I know this video is 2 years old but, I have to say I have not done any imaging for about 10 years now and just recently got bit by the bug again. I still have all of my equipment from those days which includes a Celestron 8 inch Edge HD as my main scope and a lot of different cameras. What absolutely blows my mind is how far this hobby has come in those 10 years. My setup was so complicated with cables and software with a full sized desktop computer and two monitors, it was insane, lol... This is astounding to me that all of this complication is now down to one mini computer and is even wireless. I have really got bitten by the bug now ! I'm retired and a single guy so I have all the time in the world. I guess I know what I'm going to be doing now ! Great video young man. Cheers from eastern Utah where the sky's are dark and dry ! ;-) Thumbs up !
That's absolutely fantastic to hear my friend, - I really think astronomy is in a wonderful place these days! :-) Good luck to you and I'm wishing you many, many clear skies! Luke
Luke, you are by far and large, the best RUclipsr that I follow. You get to the point, you are practical, easy to listen to and pitched at the right level.
That's so kind of you to say Kelly, thank you! :-) I really appreciate that you'd take the time to share such a positive comment! Hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend, Clear skies!
Thank you for your Time and effort putting up this video. I can't wait to get out and capture some scenes. You have given me a lot of confidence, Thanks again, keep up the good work.
Thank you Luke for this Christmas morning gift. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, your spontaneous “train-of-thought” videos are extremely instructive. As you work through various issues, discussing your thought process, it really gives an extra dimension of insight-especially when you talk about your trial-and-error manipulations. Your love of the night sky continues to inspire. Looking forward to many Lukomatico videos to come in 2022.
Hey Joe! - thank you mate, you always offer interesting perspectives for me to consider and quite a confidence boost to be honest also, haha! :-D Thank you so much for watching and giving all your support this year my friend, your friendship is truly valued 🙏
This might be the most informative and helpful "real world" astrophotography video I've watched since I started the hobby almost a year ago. You addressed most of the questions I had since my Plus arrived in January. Can't wait to put it to use for lunar and planetary imaging now that you shown how to do it. Thank you!
Thank you Michael! - I'm really glad to hear you liked this video approach :-) I have to say, I love the ASIAIR and it just keeps getting better with each update! Thanks for watching! :-)
That ASI air is a brilliant bit of kit it would work well for outreach events showing the public not only deep sky objects but planets in our solar system to, great bit of kit Luke clear skies
Hey mate! - I think you're spot on! Asiair and a decent sized Tablet would make a lovely combo for showing people around a bit! :-) Thank you for watching!! Merry Christmas matey :-)
Thank you for sharing this. Myself I never did much planetary photography. More a deep sky enthousiast myself. But I definitely will have a go at this, the moment we have clear sky’s in the Netherlands.
Hey David! - No problem at all mate, It's my pleasure! - I fully agree by the way, the software this thing uses is constantly evolving, I can't wait to see where it'll be in another year or so! :-) All the best, Luke
thanks so much for this! i got an asiair+ a few weeks ago and the weather of course has been atrocious, i got in 2 nights of EAA on dso's but was just wondering about this function and how it worked. so your video is very timely!
Hey Bob!! Congratulations mate on your Asiair!! I hope you'll have a tremendous time with it, it's a really fantastic device I think! :-) Thank you for watching and commenting my friend! Clear skies 👍👍
Thank you so much Peter!! that's really kind of you to say my friend :-) RE: video magnification, you can alter the capture resolution which gives a further apparent crop factor, that may help a bit for quick views of things? Hope that helps!!
@@lukomatico Thanks, Luke. Not sure what you mean by capture resolution. What I really want to do is make the image smaller. I'm really starting to think that imaging the moon is a is bit of a mug's game. The best image of the moon you'll see is the one you get at the eyepiece ! That's just not true of other objects in the sky. So much detail is available just by visual observation with the telescope and that is too much for the resolution of CMOS cameras. But perhaps there's hope with multi panel images ?
@@petermonson3719 Hey Peter! Very generally speaking, a higher resolution during image/video capture will result in the target object appearing "smaller" in the field of view, - there's of course a *lot* more to this, but generally if you want to make the image smaller on your screen/capture more of it at once then higher resolution/bigger sensor/shorter focal length is key! :-)
That's really cool to hear Jeff! I bet something like this would enable quick experimentation and a faster rate of learning due to that immediate ability to stack - thank you for the feedback!! :-) Clear skies my friend
Awesome video Luke! Taking astro images is one thing, but to peice all these videos and audio together to make a film in a way that keeps you watching with no loss of interest is one heck of a skill you have. You are an artist my friend! Keep it up!
Hey Bill! - Ah mate, that's really very kind of you to say!! - I just want to personally say thank you for your support over the whole year mate, I found a screenshot the other day I took when I had reached 100 subscribers, and in that picture you're already there commenting and giving support, so thank you!! :-) I'm wishing you and your family a truly wonderful Christmas and an equally fantastic new year! All the very best, Luke
Excellent video. Didn't realise that feature had been added. Quite impressive really. As you said, it would be excellent for showing friends and family when imaging live to get them interested in astro.
Hey there Logan! - Hope you are well mate :-) I think that's one of the key takeaways for me about this feature, it allows you to really quite rapidly get something on screen that most people and maybe especially beginners would find pleasing and interesting! :-D Thank you for watching my friend, I hope you have a lovely Christmas and new year! All the best, Luke
My gob is well and truly smacked! I can't wait for the weather to improve in Scotland so I can get out and use this kit to do the same. Great video as always!
That's at least two of us with smacked gobs then mate haha!! :-D I was really quite amazed at how well it works! Hoping you get some clear skies soon mate :-) All the best, Luke
Great session Luke, my ASI Plus arrives tomorrow, can’t wait to try these video features on moon nights. All the best to you and your family for xmas and new year mate.
Oh that's awesome news mate! - I think you're going to love it, I'm over the moon with mine if you'll excuse the pun, haha :-D Thank you for all your support, and wishing a merry christmas and happy new year to you and your family my friend! All the best, Luke
23:30 DSL Lucky Imaging already exists. Shooting nights of hours of a target, then only picking the best (x) percent to stack. That's a feature in PixInsight and in DSS. Except for M31 and M42 most Deep Space targets are too dark to benefit from using video instead of shooting many several-minute long subs and stacking the best. As for the rest of this video, I learned a lot from this video overall. Thank you.
Awesome video Luke as always. Loved the live views alone. I agree, it is a special moment when you see the planets and moon live....Brilliant. It's been a thick fog soup for the last few days up here too. Top job on the composite mate!
Thanks so much Ben! - It's a lovely feature and like you, I love seeing the live-views! :-) Hope it clears up for you soon matey!! All the best and merry christmas to you and yours! Luke
Hey there Pat! - Man, thanks so much! I really liked that shot too haha, after reading your comment I just took another look at it actually :-) Thank you for watching my friend, I hope you have a super weekend!
Thank you Mr.Frost! :-D I was pretty darn surprised at how well it worked, now I know it's so easy I will definitely be fitting in planetary and lunar sessions regularly! :-D Thanks for watching!
Hey Andy! - It's pretty well tucked away in fairness! I only saw about it from the update notes when the software installed! :-D Thank you so much for watching! Clear skies!
Very good tutorial Luke. I have a 60mm refractor, 533mc camera and ASIAIR Pro and do mostly widefield DSO imaging. Last night I saw this tutorial and tried it on the full moon on a cloudy night and was really pleased with the results. The ASIAIR keeps getting better! Now I just need a longer focus length scope. Thanks for posting this!
I'm glad you liked it Mark! - It's great to hear you had some good luck trying out the stacking, it really surprised me how well it worked! :-) As you say, a longer focal length scope would be great for targets like the moon with this planetary stacking mode, hope you are able to find what you are looking for soon matey! Clear skies :-)
I wanted to discuss the topic myself but realized how quickly they’re updating this thing. Likely all my issues will be answered. Not having ROI is a real bummer. That was a huge leap for planetary when cameras started supporting it. A real issue I think a lot of planetary guys will have is with plate solving. It worked perfectly fine for you because you were polar aligned. A good deal of planetary guys half-heartedly PA because it’s not critical. So let’s say I roughly setup my mount true north. Then I command the mount to slew to Jupiter from home. Forget it. You’ll be lucky to find it in a spiral search especially at 2000+ focal length. So a finder scope is still useful. Using the Plus I can ignore the need for dew controllers etc. That’s nice. So I let it slew to Jupiter and miss. I then center it and hit “sync mount” viola. Regarding the onboard stacking software I’m curious how it arrives at its decision. Some nights you’ll keep 40%, others as low as 15%. Not being able to physically see a graph is a weakness. As you say it’s so easy tho and immediately rewarding that the appeal may be had regardless. A feature guys using Fire Capture will miss is the tracking mode. Something I noticed is the typically straight fwd Plus interface is a nightmare for mono imaging of planets. Imagine using R,G,B, IR sequences. There’s a time limit between frames for everything to work out. Advanced planetary imaging is done that way. They need to add “Plan” to video mode. That would allow for the automated sequencing necessary to prevent limb blurring. I do like the incorporation of solar tracking rate. It works very well. I’m not sold on it yet but realize everything can be fixed via software updates. As it stands I can’t comfortably shoot mono, I have to polar align or break out a finder scope, and I’m dumbing down a camera I specifically chose for ROI capability. That’s where I’m at with it. Oh and extremely important is being able to zoom way in for live focusing. Can’t toss my laptop in the bin just yet.
