Sky-Watcher AZ-GTI

[lime lantern]

Is it worth buying this tracker or not at all??

[frigid night]

To make it decent you need to convert it to equatorial with the skywatcher wedge and a counterweight and since the quality control isn't great there's an almost 100% chance that it will need a full rebuild and regrease to make it guide better

It needs guiding which adds up to the cost, the normal tracking isn't too accurate

[wheat swift]

It is pretty good value for money in my opinion.
I have never opened mine up or greased it.
I used it for a long time unguided in EQ mode (need to purchase a wedge and counterweights separate. However RVO do the package here: https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/skywatcher-az-gti-wifi-goto-equatorial-mount-head-package.html

Unguided i could get 30-40 second subs
Guided I have got to 2 mins.
Like i said, no internal tampering done on my AZ-GTI!

[lime lantern]

Wow thats super impressive ! I've been doing lots of research and it seems like such a good value. I was initally looking at the sky watcher star adventure 2i gti, but it's hefty price tag kinda discouraged me from it

[lime lantern]

Scrambled eggs's results seems pretty good with it ngl

[wheat swift]

The Pinwheel image was a guided image, 2 min subs.
These images are unguided and vary around 10-30 second subs.
It really is a good mount for what like £350 if you buy all the EQ equip!

I feel I am at capacity with it now, so SLOWLY saving for a CEM26 mount. (When I mean slowly, I mean SLOOOWWWLY)

[lime lantern]

Damn these images are soo good wth??

[lime lantern]

I just have a dslr and lens now how long will you think it would take me to grow it out?

cause i honeslty dont wanna hit that limit and am wondering how long that ook for u

[frigid night]

I have some good results too with the azgti, it's just that it's not as grab and go as other mounts

[lime lantern]

damn this looks so gooddd

how is it not as grab and go??

[crystal anvil]

not sure, but i think i fixed the background for you 😄

[wheat swift]

@lime lantern Nice! Can I ask how?

[wheat swift]

I spent about 12 months on a DSLR!

[crystal anvil]

forgot what it is called, but @stoic portal showed me it. Basically you make a mask and clip it, stretch it, and do that again. invert the image, then change the opacity

luminance mask iirc

[wheat swift]

W,w,w,w wait! Give me some better instructions 😂
Why have i not heard of this before. All of my backgrounds are crap!

[wheat swift]

Of I know the name of it, perhaps its on YT somewhere 😅

[crystal anvil]

I can make a video of me doing it when I get home

In 6 hours lol

[wheat swift]

I would appreciate it! My backgrounds are so rubbish

[frigid night]

Grab and go intended as grab from the store shelves and it's already good, I had to open up mine to reduce backlash and to regrease which is not hard but also not something that anyone is willing to do

[lime lantern]

Ohhhh got it thank you!!

[lime lantern]

Woww!!! Alr then, this mount doesn't seem too bad ngl

[frigid night]

it's not bad if you stay within its limits

just consider with the cost everything needed to turn it equatorial and guiding

a kit with the azgti, a roki 135 and a uranus-c would be an amazing portable setup

[lime lantern]

Yes ofc, seems worth it though

[median tendon]

Please tag me too, my backgrounds are bad too 😅

[crystal anvil]

@wheat swift @median tendon

thats the method i used to delete colour noise 😄

[frigid night]

pretty neat technique

[wheat swift]

Nice one! I do something similar but it did not seem to do so well. I am going to have a go with this technique now! Thank you for sharing!

[median tendon]

Thanks a lot, appreciate it

[terse siren]

Recently got the mount, and nothing but clouds then a few weeks later my guide camera and scope arrive, I only got to test it once without the guide cam and scope and after polar alignment with Nina I was able to track 120s and that’s unguided I don’t know if maybe I just lucked out or what but have not been able to test it again or test the guide cam thanks to nothing but clouds

[wheat swift]

120 seconds without guiding. Damn... You got any single sub frames you could send over? I would be interested to see!
I get 120 seconds guided and that seems to be at the limit. I could probably stetch to 180 if I am more careful with Polar Alignment and balance.

[frigid night]

Sounds like you won the azgti lottery

[lime lantern]

Damn 120s?

Send some frames I wannabsee this

I'm still debating on whether I should buy this mount or spend the extra 2 or 3 hundred on the sky watcher star adventurer gti

[terse siren]

I will next clear night, I have a habit of when testing things out I won’t keep the data so when I was outside testing the new mount and trying Nina 3 point alignment with plate solving I was outside in the cold for a long time and by the time I started imaging I got like 10-15 minutes of data then decided to call it a night, I looked at the single frames and then I stacked them all and perfectly round stars I don’t know if I could have went more longer on a exposure by that time I was to cold and said well that’s good enough, but it’s supposed to be clear tonight so I’ll get everything set up I’ll take some exposures to show you then I’ll switch over to try the guide camera

[crystal anvil]

@woven frost here

[woven frost]

I'll see thx

[lime lantern]

Thank you so much man!!

[crystal anvil]

@bitter siren