony A1 working with the latest beta of ASIAIR? The Sony A1 is on the list of supported devices and it is recognized by ASIAIR but I get an "exposure failure" error. I've tried lots of different cables. Thanks for the amazing tutorial on the program, by the way.
Just curious, but where did acquire the Bahtinov mask shown in the video?
Hello Peter this is a inquiry to how you have got the 12v outputs on ur ASIAIR mini in this video as I can’t seam to be able to get them to show up in the app. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Kind regards Jason
I'm an absolute beginner. i was hoping to find out what I need and, in this case, what is ASI Air and why would i want to spend yet more money on it ?
Question: does the cooling actually take you to that temperature ie -20c or does it take your current ambient, less the 20 degrees? Big difference if your building calibration files indoors?
-20C is the actual temperature of the sensor in this example.
In image management, how did you get the check boxes to apear on the subs you selected for deletion? It would be handy if you could select folders for deletion. I wish there was a way, after an imaging session, to plug a USB drive in and simply drag the folders from internal storage to that drive. The USB ports are precious, especially if a DSLR is being used (with large file sizes). Not having the ZWO cameras USB hub. It's extremely annoying to use the USB "C" port on asiair, and plugging it into PC. Especially with mini having no micro SD slot.
Ive used mine in station mode, and I'm able to connect through my network on my pc to the asi air and copy over my files to my pc.
I kind of forgot about this feature. Is it painfully slow? I guess it doesn't matter. My editing PC is air gapped. Thanks!
I couldn't complete the plan because my system had a 1.37 degrees view, which is fine for looking at the Sun, but rubbish for stars. I've since changed my camera to one with a bigger sensor, but its been raining or cloudy since.
So if you’re shooting one object for the night, and you plan on doing multiple days of that object, can you just get home and transfer those pics on your PC to keep your Asiair empty?
Does it not make sense to use Live or Video to help with focusing so you have a "real time" look at your bhatinov mask as you are focusing?
Just curious, why using a ASI2600MC Duo and still needing a guider ?
Trying to decide if I should
Go the mini pc route or Zwo. I do like the simplicity of Zwo.
Yes, that's what I was trying to decide also, with using the mini PC your not bound to the zwo products or their "ecosystem" I had some struggles getting ascom and the other 4 apps needed on PC working and communicating
I decided to go with the zwo
Asiair products a little more
Spendy but it is a good product and I like the simplicity of the asiair. And everything needed is all apart of it. It's like using the seestar s50 smart scope. In a way.
But now I'm very happy I went with this route and still in the process of learning it by watching everything I can on ytube everybody presents a similar, but different presentation. Good luck! 😊
@@jimcarter2092 I did the same thing and went Zwo eco system. Just wanted the simplicity without having to find everything or download. Just wanted to get started and learning.
It’s overwhelming trying learn everything. I went the mini, 120mini guide scope and asi585 mc pro camera. Just make sure it’s focused during the day with low exposure to get you in focus. I got my first image but it wasn’t the best. Still learning.
what I have Starsense for my Celestron AVX and an ASIAir? I know it is probably redundant.
I sold my Starsense and now just use my ASIAir Plus exclusively! Thanks for all the tips Peter - I am also here in Seattle.
my asi air acts like it's in the wrong hemisphere when I point due north, to get the heart nebula as example. I take a photo, plate solve, and tell it to go to the heart nebula. the mount will go into the complete opposite direction of where it's supposed to be. I just tried to get it to work for over an hour unti I gave up and pointed it towards the Horsehead nebula and it just worked without any issues. do you have any idea on what that could be? coordinates are right, and the time is right, I have no idea what else to do anymore. I work with the skywatcher star adventurer gti and the asi2600mc pro
I've had the same issue with my GTI, and it's crashed into mount. I don't have a solution either.
I had similar experiences with ASIAIR+ and AM5, and found that even though I had set location, it didn't stay set. I'm in US and the location was getting reset to China even after hand entering the location. This happened when using an older android tablet without gps. I solved it by starting ASIAIR plus using a newer android phone with gps before connecting with the tablet. I also synced mount and configured it with my home location. Eventually ASIAIR started using my last location as default.
Hey Asi Air users ,Is there a way to dither without guiding?
I ponder this as well?
no
It happened for the first time when the telescope moved 60 degrees twice and hit the tripod. I didn't understand why this happened.
Hi! I have a brand new ASIAir + with Canon Ra DSLR but am having an issue with preview mode, and goto with the camera. When I take a preview picture or try to focus, the photo that shows is one taken previously. For example I take a preview photo to check focus, framing etc. put on a bahtinov mask , take another photo, it still has the previous photo show up. I have to take another photo to show the masked one. Same when I take it off. It seems like the pictures are lagging behind in some internal buffer. Trying goto commands or plate solving is impossible LOL. Anyone else have this? I tried both saving to internal SD card and not . doesn't seem to make a difference. TIA
I have the same combination. Things I had to do; -
I noted that preview was slow at 2.4 and switched to 5g.
I also have a radian quad and filter so needed the iso super high over 25000 to plate solve and polar align. Return to normal iso for lights.
And of course usb ports are critical for the EosRA.
Also I found that 30x preview window on the EosRA as good as anything for focus. Much faster than a Bahtinov mask and super tight stars.
Good luck neighbor, from Canada
wish i saw this sooner, wouldnt help regardeless, sold my ipad few months ago, not getting that lucky piece of trash back
Please don't assume everyone is in the Northern Hemisphere and looking for Polaris. If you are in the Southern Hemisphere you point to Octans (Polaris Australis). Of course we in e.g. Australia are used to this and will automatically make the adjustment mentally, but it would still be nice to feel that you are talking to an international audience.
Hi, If you return to SkyAtlas and change slightly the position from the original GOTO, what happens after a meridian flip? Does it try to return to the original GOTO position or does it remember your modified position? This could potentially alter the results...