Hey Garnett! - an interesting read mate, thank you for sharing! If I may, I'd like to offer a couple of alternative points of view for your consideration though? On the note of ROI, video mode does support preset roi's (from 1080p to 240p anyway), but regular deep-sky mode does not yet - or have I missed your meaning here mate? sorry if so! :-) RE: plate solving w/ accurate polar alignment - I guess a key thing is the PA routine is so fast and easy that there's really no excuse for someone to not be accurately polar aligned when using this thing! :-D that's my 2c on it anyway! sort of a self-resolving issue? On the note of stacking: - I agree fully that maybe an option for default or "advanced" stacking mode may be a nice addition? where you can see a graph and select a % to stack - then you'd have the best of both worlds I guess! (rgb align would be nice too) Also, totally hear you RE: imaging with mono for planetary with this might be a slight pain in the backside! good point mate! as you suggested, plan mode for video is an excellent idea to remedy this! finally on the note of zooming right in for live-focus, on "focus" mode, you can hit the little (+) icon, and it'll take you to a 200x200 pixel 1/1 scale crop which looks pretty big on the screen! or do you instead mean zooming in to multiple hundreds of % zoom like in sharpcap? sorry if my interpretations of any of this is off the mark matey! - Please do let me know if it's not too much of a time sink, I'd love to learn as much as possible! Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts about it, it's been really interesting to read and digest, plus as I expected you would, you've raised points I'd not even considered! :-) All the best my friend Luke
@@lukomatico You’re talking about what crop can be adjusted. In ROI You can specify a part of the image you are interested in so that the camera can optimize readout and data transfer. On a planetary camera that supports it for example: let’s say I’m in a crop of 640x480. I can then activate ROI which gives me a smaller framing box. I’d place that over the planet or a surface detail. The software then optimizes the data transfer inside of it. It’s extremely useful in planetary where you want optimal frame rate. ROI is very different than what crop you’re shooting in. I can’t argue against your point of how easy polar alignment is. It’s just an extra task that’s unnecessary without the device. Maybe that’s extremely lazy but I know a lot of people that bypass it for planets. Assume your target is the Sun. Assume you’re using an F12 1540mm Maksutov. That thing is ridiculously hard to polar align with plate solve due to number of stars. It’s a minor thing but as you say everyone really should be polar aligning. The seeing influence over % frames used is easily incorporated into this device. I was amazed at how accurate the autofocus was across my filter wheel. I bring that up because it’s reading FWHM. That involves a lot more computation than edge detection for focus such as in Sharpcap. I wouldn’t mind if it was automated. The stacking software could easily better determine the take aways than a human but who’s to say it isn’t already? It may be. I need to challenge this over some variable situations to determine how it arrives at its decision or if it’s just a preset. That’s very important to me and would bd to most. How is it deciding? Regarding focus it goes deeper. Most planetary guys, Christopher Go for example, will recommend focusing on the green filter. If it’s tight typically your red and blue will be usable for planets. We’re assuming you’re doing mono again but it’s very important. I actually wasn’t aware of the +/- feature you mention. Shows what I know lol. Anyway, if I add Infrared etc I’m stuck refocusing unless I can assign preset focus position. At very high magnifications the very last thing you’d want to be doing is toying with it manually especially on an SCT commonly used for the job. There’s just very little support in terms of video capture. On the positive side I love being able to choose between video output types. It’s awesome that you can save a video directly to your phone. The potential for live streaming exists already. Prior to this I had to convert SER files or AVI to usable iPhone format, email it to the cloud, then download it to my phone. Very lame. Be careful with this feature tho as recording both simultaneously slows down transfer rates. What we need as a community is for planetary enthusiasts to get on the horn with ZWO. They understand the importance of ROI etc because they boast it on the camera ads that support it. It definitely should be in the software. I give them no excuse for that. My guess, and I hope I’m wrong, is that it introduces data transfer problems across the network. It’s one thing to be tethered to a pc in real time but is it even capable of displaying it live across wifi? I don’t know. I think this is a very useful thread. I hope others chime in on their thoughts. Definitely ZWO is interested especially considering how they sent the first units out under review conditions. They’re a very intuitive crowd that seems very interested in supporting their customers needs.
Wow, Its So Cool To see Some Planetary Imaging!! Also Love that Composite. Ut Kinda gives You a Sense of Scale of How Big Planets Actually Are. Splendid. A Planetary and EAA imager's message For You. 'Keep going and Taking Those Pictures'😃. Clear Skies!
Hey Avanteesh! :-D I'll surely keep going mate, thank you for the encouragement! - I had a lot more fun than I expected to be honest! Thanks for watching man! :-D Hope you have a wonderful festive season and new year my friend, thank you again!
off topic here but the data tutorials you have made available for download are super! rain here for a few days so i've had great time sharpening my processing skills with your free data. Thanks so much!
Hey there! - I'm really glad to hear that mate, thank you so much for letting me know it's been useful for you! 👍👍 Hope you get some clear skies soon :-)
Excellent vid might buy one myself Mars coming up late next year,so can't wait to see what you do. Being an absolute newbie I tried the Andromeda galaxy with my cannon 650d...72 ed and 228 x 20 sec exposures I'm really pleased with the result.....having great fun learning this new aspect to my hobby after 50 year's visual, clear skies to all.
Hey there Peter! - that's excellent to hear :-) most of all though, it sounds like you've enjoyed yourself which is the key! :-D Thanks for watching and merry Christmas!
Wow didn’t know it did this. Lovin your real time demo, you make it look really straightforward. I always thought planetary was a whole different story and never really tried. Ima try it out with my dads sct and Barlow. Im gonna impress so many peeps with this! Thank you asiair and thank you Luke
Now that was a very informative video !! Thank you for this tutorial on Video mode.....now I'm a little more confident to try it. Thank you again Luke - excellent job sir !
Thank you Mike!! - It's a lovely feature they've added, I'm only too glad it's there and easily accessible, I can regularly mix planetary sessions in now I hope! :-) Thank you for all your support over the year Mike, I wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and a happy new year! All the best, Luke
Top clip Luke. As usual. I love what asiair can do . I purchased a 256 gig usb extreme pro from scan disk for video mode. It has a write speed of 380 MB/S instead of I think 60 on the asi zwo supplied memory stick. This will raise your frame rate through the roof. Makes a Huge difference . In image quality.
Hey Steve! That's lovely to hear, thank you! - excellent advice! I have a reasonably fast USB drive in use when you see those framerates being pretty low in the video, but nowhere near 380mb/s write! - That thing sounds like a monster, I'll have a good look into it! I expect the 2600 isn't optimised for framerate so I'm not expecting miracles, but a boost would be nice! Thanks again and merry Christmas :-)
Merry Christmas back at you Luke. Had clouds here in Queensland Australia for months . And just updated all 3 off my asi airs . 2 days ago and never even seen this function. I see they are putting out a mount next year tiny with 20kg workload looks nice as well. Cheers
Think ill have to test this out at the community Obs.. could be very interesting for the new comer to the hobby.. and better than carrying a laptop around 🌑 - Clear Skies are coming.. i feel it in my further adooo
Hi Luke, great video on the new features of the ASIAIR Plus. You got some lovely images of the moon and planets. Amazing what this little device is capable of. Merry Christmas and many clear skies for 2022!
Hey there Jon! - Thanks matey!! I was happy with how they came out, especially given it was a real unplanned, off the cuff kinda thing! :-) Thank you for watching, and for all your support throughout the year my friend! Hope you have a wonderful Christmas and new year! All the best, Luke
@@lukomatico Hi Luke, just to let you know I previously commented on your Get Better Colours video but the message didn’t get through for some reason. I commented again this am and appears all is well with RUclips and it’s now showing on the comments section.Hope this is a one off hiccup with RUclips.All the best.Clear skies!
My airplus has never seen a star. I saw a three second view of the Moon a few weeks ago but it was soon covered by blanket clouds and they have stayed, and are forecasted locally until the end of the year. We are in a Low Sunspot period so more clouds should be expected. This is a good demo of what it's capable of.
Hey there! - That's some seriously bad astronomy weather you've been having!! I really hope it clears up for you sooner rather than later and you can get to grips with the Air Plus! :-) All the best and thanks for watching! Luke
@@lukomatico The dark ages lasted for 900 years and probably started with the odd few weeks of crap weather. I'm sure Nasa said the warm period we have been in since 1700 ended in 2016, and cold periods always follow warm and they are colder partly because of clouds. It's blanket again today and the local Met office app says it will be until the 2nd, which is another week away again. I'm thinking if i pack it all away it will probably clear up.
If things get desperate, all you need to do is buy some specialist cloud watching equipment, that should make it miraculously clear up for a few months! 😅
@@lukomaticoI have always enjoyed a time-lapse cloud sequence and have shot many. I live in the South West and it's a Green part of the UK kept green by rain clouds. If we told the USA to stop sending them, it would turn as brown as Wiltshire.
Nice one Luke, I’ve only used the ASIAIR a couple of times for Moon work, probably over a year ago. This has incentivised me to go back and try again and some of the planets too. You are right ZWO are certainly improving the AIR more and more. Best wishes for the holidays, Ian
That's awesome to hear Ian! - I reckon your Esprit 120 would do really well on the planets given how sharp it's optics are, that'd be great to see :-) All the very best Ian, I hope you have a lovely Christmas and new year!
Luke, thanks for your running commentary on how easy it is to do planetary and lunar astrophotography with the ASIair Pro/Plus - it's nice to see a non-rehearsed presentation: it reminds us all that out of a little learning chaos can come something worthwhile. I haven't dabbled into planetary photography as it would be yet another technology (equipment and software) that I would have to learn. The ASIair appears to cater well for it, so I think I will give it a try. I suspect that the purists would say there are better packages out there for this work, but if this is not going to be your main interest, it appears to be a way to go. Cheers, and clear skies, Paul.
Hey there mate! - Thank you very much indeed for your kind comment, - I'm really happy to hear you found some enjoyment in the chaos! :-D I think your take on things is spot-on the mark by the way, thanks for sharing! Clear skies :-)
Thanks Luke, great video! I didn't know about this update at all! Looks like it did particularly well with the Moon and the last Uranus image. It's no AutoStakkert but the ASI Air really is becoming the Swiss army knife of imaging! :)
Hey Chris! - Aye mate it's changing faster than I can keep up with, haha! :-D I love the device and all these changes they are making are steps in the right direction to giving it have an even wider appeal! :-) Deffo agree it's not a match for autostakkert just yet, but equally autostakkert isn't a match for the AIR when it comes to simplicity! :-D Thanks for watching mate!
Very impressive capability. I’ll have to try the ASIAIR for planetary. I do have a planetary camera but stacking is usually done the next day using PIPP, AS3! Etc. These traditional tools are all very time consuming. Additionally I worry that some of our planetary software tools are not updated very often if at all. ZWO keeps developing and updating their software tools all the time. Great video
Thank you so much for your lovely comment Craig! - I really am glad they added this as an option for option for people, I used to do the exact same as you mention! take the data one night, then process the next day over on the PC - time consuming as you said! For a quick and easy session, this method really works wonders and bring back some of the fun to planetary and lunar capture for me :-) Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment!
Awesome vid as always Luke! I loved the mini smash and grab session, i don’t mind a bit of lunar photography and imaging the odd planet, it helps fight the urge to get out, especially when we’ve had constant cloud of late. Awesome as always, clear skies matey.
Thank you Will! - A smash and grab session, haha! I love it :-D It definitely was enjoyable to get the gear out and have a go, so I'm glad the resulting video turned out okay! Hope you start to get some clear skies soon mate!! All the best, Luke
Hey Luke - Certainly wasn't aware this feature was there, although I don't really do planets much it would be nice to be able to do a quick stack of the moon like this. Cheers mate more very useful information pal, thanks for putting together. Clear skies
Hey Ollie! - It'd be great to see you tackle some lunar/planetary stuff mate, a whole new can of worms I guess! :-D Thank you for watching mate, as always!
Hey Stu! - I hope you are well my friend :-) Thank you so much, you've been supportive of me and this channel since the start mate and it's been a pleasure to chat with you back & forth here! Hope you have a wonderful new year with lots of health and happiness! All the very best, Luke
Hey I just used planetary and I could not find this feature. Thanks for the demo. I never went straight to the file I guess. I shot some good moon photos and I guess I can stack after the fact now as they are still on my device. Thanks for the step by step. It looks easier than AutoStakkert and comparable results.
Hey there Charles! - I'm glad you liked the video, thank you for watching! RE: your moon shots, as long as you took video rather than images you should be set to stack them on the Plus! :-) Clear skies!
Brilliant video Luke !! I must admit I'm loving my asiair plus which came earlier this month......WiFi range is so much better now. Got to take my hat off to zwo for their product development .....outstanding. Definitely will check this out for sure. Once again it's a really informative video and so well explained. Wishing you both a very happy Christmas 🎄
Hey Paul! - Yeah mate I've gotta say the same, it's an absolutely cracking device and continually improving, what's not to love eh! :-D Thank you so much for watching, and for all your support over the year mate! Wishing a Merry Christmas and happy new year to you and yours :-)
Hey there Dave! - It's a lovely feature to have, I'm continually impressed by this little red box! :-) Thank you for all your support this year my friend, you were my first member and I can't thank you enough for the boost it's given me! :-) All the very best, I hope you have a lovely Christmas and new year mate Luke
@@lukomatico haha no problem pal, happy to help and love what you do, inspires me to see if i can take pics only half as good as yours, merry xmas my friend
Hey Garnett! :-D ahh I hope you're only kidding haha!! - I'd love to see how you go about using it my friend, and I'm sure I won't be alone in saying that! :-) Merry Christmas and happy new year to you and your family mate! All the best, Luke
What a great video, thank you so much. I have two questions: How easy/difficult is it to focus the camera? And my second question, you mentioned stacking an image quickly as a demonstration for your friends during a party for instance. Can anyone download the software and connect to the camera? Or is it picky about connecting to multiple phones etc.? Thanks in advance 👍👍
Hey Josh! Thank you for watching and commenting mate! 👍 Regarding focusing - it somewhat depends on the scope as some are more focus sensitive than others, but overall focusing is a pretty easy task 👍 Re: your question about multiple users, - I've had two devices connected at once (by accident!) and it didn't seem to directly cause any issues, just the chance of input conflicts from multiple users I guess! For sharing the experience It'd work well just connected to a tablet or something and left to livestack until you wanted to move targets, could be a lot of fun with the right group of people! :-D Thanks again for watching!
Thank you for the demonstration. V2.2.1 10.74 version of the app has made changes to the GUI for stacking. You take the video then go back to Image management then see a line of colorful icons for stacking various types of objects. I notice from one your replies below your are using a 250PDS (9.8" or 250mm mirror, F/4, 1200mm FL). Did you use a focal reducer in this demonstration? What mount did you use? I have a Celestron C8 on a Celestron AVX mount. I'm also using an ASI585MC. I'm having lots of issues with the ASIAir Plus 256 with plate solving and GO TO. Using the ASI585MC and my C8 in native focal length (2032mm) I haven't been able to do the initial plate solving in the first step of the ASIAir PA procedure. I have a 6.3 focal reducer and that seemed to help get through that procedure. However the GO TO feature doesn't seem to work consistently using the ASI585. Last night I want to take some videos of Jupiter since its at opposition. I'm using the 6.3 focal reducer and got through ASIAir PA. I even used my polar scope in the AVX mount before turning on the ASIAir to polar align. Then I test slewed to a couple of couple of objects, Vega and M13 in Hercules. I used Vega to check my focus and also to align my finder scope. So far so good. Jupiter is up by now so I GO TO Jupiter. The mount slewed in the general direction, but looking in the finder scope it wasn't near center. Then it made small adjustments and got closer but Jupiter still not centered in the finder scope. In the end centering Jupiter failed after several attempts. I selected Retry but then the mount slew way off so I canceled. I decided to use the ASIAir mount controls to manually center Jupiter in the finder scope (9x50 with illuminated cross hairs) but still nothing in the Preview or Video mode screens (even at 1080P) of the ASIAir. What I bought ASIAir for has failed me. So after messing around trying to find Jupiter manually, I finally found it and centered it the Preview screen. I hoped if it was centered adding the 2x Barlow it would show up and it did although out of focus but I was able to focus and make minute adjustments to the mount using the hand control. Finally Jupiter was focused and centered. I made sure ASIAir mount tracking mode was set to Solar. I procedure to take 2 minute video of 1080p, 960p, 720p and 480p. I made a few adjustments to centering in between and the tracking seemed to keep the image centered pretty good even in 480p. I was surprised. BTW I'm using a 256g SDmicro card to save the videos. After I took these videos I decided to keep testing ASIAir GO TO. Using the built it star chart where you can just choose objects on the map I was able to slew over, plate solve and center. So far so good. I notice in the Star Chart once you select a target by moving a red rectangle (think it represents your sensor shape and size) there is a Sync and Goto. I select GO TO and the mount slewed. You can see the blue rectangle try to match up with the red rectangle. This worked for a couple of targets although it took a few attempts to get centered on Andromeda. I think I tried the Sync on this to see if it would make the mount more accurate but I'm not sure it did. The last target was one of the stars in Plieades but the ASIAir seem to loose its brains and became lost in space. I slewed in the general direction but it was no where near. It failed miserably and in the end as it slewed further and further away I decide to call it quits for the night. Disappointment and cold temperatures got to me. The reason I use the hand control mount direction controls is that AIRAir mount direction controls in Preview, Video and Focus don't always work correctly. Often lifting your finger off a direction icon the mount still keeps moving. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't so I use the hand control instead. ASIAir home position is different from the Celestron hand controller home. Home on the AVX are when the RA and DEC are aligned on the index marks. ASIAir Home in the Mount section, the RA is off in RA but close in DEC. Using tha ASIAir has been a frustrating experience. Maybe if I had gone with a 102mm refractor and another mount I wouldn't be seeing these issues. With my C8 and AVX mount ASIAir has been frustrating. Since ZWO doesn't even have an upgraded document for version 2.1.1 of their app, I doubt they test ASIAir with SCTs that much and definitely don't test it with an AVX mount. I'll keep experimenting with it and hope my bug reports address some issues in next releases. I'm going to research other GO TO solutions. Maybe play with the Celestron hand controller GO TO. Maybe it can center on an object better and I can still use the ASIAir Preview, Autorun, Video to take images and videos.
I also see you were using a ASI2600 that has an APC sensor. Maybe a larger sensor camera works better. I'm going to try my Nikon D5100 as a quick test to see if at 2032mm ASIAir will plate solve. The ASI585 sensor is much smaller. I got the ASI585MC and planetary but also to dabble in some DSO like you suggested below then eventually get something like an ASI533MC Pro when I've got the workflows, imaging processing etc ironed out so I can justify another expense.
Great video Luke! And you did some very nice shots. 👍🏼 - I don't have an ASIAIR but it was anyways interesting for me to see that you can do stacking with this mini astro pc. And also very cool to see the comparison you did (Autostakkert vs. ASIAIR). You can try "RegiStax" for further sharpening. It's an amazing piece of software and SO powerful. Regarding the atmospheric dispersion you can do some kind of RGB correction via software but it's even better (-> results are even better final images) if you have the opportunity to use an atmospheric dispersion corrector (ADC). 8:20 I also tried some single shots of Neptune (using a OSC as well)...and I love the blue color. Really amazing to see. cs :)
Thanks so much bud!! So glad to hear you enjoyed the video :-) Definitely agree that registax is a great program btw 👍👍 I've been impressed with the asiair for a long time and it's just recently got even better with the latest software update too haha! I really can't wait to have a good go at the planets this year, I feel like for the first time in my astronomy career I have the serious urge to do it, rather than just a passing interest like most years for me! :-) Thanks for watching!
Hi Luke, I once saw the stacking function in ASIAIR Plus video playback mode some times ago but it seems the latest version of ASIAIR has removed it. Do you still have it with your ASIAIR Plus?
Hey there! - The new release can still stack for you, it's been moved slightly IIRC (possibly inside the file browser) and overall improved in functionality, - Really impressive! :-) Hope that helps!
Which Sky Watcher telescope is that? I have the 150P and am just starting to use it (I typically use a Redcat 51). Which planetary camera are you using? My husband wants to get into planetary imaging and I want to get him a planetary camera for his upcoming birthday. He'll be shooting through a Meade 7" LX200 Maksutov. I have two ASIAIR Plus units so I can have him try it out before getting him one if that's what he wants to go with.
Hey there Cheryl! :-) The scope is a 250pds and the camera I used was an asi2600mc pro, honestly it's quite a bad fit for planetary though. If he's going to be using the 7" mak then I'd say a 585 sensor would be a lot of fun, 2.9um pixels will allow him to reach critical sampling ratios with a very moderate Barlow for planetary/lunar work, he could use a ROI crop to achieve very high frame rates too. It'd also be a lot of fun if he wanted to dabble in some prime focus imaging of brighter & smaller DSO's too such as m13, m57, M27 etc :-) I hope that's helpful! Your husband is a lucky chap! :-D Clear skies to you both!
Hey there my friend! I've used it both ways really! :-D focusing with an EAF on the ASIAIR works great, as does using preview mode and a bahtinov mask manually 👍
@@lukomatico thx! I use a tribat first to get the focus knob in the right vicinity of “best focus” and then use the EAF. But when I went to planetary the other night I didn’t have much luck with my EAF. So I had to settle with my own eyesight looking at the blurry video.
Hi Luke. I just bought a Daystar Quark for solar observations. I’m also using the ASIAIR Pro. Do you know if you can apply flats to the stack in the ASIAIR Pro?
Hey Michael! - Congratulations on the Quark! :-) RE: applying flats to video mode stacks, I don't think it's possible unfortunately! could be a good feature request though in the future for ZWO to work on! :-)
Which skywatcher scope and what camera is this? I Pointed my refractor scope at the moon last night and it was a blurry blob. I have a ZWO EAF (auto focuser) and it usually auto calculates stars to focus on deep sky objects so no idea how it works with planets. Maybe it has to be manual focus.
Hey there mate! - This scope was a skywatcher 250pds newtonian reflector, with an aplanatic coma corrector. - the camera was a zwo asi 2600mc pro. if possible, then focusing manually on the object you are shooting can be best, but if the seeing is particularly bad then it's not always possible - in which case focusing on a star first, then slewing to your target is fine :-) Hope that helps mate!
Luke, I´ve got another euipment-question... I have the ASIair plus and tried to platesolve with the ZWO224MC camera on the SW130 PDS. Which camera did you use with the scope in this video?
@@lukomatico Hi buddy, thank you for this quick reply... Okay, the 2600 does have a much bigger FOV as the 224, so platesolving should work much better... ;-)
Thanks Luke! I actually found out how to do it last night! On the mini, press Emmc button and on the bottom it has 4 post stacking options that work with video. Solar surface, lunar surface, Planet, and DSO stacking.!
@@GetawayGreg Excellent to hear it's there Greg!! - That's superb for owners of the Mini and I appreciate you getting back to let me (and anyone else who reads this) know it works! :-D Cheers mate! Clear skies!
Excellent video, thanks! I just received a ZWO ASI294MC PRO and waiting on the ASIAIR PLUS. Do you have a video on focusing? I’m coming from using a DSLR (& BYEOS), so just starting to learn how to use these dedicated astronomy camera. Thanks again!
Hey Kurt! - Congratulations on your new camera, and soon on your ASIAIR Plus! :-D That's awesome! RE: Focusing, - I don't have a dedicated video on it yet I'm afraid! - I do tend to always just use autofocus and forget about it, but if I must focus manually I almost certainly will use a bahtinov mask and the "focus" tool on ASIAIR to do so :-) I'm sorry I couldn't be more help with this one right now mate! All the best, Luke
ASI seems to be a sweet little box of tricks, hopefully my Mrs has got me one for Christmas…….probably just socks to be honest 👍🏼😄 decent vid dude enjoyed it 👍🏼👍🏼 merry Christmas dude 👍🏼👍🏼 the hell is that dome on the moon? 👽
Hey dude! - Thanks for watching man, and I think you're bang on the money, it's a right box of tricks! 😀Merry Christmas to you and your family matey! RE: the moon dome, definitely Elon Musk's super secret moon base haha :D (I wouldn't be surprised at this point!)
curious - I tried this the other night on the moon - the video file did not save anywhere on my device. I noticed later that it saved a video on my phone with the ASIAIR logo and some royalty free music. I did not choose this mode (I do not even see a setting for this). ASI has not responded to this question. Have you had any issues like this?
Hey Allen! - when you're choosing the capture settings in the video mode module itself, the option of what to 'save as' is there - you'll just need to check the choice of file it's saving is correct for your needs 👍 Hope that helps!
Hi Luke, just stumbled across this video really, which is odd since I am a subscriber. I was actually looking for solar imaging using the ASIAIR. It has been a bright sunny day and I got to thinking, I have a solar filter from another telescope, let's give it a try. So, have you ever tried solar imaging and if so, how did it turn out?
Hey there mate! :-) I've actually not tried solar with the ASIAIR system but I think it will work excellently! The planetary stack feature is a lot of fun! :-) Good luck if you decide to give it a go, and thank you for your support!
Great Video Luke, I'm amazed how much the ASIAIR can do. Every update just keeps getting better. Keep up the amazing work and keep posting. Before I forget, which Newtonian were you using?
Hey there mate! :-) I'm using a 250PDS, 1200mm focal length Thank you very much for your kind words by the way! I'll definitely keep going thanks to all the great support and interaction :-D All the very best, Luke
Your video exposure controls...is this a feature of ASIAir Plus or a feature of the camera? My ASIAir Pro does not show such controls with ASI 183-MC Pro. Nevermind, I found them lol ( never even knew about the < options. Learn something new everyday.
Excellent session, Luke. Question please: Were you using a tablet to work with your ASIAIR? I'm putting together much simpler gear.... Celestron Evolution 6", ZWO183CM, ASIAIR, EAF and a Samsung Tab S6 Lite 128. I'm hoping to inspire my grandsons with some variation of what you did on your video. I realize that the Evolution alt-az mount will struggle with holding targets for anything longer than a few seconds, and my ASI183MC camera is pretty basic. Thanks for thoughts.
Hey Michael! - I hope you have been keeping well since last we spoke :-) I was indeed using a tablet for all the ASIAIR work, your galaxy tab will do the job great! :-) I think the gear you listed here will do a great job for many enjoyable EAA sessions with your grandsons, ASIAIR can also live-stack DSO images, even compensating for field rotation from alt-az mountings - it should be a lot of fun! Hope that helps you, All the best, Luke
@lukomatico Great news.... I'm very glad to hear about the ASIAIR dealing with some alt-az field rotation while stacking images. I've been busy and need to download and print the manuals for my ZWO gear. I'm thinking I need to join the local astronomy club for some one-on-one. Thanks again for your excellent channel and your generous assistance.
Hey there mate! - I was using a fairly large sensor during this video so I was able to use the wider field of view offered by that to allow easy plate solves, then switch to a crop view to make planetary captures :-) I hope that helps explain it! I would like to add, I've found the ASIAIR plate solves/polar align routine to the quite robust overall with all sensors I've tested :-) Thanks for watching!
@@lukomatico Thank you. Which camera did you use and did you use a barlow? I know that a 0.2 degree FOV is required for the AA+ to plate solve and I am trying to get it to work for my much smaller scope than your 250P.
Hey there! - I was using an asi2600mc Pro for this video, and no barlow lens 👍 The 2600 is more of a deepsky camera than a planetary one though of course, if you are mainly interested in planetary then something with a smaller sensor would still be fine and should plate solve without issue, like the IMX585 range just released :-)
Luke, thanks alot for this video. After watching this, I was sure that I have to get an ASIair myself... Could you please tell me what mount you are using? Look very heavy and sturdy.
Thank you for watching!! I was using a Skywatcher EQ8 mount in this video, it's a very sturdy mount indeed! :-) Hope that's helpful to you! Good luck with the asiair if you buy one, they are a really great device 👍
The app seems good enough to stack 1 video into 1 image. How about if you have to do sequences ? either because you're LRGB in mono or because you are capturing a planetary rotation. Can you create a sequence and take x videos of 60s for instance ?
Hi Luke. i would like to learn how i live stream the view of my ipad tablet screen when looking at the moon or planets. i notice that you are able to include the view of your asiair air app in your video. could you please tell me how to do this ? if you know of youtube videos that focus on how to do this please share the link. thank you. TexAstro 🙂🔭
Hey mate! Re: the overlay, it's a case of using the screen-recording app built into android then overlaying it onto secondary recorded data in video editing software 👍 As to live-streaming your nights, you may be best off using bluestacks on Windows to control asiair from there, then you can livestream everything as you normally would using something like obs 👍 Hope that helps!
Hey Avinasha! It could be either too few stars to plate solve with due to the tight field of view from your richey-chretien, or if the FOV is wide enough then maybe longer exposures are needed to aid plate solving in finding more stars :-) Clear skies!
Absolutely fantastic, Luke! I have been following your videos for a while. I am sold on EAA. I think, there are more benefits as compared to limitations. Two questions: (1) Can I accomplish this without purchasing ASI Air Pro? Use live stacking through ASI Live/Studio? I want to understand what is the additional advantage of ASI Air Pro. (2) Can this be accomplished by fully wireless setup so that in winter one can watch live stacking on big screen TV ? Thanks for your quick response in advance. Clear skies!
Hey Vinay! - That's brilliant to hear mate! :-D It's such a fun way to enjoy the night sky, I love EAA in all it's forms! to answer your question, you absolutely can do EAA via asilive-asistudio, if you want to do PC based EAA though then I'd always recommend Sharpcap personally, ideally with a pro licence too - well worth the cost! regarding your second question, you can indeed do a fully wireless setup - you may have trouble viewing on your TV unless it's maybe just casted live from your smartphone/tablet app though, but that's a universal issue I guess! Hope that helps mate! :-)
Luke, What version of firmware is this? I have ASIAIR PLUS version 2.1 10.74 which is the latest version I believe and the stacking feature is not available. (26 October 2023)
I'm using V2.1.1 also. I notice the video adjustments now include WB(R) and WB(B). ZWO changes this app on every release. Most of the ASIAir videos now are outdated for details but are still needed because ZWO will not update their user manual.
Hey mate! - It should still be available, not sure what's going wrong for you with it unfortunately! could be worth making a fresh video capture or something just to double-check it's not a file issue! Good luck :-)
Eventually sorted it. The interface has changed since you posted this.. You need to pick the stacking type.. ie planet, lunar, solar... before going into the file selection.... Planets and lunar aren't really my thing, but having this in the app gives people things to try when the weather isn't perfect... Keep up the good work
@@AndyUkLeic excellent news mate and good on you for sharing the solution!! :-) I'll have to get on with recording newer versions of this kinda thing! Clear skies 👍👍
Great video Luke! I really enjoyed the on the fly processing. I am hoping that my hints were heard and that I might get the Plus for Xmas. Happy holidays to you!🎄🎅
Great video Luke, as always! My wife has bought me the ASIAIR plus for Xmas😀 I watched your vid on a 55” 4K tv and the moon shots in particular looked fantastic mate! Already got the ASIAIR pro, so now need another dedicated Astro camera! Might go mono, but then will have to add the filter wheel and filters to that! What would you suggest as a second camera to my 2600mc pro? Cheers Luke👍
Hey Simon! - Ah that's brilliant mate!! I really do think you'll love it, even given that you have the Pro already! :-) Merry Christmas to you and yours by the way! As to cameras, that's a tough one!! - If you're wanting to get the best available currently, then it's the 2600mm or 6200mm (same sensor tech, different sizes) That said, if you're in no rush, it may be worth seeing if anything else is announced in the first quarter of 2022? It's a toughie! All the very best, and thank you so much for all the support you've given this year mate, I truly appreciate it :-) Luke
Can I ask something Please tell me how your mount Just go to the R A and D And meanwhile me can't even use Barlow because when I use my target get out of sight Max mag is 150x But I didn't go upto 50x Yet 😭😭. Why why why
I know this video is 2 years old but, I have to say I have not done any imaging for about 10 years now and just recently got bit by the bug again. I still have all of my equipment from those days which includes a Celestron 8 inch Edge HD as my main scope and a lot of different cameras. What absolutely blows my mind is how far this hobby has come in those 10 years. My setup was so complicated with cables and software with a full sized desktop computer and two monitors, it was insane, lol... This is astounding to me that all of this complication is now down to one mini computer and is even wireless. I have really got bitten by the bug now ! I'm retired and a single guy so I have all the time in the world. I guess I know what I'm going to be doing now ! Great video young man. Cheers from eastern Utah where the sky's are dark and dry ! ;-) Thumbs up !
That's absolutely fantastic to hear my friend, - I really think astronomy is in a wonderful place these days! :-)
Good luck to you and I'm wishing you many, many clear skies!
Luke
Luke, you are by far and large, the best RUclipsr that I follow. You get to the point, you are practical, easy to listen to and pitched at the right level.
That's so kind of you to say Kelly, thank you! :-)
I really appreciate that you'd take the time to share such a positive comment!
Hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend,
Clear skies!
Thank you for your Time and effort putting up this video. I can't wait to get out and capture some scenes.
You have given me a lot of confidence, Thanks again, keep up the good work.
I'm so glad to hear that!! - thank you so much for watching and clear skies to you my friend!
Thank you Luke for this Christmas morning gift. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, your spontaneous “train-of-thought” videos are extremely instructive. As you work through various issues, discussing your thought process, it really gives an extra dimension of insight-especially when you talk about your trial-and-error manipulations. Your love of the night sky continues to inspire. Looking forward to many Lukomatico videos to come in 2022.
Hey Joe! - thank you mate, you always offer interesting perspectives for me to consider and quite a confidence boost to be honest also, haha! :-D
Thank you so much for watching and giving all your support this year my friend, your friendship is truly valued 🙏
Thank you for this walk-through on using the ASI Air and imaging the planets/lunar surface.
My pleasure David, thank you for watching my friend :-)
Great video. I haven't tried video mode but was hoping to try it this week with the moon.
You should definitely give it a go mate! Good luck :-D
This might be the most informative and helpful "real world" astrophotography video I've watched since I started the hobby almost a year ago. You addressed most of the questions I had since my Plus arrived in January. Can't wait to put it to use for lunar and planetary imaging now that you shown how to do it. Thank you!
Thank you Michael! - I'm really glad to hear you liked this video approach :-)
I have to say, I love the ASIAIR and it just keeps getting better with each update!
Thanks for watching! :-)
That ASI air is a brilliant bit of kit it would work well for outreach events showing the public not only deep sky objects but planets in our solar system to, great bit of kit Luke clear skies
Hey mate! - I think you're spot on! Asiair and a decent sized Tablet would make a lovely combo for showing people around a bit! :-)
Thank you for watching!!
Merry Christmas matey :-)
Thank you for sharing this. Myself I never did much planetary photography. More a deep sky enthousiast myself. But I definitely will have a go at this, the moment we have clear sky’s in the Netherlands.
That's superb to hear my friend! - I wish you great luck and success with it :-) I think it's a really great feature!
Hope your skies clear up soon!
Thanks for sharing your experience ! Clear skies
Thanks for watching mate!! I appreciate it :-)
Clear skies!
Thank you for trying this out for us! The software has come a long way.
Hey David! - No problem at all mate, It's my pleasure! - I fully agree by the way, the software this thing uses is constantly evolving, I can't wait to see where it'll be in another year or so! :-)
All the best,
Luke
thanks so much for this! i got an asiair+ a few weeks ago and the weather of course has been atrocious, i got in 2 nights of EAA on dso's but was just wondering about this function and how it worked. so your video is very timely!
Hey Bob!! Congratulations mate on your Asiair!! I hope you'll have a tremendous time with it, it's a really fantastic device I think! :-)
Thank you for watching and commenting my friend!
Clear skies 👍👍
Thanks. One of the best RUclips videos on the ASIAIR that I’ve watched.
Wondering if there’s a way to change the magnification within video mode.
Thank you so much Peter!! that's really kind of you to say my friend :-)
RE: video magnification, you can alter the capture resolution which gives a further apparent crop factor, that may help a bit for quick views of things? Hope that helps!!
@@lukomatico Thanks, Luke. Not sure what you mean by capture resolution. What I really want to do is make the image smaller.
I'm really starting to think that imaging the moon is a is bit of a mug's game. The best image of the moon you'll see is the one you get at the eyepiece ! That's just not true of other objects in the sky. So much detail is available just by visual observation with the telescope and that is too much for the resolution of CMOS cameras. But perhaps there's hope with multi panel images ?
@@petermonson3719 Hey Peter!
Very generally speaking, a higher resolution during image/video capture will result in the target object appearing "smaller" in the field of view, - there's of course a *lot* more to this, but generally if you want to make the image smaller on your screen/capture more of it at once then higher resolution/bigger sensor/shorter focal length is key! :-)
@@lukomatico Thanks, Luke. I was hoping that there was a way to do it for a given system within the software. But I guess not.
Very well done. Thanks for the education. Trying to hone my h-alpha solar imaging skills.
That's really cool to hear Jeff! I bet something like this would enable quick experimentation and a faster rate of learning due to that immediate ability to stack - thank you for the feedback!! :-)
Clear skies my friend
Awesome video Luke! Taking astro images is one thing, but to peice all these videos and audio together to make a film in a way that keeps you watching with no loss of interest is one heck of a skill you have. You are an artist my friend! Keep it up!
Hey Bill! - Ah mate, that's really very kind of you to say!! - I just want to personally say thank you for your support over the whole year mate, I found a screenshot the other day I took when I had reached 100 subscribers, and in that picture you're already there commenting and giving support, so thank you!! :-)
I'm wishing you and your family a truly wonderful Christmas and an equally fantastic new year!
All the very best,
Luke
@@lukomatico You too buddy! Merry Christmas!
Excellent video. Didn't realise that feature had been added. Quite impressive really. As you said, it would be excellent for showing friends and family when imaging live to get them interested in astro.
Hey there Logan! - Hope you are well mate :-)
I think that's one of the key takeaways for me about this feature, it allows you to really quite rapidly get something on screen that most people and maybe especially beginners would find pleasing and interesting! :-D
Thank you for watching my friend, I hope you have a lovely Christmas and new year!
All the best,
Luke
@@lukomatico Merry Christmas and a Clear Skies New Year to you too.
Great video. Just starting with the Asiair plus and this was really helpful.
Great to hear that Mark, thank you mate! :-)
My gob is well and truly smacked! I can't wait for the weather to improve in Scotland so I can get out and use this kit to do the same. Great video as always!
That's at least two of us with smacked gobs then mate haha!! :-D I was really quite amazed at how well it works!
Hoping you get some clear skies soon mate :-)
All the best,
Luke
Wow! I would never have found that on my own. Thanks!
No problem at all Michael! Glad to help :-)
Clear skies!
Great video! Appreciate your very interesting ASIAIR Plus experimental presentation.
Thanks so much my friend! - I'm really glad you liked it, that's awesome to hear :-)
Clear skies!
Great session Luke, my ASI Plus arrives tomorrow, can’t wait to try these video features on moon nights. All the best to you and your family for xmas and new year mate.
Oh that's awesome news mate! - I think you're going to love it, I'm over the moon with mine if you'll excuse the pun, haha :-D
Thank you for all your support, and wishing a merry christmas and happy new year to you and your family my friend!
All the best,
Luke
Very interesting video. Will try for the moon! Thank you!
Awesome! - Good luck Mario my friend! :-)
23:30 DSL Lucky Imaging already exists. Shooting nights of hours of a target, then only picking the best (x) percent to stack. That's a feature in PixInsight and in DSS. Except for M31 and M42 most Deep Space targets are too dark to benefit from using video instead of shooting many several-minute long subs and stacking the best. As for the rest of this video, I learned a lot from this video overall. Thank you.
Thanks so much for watching my friend! :-)
Really good video. Very interesting and I like how you explained everything you were doing.
Thank you so much for the lovely comment! :-) I hope you have a great day!
Excellent video! Thanks for sharing. I enjoy your passion.
Thank you ever so much Mike!! Clear skies my friend 👍👍
Awesome video Luke as always. Loved the live views alone. I agree, it is a special moment when you see the planets and moon live....Brilliant. It's been a thick fog soup for the last few days up here too. Top job on the composite mate!
Thanks so much Ben! - It's a lovely feature and like you, I love seeing the live-views! :-)
Hope it clears up for you soon matey!!
All the best and merry christmas to you and yours!
Luke
That Composite "scale" view at the is awesome! That belongs framed on a wall! :)
Hey there Pat! - Man, thanks so much! I really liked that shot too haha, after reading your comment I just took another look at it actually :-)
Thank you for watching my friend, I hope you have a super weekend!
Awesome, i had no idea the video mode works so well, and the stacking is a nice additional feature. :D
Thank you Mr.Frost! :-D I was pretty darn surprised at how well it worked, now I know it's so easy I will definitely be fitting in planetary and lunar sessions regularly! :-D
Thanks for watching!
Thanks Luke! I don't know how I missed this new feature.🤔
Hey Andy! - It's pretty well tucked away in fairness! I only saw about it from the update notes when the software installed! :-D
Thank you so much for watching!
Clear skies!
Very good tutorial Luke. I have a 60mm refractor, 533mc camera and ASIAIR Pro and do mostly widefield DSO imaging. Last night I saw this tutorial and tried it on the full moon on a cloudy night and was really pleased with the results. The ASIAIR keeps getting better! Now I just need a longer focus length scope. Thanks for posting this!
Oops I meant longer focal length
I'm glad you liked it Mark! - It's great to hear you had some good luck trying out the stacking, it really surprised me how well it worked! :-)
As you say, a longer focal length scope would be great for targets like the moon with this planetary stacking mode, hope you are able to find what you are looking for soon matey!
Clear skies :-)
Great video Luke! I really enjoyed it and thanks for sharing!
That's wonderful to hear Khalefa! - Thank you very much for watching and leaving a kind comment :-)
All the very best,
Luke
I wanted to discuss the topic myself but realized how quickly they’re updating this thing. Likely all my issues will be answered. Not having ROI is a real bummer. That was a huge leap for planetary when cameras started supporting it. A real issue I think a lot of planetary guys will have is with plate solving. It worked perfectly fine for you because you were polar aligned. A good deal of planetary guys half-heartedly PA because it’s not critical. So let’s say I roughly setup my mount true north. Then I command the mount to slew to Jupiter from home. Forget it. You’ll be lucky to find it in a spiral search especially at 2000+ focal length. So a finder scope is still useful. Using the Plus I can ignore the need for dew controllers etc. That’s nice. So I let it slew to Jupiter and miss. I then center it and hit “sync mount” viola. Regarding the onboard stacking software I’m curious how it arrives at its decision. Some nights you’ll keep 40%, others as low as 15%. Not being able to physically see a graph is a weakness. As you say it’s so easy tho and immediately rewarding that the appeal may be had regardless. A feature guys using Fire Capture will miss is the tracking mode. Something I noticed is the typically straight fwd Plus interface is a nightmare for mono imaging of planets. Imagine using R,G,B, IR sequences. There’s a time limit between frames for everything to work out. Advanced planetary imaging is done that way. They need to add “Plan” to video mode. That would allow for the automated sequencing necessary to prevent limb blurring. I do like the incorporation of solar tracking rate. It works very well. I’m not sold on it yet but realize everything can be fixed via software updates. As it stands I can’t comfortably shoot mono, I have to polar align or break out a finder scope, and I’m dumbing down a camera I specifically chose for ROI capability. That’s where I’m at with it. Oh and extremely important is being able to zoom way in for live focusing. Can’t toss my laptop in the bin just yet.
Hey Garnett! - an interesting read mate, thank you for sharing! If I may, I'd like to offer a couple of alternative points of view for your consideration though?
On the note of ROI, video mode does support preset roi's (from 1080p to 240p anyway), but regular deep-sky mode does not yet - or have I missed your meaning here mate? sorry if so! :-)
RE: plate solving w/ accurate polar alignment - I guess a key thing is the PA routine is so fast and easy that there's really no excuse for someone to not be accurately polar aligned when using this thing! :-D that's my 2c on it anyway! sort of a self-resolving issue?
On the note of stacking: - I agree fully that maybe an option for default or "advanced" stacking mode may be a nice addition? where you can see a graph and select a % to stack - then you'd have the best of both worlds I guess! (rgb align would be nice too)
Also, totally hear you RE: imaging with mono for planetary with this might be a slight pain in the backside! good point mate! as you suggested, plan mode for video is an excellent idea to remedy this!
finally on the note of zooming right in for live-focus, on "focus" mode, you can hit the little (+) icon, and it'll take you to a 200x200 pixel 1/1 scale crop which looks pretty big on the screen! or do you instead mean zooming in to multiple hundreds of % zoom like in sharpcap? sorry if my interpretations of any of this is off the mark matey! - Please do let me know if it's not too much of a time sink, I'd love to learn as much as possible!
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts about it, it's been really interesting to read and digest, plus as I expected you would, you've raised points I'd not even considered! :-)
All the best my friend
Luke
@@lukomatico You’re talking about what crop can be adjusted. In ROI You can specify a part of the image you are interested in so that the camera can optimize readout and data transfer. On a planetary camera that supports it for example: let’s say I’m in a crop of 640x480. I can then activate ROI which gives me a smaller framing box. I’d place that over the planet or a surface detail. The software then optimizes the data transfer inside of it. It’s extremely useful in planetary where you want optimal frame rate. ROI is very different than what crop you’re shooting in.
I can’t argue against your point of how easy polar alignment is. It’s just an extra task that’s unnecessary without the device. Maybe that’s extremely lazy but I know a lot of people that bypass it for planets. Assume your target is the Sun. Assume you’re using an F12 1540mm Maksutov. That thing is ridiculously hard to polar align with plate solve due to number of stars. It’s a minor thing but as you say everyone really should be polar aligning.
The seeing influence over % frames used is easily incorporated into this device. I was amazed at how accurate the autofocus was across my filter wheel. I bring that up because it’s reading FWHM. That involves a lot more computation than edge detection for focus such as in Sharpcap. I wouldn’t mind if it was automated. The stacking software could easily better determine the take aways than a human but who’s to say it isn’t already? It may be. I need to challenge this over some variable situations to determine how it arrives at its decision or if it’s just a preset. That’s very important to me and would bd to most. How is it deciding?
Regarding focus it goes deeper. Most planetary guys, Christopher Go for example, will recommend focusing on the green filter. If it’s tight typically your red and blue will be usable for planets. We’re assuming you’re doing mono again but it’s very important. I actually wasn’t aware of the +/- feature you mention. Shows what I know lol. Anyway, if I add Infrared etc I’m stuck refocusing unless I can assign preset focus position. At very high magnifications the very last thing you’d want to be doing is toying with it manually especially on an SCT commonly used for the job. There’s just very little support in terms of video capture. On the positive side I love being able to choose between video output types. It’s awesome that you can save a video directly to your phone. The potential for live streaming exists already. Prior to this I had to convert SER files or AVI to usable iPhone format, email it to the cloud, then download it to my phone. Very lame. Be careful with this feature tho as recording both simultaneously slows down transfer rates.
What we need as a community is for planetary enthusiasts to get on the horn with ZWO. They understand the importance of ROI etc because they boast it on the camera ads that support it. It definitely should be in the software. I give them no excuse for that. My guess, and I hope I’m wrong, is that it introduces data transfer problems across the network. It’s one thing to be tethered to a pc in real time but is it even capable of displaying it live across wifi? I don’t know. I think this is a very useful thread. I hope others chime in on their thoughts. Definitely ZWO is interested especially considering how they sent the first units out under review conditions. They’re a very intuitive crowd that seems very interested in supporting their customers needs.
Wow, Its So Cool To see Some Planetary Imaging!! Also Love that Composite. Ut Kinda gives You a Sense of Scale of How Big Planets Actually Are. Splendid.
A Planetary and EAA imager's message For You. 'Keep going and Taking Those Pictures'😃. Clear Skies!
Hey Avanteesh! :-D I'll surely keep going mate, thank you for the encouragement! - I had a lot more fun than I expected to be honest!
Thanks for watching man! :-D Hope you have a wonderful festive season and new year my friend, thank you again!
off topic here but the data tutorials you have made available for download are super! rain here for a few days so i've had great time sharpening my processing skills with your free data. Thanks so much!
Hey there! - I'm really glad to hear that mate, thank you so much for letting me know it's been useful for you! 👍👍 Hope you get some clear skies soon :-)
Excellent vid might buy one myself Mars coming up late next year,so can't wait to see what you do. Being an absolute newbie I tried the Andromeda galaxy with my cannon 650d...72 ed and 228 x 20 sec exposures I'm really pleased with the result.....having great fun learning this new aspect to my hobby after 50 year's visual, clear skies to all.
Hey there Peter! - that's excellent to hear :-) most of all though, it sounds like you've enjoyed yourself which is the key! :-D
Thanks for watching and merry Christmas!
Wow didn’t know it did this. Lovin your real time demo, you make it look really straightforward. I always thought planetary was a whole different story and never really tried. Ima try it out with my dads sct and Barlow. Im gonna impress so many peeps with this! Thank you asiair and thank you Luke
Hey Ben! - Ah that's just brilliant mate!! So glad to have helped, wishing you good luck with your planetary imaging!! :-)
All the best mate,
Luke
Now that was a very informative video !! Thank you for this tutorial on Video mode.....now I'm a little more confident to try it. Thank you again Luke - excellent job sir !
Thank you Mike!! - It's a lovely feature they've added, I'm only too glad it's there and easily accessible, I can regularly mix planetary sessions in now I hope! :-)
Thank you for all your support over the year Mike, I wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and a happy new year!
All the best,
Luke
@@lukomatico Merry Christmas to you as well and may 2022 be a wonderful year for you !
Thank you again Mike!! :-)
Clear skies!
Very informative and enjoyable video! Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for watching 👍
I am a new subscriber. Thanks for doing this video. I needed it.
Thanks for watching and subscribing Gregory! 👍
Great video, thank you. I am definitely up for instant gratification.......lol.......
You and me both mate, haha! :-D thanks for watching!
Very informative video! Thank you!
You're very welcome!
Great video...and explanations too. You always do informative videos for people like me just starting out
Thanks Mark! - I'm glad you've enjoyed the vid mate! :-)
Clear skies!
Top clip Luke. As usual. I love what asiair can do . I purchased a 256 gig usb extreme pro from scan disk for video mode. It has a write speed of 380 MB/S instead of I think 60 on the asi zwo supplied memory stick. This will raise your frame rate through the roof. Makes a Huge difference . In image quality.
Hey Steve! That's lovely to hear, thank you! - excellent advice! I have a reasonably fast USB drive in use when you see those framerates being pretty low in the video, but nowhere near 380mb/s write! - That thing sounds like a monster, I'll have a good look into it!
I expect the 2600 isn't optimised for framerate so I'm not expecting miracles, but a boost would be nice! Thanks again and merry Christmas :-)
Merry Christmas back at you Luke. Had clouds here in Queensland Australia for months . And just updated all 3 off my asi airs . 2 days ago and never even seen this function. I see they are putting out a mount next year tiny with 20kg workload looks nice as well. Cheers
Thanks mate - I really hope it clears soon for you!
You did a great job. Thank you.
Thank you very much my friend!! :-)
Think ill have to test this out at the community Obs.. could be very interesting for the new comer to the hobby.. and better than carrying a laptop around 🌑 - Clear Skies are coming.. i feel it in my further adooo
It's absolute magic mate! I tried it out again recently, a really cool feature :-)
Clear skies buddy!!
Hi Luke, great video on the new features of the ASIAIR Plus. You got some lovely images of the moon and planets. Amazing what this little device is capable of. Merry Christmas and many clear skies for 2022!
Hey there Jon! - Thanks matey!! I was happy with how they came out, especially given it was a real unplanned, off the cuff kinda thing! :-)
Thank you for watching, and for all your support throughout the year my friend!
Hope you have a wonderful Christmas and new year!
All the best,
Luke
@@lukomatico Hi Luke, just to let you know I previously commented on your Get Better Colours video but the message didn’t get through for some reason. I commented again this am and appears all is well with RUclips and it’s now showing on the comments section.Hope this is a one off hiccup with RUclips.All the best.Clear skies!
My airplus has never seen a star. I saw a three second view of the Moon a few weeks ago but it was soon covered by blanket clouds and they have stayed, and are forecasted locally until the end of the year. We are in a Low Sunspot period so more clouds should be expected. This is a good demo of what it's capable of.
Hey there! - That's some seriously bad astronomy weather you've been having!! I really hope it clears up for you sooner rather than later and you can get to grips with the Air Plus! :-)
All the best and thanks for watching!
Luke
@@lukomatico The dark ages lasted for 900 years and probably started with the odd few weeks of crap weather. I'm sure Nasa said the warm period we have been in since 1700 ended in 2016, and cold periods always follow warm and they are colder partly because of clouds.
It's blanket again today and the local Met office app says it will be until the 2nd, which is another week away again. I'm thinking if i pack it all away it will probably clear up.
If things get desperate, all you need to do is buy some specialist cloud watching equipment, that should make it miraculously clear up for a few months! 😅
@@lukomaticoI have always enjoyed a time-lapse cloud sequence and have shot many. I live in the South West and it's a Green part of the UK kept green by rain clouds. If we told the USA to stop sending them, it would turn as brown as Wiltshire.
Nice one Luke, I’ve only used the ASIAIR a couple of times for Moon work, probably over a year ago. This has incentivised me to go back and try again and some of the planets too. You are right ZWO are certainly improving the AIR more and more. Best wishes for the holidays, Ian
That's awesome to hear Ian! - I reckon your Esprit 120 would do really well on the planets given how sharp it's optics are, that'd be great to see :-)
All the very best Ian, I hope you have a lovely Christmas and new year!
Luke, thanks for your running commentary on how easy it is to do planetary and lunar astrophotography with the ASIair Pro/Plus - it's nice to see a non-rehearsed presentation: it reminds us all that out of a little learning chaos can come something worthwhile. I haven't dabbled into planetary photography as it would be yet another technology (equipment and software) that I would have to learn. The ASIair appears to cater well for it, so I think I will give it a try. I suspect that the purists would say there are better packages out there for this work, but if this is not going to be your main interest, it appears to be a way to go.
Cheers, and clear skies, Paul.
Hey there mate! - Thank you very much indeed for your kind comment, - I'm really happy to hear you found some enjoyment in the chaos! :-D I think your take on things is spot-on the mark by the way, thanks for sharing!
Clear skies :-)
Очень хорошее видео. Спасибо Вам большое!!!
Thank you for watching my friend!! :-)
Thanks Luke, great video! I didn't know about this update at all! Looks like it did particularly well with the Moon and the last Uranus image. It's no AutoStakkert but the ASI Air really is becoming the Swiss army knife of imaging! :)
Hey Chris! - Aye mate it's changing faster than I can keep up with, haha! :-D I love the device and all these changes they are making are steps in the right direction to giving it have an even wider appeal! :-)
Deffo agree it's not a match for autostakkert just yet, but equally autostakkert isn't a match for the AIR when it comes to simplicity! :-D
Thanks for watching mate!
Very impressive capability. I’ll have to try the ASIAIR for planetary. I do have a planetary camera but stacking is usually done the next day using PIPP, AS3! Etc. These traditional tools are all very time consuming. Additionally I worry that some of our planetary software tools are not updated very often if at all. ZWO keeps developing and updating their software tools all the time. Great video
Thank you so much for your lovely comment Craig! - I really am glad they added this as an option for option for people, I used to do the exact same as you mention! take the data one night, then process the next day over on the PC - time consuming as you said!
For a quick and easy session, this method really works wonders and bring back some of the fun to planetary and lunar capture for me :-)
Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment!
Awesome vid as always Luke! I loved the mini smash and grab session, i don’t mind a bit of lunar photography and imaging the odd planet, it helps fight the urge to get out, especially when we’ve had constant cloud of late.
Awesome as always, clear skies matey.
Thank you Will! - A smash and grab session, haha! I love it :-D
It definitely was enjoyable to get the gear out and have a go, so I'm glad the resulting video turned out okay!
Hope you start to get some clear skies soon mate!!
All the best,
Luke
Hey Luke - Certainly wasn't aware this feature was there, although I don't really do planets much it would be nice to be able to do a quick stack of the moon like this.
Cheers mate more very useful information pal, thanks for putting together.
Clear skies
Hey Ollie! - It'd be great to see you tackle some lunar/planetary stuff mate, a whole new can of worms I guess! :-D
Thank you for watching mate, as always!
This is my second time watching. Thanks Luke!
Glad you enjoyed it so much mate!! - Thank you for your support! :-)
Merry Christmas Luke and to your family. It's a bit late but hope you had a good one. Stu
Hey Stu! - I hope you are well my friend :-) Thank you so much, you've been supportive of me and this channel since the start mate and it's been a pleasure to chat with you back & forth here!
Hope you have a wonderful new year with lots of health and happiness!
All the very best,
Luke
Hey I just used planetary and I could not find this feature. Thanks for the demo. I never went straight to the file I guess. I shot some good moon photos and I guess I can stack after the fact now as they are still on my device. Thanks for the step by step. It looks easier than AutoStakkert and comparable results.
Hey there Charles! - I'm glad you liked the video, thank you for watching!
RE: your moon shots, as long as you took video rather than images you should be set to stack them on the Plus! :-)
Clear skies!
Brilliant video Luke !! I must admit I'm loving my asiair plus which came earlier this month......WiFi range is so much better now. Got to take my hat off to zwo for their product development .....outstanding. Definitely will check this out for sure. Once again it's a really informative video and so well explained. Wishing you both a very happy Christmas 🎄
Hey Paul! - Yeah mate I've gotta say the same, it's an absolutely cracking device and continually improving, what's not to love eh! :-D
Thank you so much for watching, and for all your support over the year mate!
Wishing a Merry Christmas and happy new year to you and yours :-)
wow that's so cool. I didnt realise it could do that
Hey there Dave! - It's a lovely feature to have, I'm continually impressed by this little red box! :-)
Thank you for all your support this year my friend, you were my first member and I can't thank you enough for the boost it's given me! :-)
All the very best, I hope you have a lovely Christmas and new year mate
Luke
@@lukomatico haha no problem pal, happy to help and love what you do, inspires me to see if i can take pics only half as good as yours, merry xmas my friend
You beat me to this lol. No need to finish my video now. Good job. Merry Christmas man.
Hey Garnett! :-D ahh I hope you're only kidding haha!! - I'd love to see how you go about using it my friend, and I'm sure I won't be alone in saying that! :-)
Merry Christmas and happy new year to you and your family mate!
All the best,
Luke
Obviously been hitting the gym Luke, slinging that EQ8 around like it's no big deal 😅
Haha, that's brilliant, thanks Danny! 😂 Merry Christmas mate!
What a great video, thank you so much. I have two questions: How easy/difficult is it to focus the camera?
And my second question, you mentioned stacking an image quickly as a demonstration for your friends during a party for instance. Can anyone download the software and connect to the camera? Or is it picky about connecting to multiple phones etc.? Thanks in advance 👍👍
Hey Josh! Thank you for watching and commenting mate! 👍
Regarding focusing - it somewhat depends on the scope as some are more focus sensitive than others, but overall focusing is a pretty easy task 👍
Re: your question about multiple users, - I've had two devices connected at once (by accident!) and it didn't seem to directly cause any issues, just the chance of input conflicts from multiple users I guess!
For sharing the experience It'd work well just connected to a tablet or something and left to livestack until you wanted to move targets, could be a lot of fun with the right group of people! :-D
Thanks again for watching!
@@lukomatico That's great insight, thank you! Got one on back order now, hopefully it doesn't take too long... 😶
Thank you for the demonstration. V2.2.1 10.74 version of the app has made changes to the GUI for stacking. You take the video then go back to Image management then see a line of colorful icons for stacking various types of objects. I notice from one your replies below your are using a 250PDS (9.8" or 250mm mirror, F/4, 1200mm FL). Did you use a focal reducer in this demonstration? What mount did you use? I have a Celestron C8 on a Celestron AVX mount. I'm also using an ASI585MC. I'm having lots of issues with the ASIAir Plus 256 with plate solving and GO TO. Using the ASI585MC and my C8 in native focal length (2032mm) I haven't been able to do the initial plate solving in the first step of the ASIAir PA procedure. I have a 6.3 focal reducer and that seemed to help get through that procedure. However the GO TO feature doesn't seem to work consistently using the ASI585. Last night I want to take some videos of Jupiter since its at opposition. I'm using the 6.3 focal reducer and got through ASIAir PA. I even used my polar scope in the AVX mount before turning on the ASIAir to polar align. Then I test slewed to a couple of couple of objects, Vega and M13 in Hercules. I used Vega to check my focus and also to align my finder scope. So far so good. Jupiter is up by now so I GO TO Jupiter. The mount slewed in the general direction, but looking in the finder scope it wasn't near center. Then it made small adjustments and got closer but Jupiter still not centered in the finder scope. In the end centering Jupiter failed after several attempts. I selected Retry but then the mount slew way off so I canceled. I decided to use the ASIAir mount controls to manually center Jupiter in the finder scope (9x50 with illuminated cross hairs) but still nothing in the Preview or Video mode screens (even at 1080P) of the ASIAir. What I bought ASIAir for has failed me. So after messing around trying to find Jupiter manually, I finally found it and centered it the Preview screen. I hoped if it was centered adding the 2x Barlow it would show up and it did although out of focus but I was able to focus and make minute adjustments to the mount using the hand control. Finally Jupiter was focused and centered. I made sure ASIAir mount tracking mode was set to Solar. I procedure to take 2 minute video of 1080p, 960p, 720p and 480p. I made a few adjustments to centering in between and the tracking seemed to keep the image centered pretty good even in 480p. I was surprised. BTW I'm using a 256g SDmicro card to save the videos. After I took these videos I decided to keep testing ASIAir GO TO. Using the built it star chart where you can just choose objects on the map I was able to slew over, plate solve and center. So far so good. I notice in the Star Chart once you select a target by moving a red rectangle (think it represents your sensor shape and size) there is a Sync and Goto. I select GO TO and the mount slewed. You can see the blue rectangle try to match up with the red rectangle. This worked for a couple of targets although it took a few attempts to get centered on Andromeda. I think I tried the Sync on this to see if it would make the mount more accurate but I'm not sure it did. The last target was one of the stars in Plieades but the ASIAir seem to loose its brains and became lost in space. I slewed in the general direction but it was no where near. It failed miserably and in the end as it slewed further and further away I decide to call it quits for the night. Disappointment and cold temperatures got to me.
The reason I use the hand control mount direction controls is that AIRAir mount direction controls in Preview, Video and Focus don't always work correctly. Often lifting your finger off a direction icon the mount still keeps moving. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't so I use the hand control instead.
ASIAir home position is different from the Celestron hand controller home. Home on the AVX are when the RA and DEC are aligned on the index marks. ASIAir Home in the Mount section, the RA is off in RA but close in DEC.
Using tha ASIAir has been a frustrating experience. Maybe if I had gone with a 102mm refractor and another mount I wouldn't be seeing these issues. With my C8 and AVX mount ASIAir has been frustrating. Since ZWO doesn't even have an upgraded document for version 2.1.1 of their app, I doubt they test ASIAir with SCTs that much and definitely don't test it with an AVX mount.
I'll keep experimenting with it and hope my bug reports address some issues in next releases.
I'm going to research other GO TO solutions. Maybe play with the Celestron hand controller GO TO. Maybe it can center on an object better and I can still use the ASIAir Preview, Autorun, Video to take images and videos.
I also see you were using a ASI2600 that has an APC sensor. Maybe a larger sensor camera works better. I'm going to try my Nikon D5100 as a quick test to see if at 2032mm ASIAir will plate solve. The ASI585 sensor is much smaller. I got the ASI585MC and planetary but also to dabble in some DSO like you suggested below then eventually get something like an ASI533MC Pro when I've got the workflows, imaging processing etc ironed out so I can justify another expense.
I can't possibly address it all, but thank you for the in depth comment my friend 🙏 good luck!
Great video Luke! And you did some very nice shots. 👍🏼 - I don't have an ASIAIR but it was anyways interesting for me to see that you can do stacking with this mini astro pc. And also very cool to see the comparison you did (Autostakkert vs. ASIAIR). You can try "RegiStax" for further sharpening. It's an amazing piece of software and SO powerful. Regarding the atmospheric dispersion you can do some kind of RGB correction via software but it's even better (-> results are even better final images) if you have the opportunity to use an atmospheric dispersion corrector (ADC). 8:20 I also tried some single shots of Neptune (using a OSC as well)...and I love the blue color. Really amazing to see. cs :)
Thanks so much bud!! So glad to hear you enjoyed the video :-)
Definitely agree that registax is a great program btw 👍👍
I've been impressed with the asiair for a long time and it's just recently got even better with the latest software update too haha!
I really can't wait to have a good go at the planets this year, I feel like for the first time in my astronomy career I have the serious urge to do it, rather than just a passing interest like most years for me! :-)
Thanks for watching!
Hi Luke, I once saw the stacking function in ASIAIR Plus video playback mode some times ago but it seems the latest version of ASIAIR has removed it. Do you still have it with your ASIAIR Plus?
Hey there! - The new release can still stack for you, it's been moved slightly IIRC (possibly inside the file browser) and overall improved in functionality, - Really impressive! :-)
Hope that helps!
Which Sky Watcher telescope is that? I have the 150P and am just starting to use it (I typically use a Redcat 51). Which planetary camera are you using? My husband wants to get into planetary imaging and I want to get him a planetary camera for his upcoming birthday. He'll be shooting through a Meade 7" LX200 Maksutov. I have two ASIAIR Plus units so I can have him try it out before getting him one if that's what he wants to go with.
Hey there Cheryl! :-)
The scope is a 250pds and the camera I used was an asi2600mc pro, honestly it's quite a bad fit for planetary though.
If he's going to be using the 7" mak then I'd say a 585 sensor would be a lot of fun, 2.9um pixels will allow him to reach critical sampling ratios with a very moderate Barlow for planetary/lunar work, he could use a ROI crop to achieve very high frame rates too.
It'd also be a lot of fun if he wanted to dabble in some prime focus imaging of brighter & smaller DSO's too such as m13, m57, M27 etc :-)
I hope that's helpful! Your husband is a lucky chap! :-D
Clear skies to you both!
Great video Luke! Are you using an EAF with your ASIAIR or just using the manual focus feature? Thx!
Hey there my friend! I've used it both ways really! :-D focusing with an EAF on the ASIAIR works great, as does using preview mode and a bahtinov mask manually 👍
@@lukomatico thx! I use a tribat first to get the focus knob in the right vicinity of “best focus” and then use the EAF. But when I went to planetary the other night I didn’t have much luck with my EAF. So I had to settle with my own eyesight looking at the blurry video.
Hi Luke. I just bought a Daystar Quark for solar observations. I’m also using the ASIAIR Pro. Do you know if you can apply flats to the stack in the ASIAIR Pro?
Hey Michael! - Congratulations on the Quark! :-) RE: applying flats to video mode stacks, I don't think it's possible unfortunately! could be a good feature request though in the future for ZWO to work on! :-)
Which skywatcher scope and what camera is this? I Pointed my refractor scope at the moon last night and it was a blurry blob. I have a ZWO EAF (auto focuser) and it usually auto calculates stars to focus on deep sky objects so no idea how it works with planets. Maybe it has to be manual focus.
Hey there mate! - This scope was a skywatcher 250pds newtonian reflector, with an aplanatic coma corrector. - the camera was a zwo asi 2600mc pro.
if possible, then focusing manually on the object you are shooting can be best, but if the seeing is particularly bad then it's not always possible - in which case focusing on a star first, then slewing to your target is fine :-)
Hope that helps mate!
Luke, I´ve got another euipment-question... I have the ASIair plus and tried to platesolve with the ZWO224MC camera on the SW130 PDS. Which camera did you use with the scope in this video?
Hey mate! I used the asi2600mc pro, with a region of interest crop to act like a planetary camera 👍
Hope that helps!
@@lukomatico Hi buddy, thank you for this quick reply... Okay, the 2600 does have a much bigger FOV as the 224, so platesolving should work much better... ;-)
Thank you for the good information~
Which camera do you use?
This was the 2600mc pro, hope that helps!
Thanks for watching 👍
Does anyone know if this works in the mini? I tried last night but I do not get the stacking icon when I go to the video in the asiair mini.
Hey mate! I'm not sure this does work on the mini, think it's only on the pro/plus variants, sorry about that!
Thanks Luke! I actually found out how to do it last night! On the mini, press Emmc button and on the bottom it has 4 post stacking options that work with video. Solar surface, lunar surface, Planet, and DSO stacking.!
@@GetawayGreg Excellent to hear it's there Greg!! - That's superb for owners of the Mini and I appreciate you getting back to let me (and anyone else who reads this) know it works! :-D Cheers mate!
Clear skies!
Excellent video, thanks! I just received a ZWO ASI294MC PRO and waiting on the ASIAIR PLUS. Do you have a video on focusing? I’m coming from using a DSLR (& BYEOS), so just starting to learn how to use these dedicated astronomy camera. Thanks again!
Hey Kurt! - Congratulations on your new camera, and soon on your ASIAIR Plus! :-D That's awesome!
RE: Focusing, - I don't have a dedicated video on it yet I'm afraid! - I do tend to always just use autofocus and forget about it, but if I must focus manually I almost certainly will use a bahtinov mask and the "focus" tool on ASIAIR to do so :-)
I'm sorry I couldn't be more help with this one right now mate!
All the best,
Luke
@@lukomatico thanks for your above comments. You did answer my question about focusing, so I’ve ordered a Bahtinov mask. Thanks again!
Nice, thank you
Thank you for watching mate!! :-)
ASI seems to be a sweet little box of tricks, hopefully my Mrs has got me one for Christmas…….probably just socks to be honest 👍🏼😄 decent vid dude enjoyed it 👍🏼👍🏼 merry Christmas dude 👍🏼👍🏼 the hell is that dome on the moon? 👽
Hey dude! - Thanks for watching man, and I think you're bang on the money, it's a right box of tricks! 😀Merry Christmas to you and your family matey!
RE: the moon dome, definitely Elon Musk's super secret moon base haha :D (I wouldn't be surprised at this point!)
curious - I tried this the other night on the moon - the video file did not save anywhere on my device. I noticed later that it saved a video on my phone with the ASIAIR logo and some royalty free music. I did not choose this mode (I do not even see a setting for this). ASI has not responded to this question.
Have you had any issues like this?
Hey Allen! - when you're choosing the capture settings in the video mode module itself, the option of what to 'save as' is there - you'll just need to check the choice of file it's saving is correct for your needs 👍
Hope that helps!
Hi Luke, just stumbled across this video really, which is odd since I am a subscriber. I was actually looking for solar imaging using the ASIAIR. It has been a bright sunny day and I got to thinking, I have a solar filter from another telescope, let's give it a try. So, have you ever tried solar imaging and if so, how did it turn out?
Hey there mate! :-) I've actually not tried solar with the ASIAIR system but I think it will work excellently! The planetary stack feature is a lot of fun! :-)
Good luck if you decide to give it a go, and thank you for your support!
Great Video Luke, I'm amazed how much the ASIAIR can do. Every update just keeps getting better. Keep up the amazing work and keep posting. Before I forget, which Newtonian were you using?
Hey there mate! :-) I'm using a 250PDS, 1200mm focal length
Thank you very much for your kind words by the way! I'll definitely keep going thanks to all the great support and interaction :-D
All the very best,
Luke
Your video exposure controls...is this a feature of ASIAir Plus or a feature of the camera? My ASIAir Pro does not show such controls with ASI 183-MC Pro. Nevermind, I found them lol ( never even knew about the < options. Learn something new everyday.
Hey mate! :-D Ahhh you've got it sorted, nice one! - I hope you have some fun trying all this out :-)
Clear skies!
Excellent session, Luke. Question please: Were you using a tablet to work with your ASIAIR? I'm putting together much simpler gear.... Celestron Evolution 6", ZWO183CM, ASIAIR, EAF and a Samsung Tab S6 Lite 128. I'm hoping to inspire my grandsons with some variation of what you did on your video. I realize that the Evolution alt-az mount will struggle with holding targets for anything longer than a few seconds, and my ASI183MC camera is pretty basic. Thanks for thoughts.
Hey Michael! - I hope you have been keeping well since last we spoke :-)
I was indeed using a tablet for all the ASIAIR work, your galaxy tab will do the job great! :-)
I think the gear you listed here will do a great job for many enjoyable EAA sessions with your grandsons, ASIAIR can also live-stack DSO images, even compensating for field rotation from alt-az mountings - it should be a lot of fun!
Hope that helps you,
All the best,
Luke
@lukomatico Great news.... I'm very glad to hear about the ASIAIR dealing with some alt-az field rotation while stacking images. I've been busy and need to download and print the manuals for my ZWO gear. I'm thinking I need to join the local astronomy club for some one-on-one. Thanks again for your excellent channel and your generous assistance.
How did you polar align and plate solve with the ASIAIR with the large focal length and small FOV required for planetary imaging?
Hey there mate! - I was using a fairly large sensor during this video so I was able to use the wider field of view offered by that to allow easy plate solves, then switch to a crop view to make planetary captures :-) I hope that helps explain it!
I would like to add, I've found the ASIAIR plate solves/polar align routine to the quite robust overall with all sensors I've tested :-)
Thanks for watching!
@@lukomatico Thank you. Which camera did you use and did you use a barlow? I know that a 0.2 degree FOV is required for the AA+ to plate solve and I am trying to get it to work for my much smaller scope than your 250P.
Hey there! - I was using an asi2600mc Pro for this video, and no barlow lens 👍
The 2600 is more of a deepsky camera than a planetary one though of course, if you are mainly interested in planetary then something with a smaller sensor would still be fine and should plate solve without issue, like the IMX585 range just released :-)
How did you polar align and plate solve your telescope with asi air???
It's got an in-built routine for both of those functions 👍 cheers!
What camera did you use in this video?
Asi2600mc pro 👍👍 cheers!
Luke, thanks alot for this video. After watching this, I was sure that I have to get an ASIair myself... Could you please tell me what mount you are using? Look very heavy and sturdy.
Thank you for watching!! I was using a Skywatcher EQ8 mount in this video, it's a very sturdy mount indeed! :-)
Hope that's helpful to you!
Good luck with the asiair if you buy one, they are a really great device 👍
Hi Luke, wow, yeah, that is really a heavyweight... ;-) Thank you for your quick response. :-)
The app seems good enough to stack 1 video into 1 image. How about if you have to do sequences ? either because you're LRGB in mono or because you are capturing a planetary rotation. Can you create a sequence and take x videos of 60s for instance ?
Hey there! I don't believe that's possible yet, perhaps such functionality will be added in the future though!
Hi Luke.
i would like to learn how i live stream the view of my ipad tablet screen when looking at the moon or planets.
i notice that you are able to include the view of your asiair air app in your video.
could you please tell me how to do this ?
if you know of youtube videos that focus on how to do this please share the link.
thank you.
TexAstro 🙂🔭
Hey mate! Re: the overlay, it's a case of using the screen-recording app built into android then overlaying it onto secondary recorded data in video editing software 👍
As to live-streaming your nights, you may be best off using bluestacks on Windows to control asiair from there, then you can livestream everything as you normally would using something like obs 👍
Hope that helps!
Does the air plus have ROI in its planetary capture? This would obviously increase the FPS.
It does indeed 👍
Sorry I couldn’t find which scope you are using?
It's a Skywatcher 250pds my friend, cheers for watching! 👍
How did I miss this video? What was the scope and did you have a Barlow?
Hey Marc! Hope you're well bud :-D
It was a 250pds and no barlow, just the asi2600mc at native FL (1200mm) - cheers!
I am using 8" RC with ×0.75 focal reducer.also asi air plus but Neptune & Uranus never plate solving why? I am using Bin 1 .
Hey Avinasha! It could be either too few stars to plate solve with due to the tight field of view from your richey-chretien, or if the FOV is wide enough then maybe longer exposures are needed to aid plate solving in finding more stars :-)
Clear skies!
@@lukomatico can I use Bin 2
Absolutely fantastic, Luke! I have been following your videos for a while. I am sold on EAA. I think, there are more benefits as compared to limitations. Two questions: (1) Can I accomplish this without purchasing ASI Air Pro? Use live stacking through ASI Live/Studio? I want to understand what is the additional advantage of ASI Air Pro. (2) Can this be accomplished by fully wireless setup so that in winter one can watch live stacking on big screen TV ? Thanks for your quick response in advance. Clear skies!
Hey Vinay! - That's brilliant to hear mate! :-D It's such a fun way to enjoy the night sky, I love EAA in all it's forms!
to answer your question, you absolutely can do EAA via asilive-asistudio, if you want to do PC based EAA though then I'd always recommend Sharpcap personally, ideally with a pro licence too - well worth the cost!
regarding your second question, you can indeed do a fully wireless setup - you may have trouble viewing on your TV unless it's maybe just casted live from your smartphone/tablet app though, but that's a universal issue I guess!
Hope that helps mate! :-)
@@lukomatico Thanks a lot. Your answers are brilliant too!
Luke, What version of firmware is this? I have ASIAIR PLUS version 2.1 10.74 which is the latest version I believe and the stacking feature is not available. (26 October 2023)
OK Found it. Has been moved to Files/Image Management/Post Stacking
Excellent, so glad you've got to the bottom of this and it's good to know!
I'm using V2.1.1 also. I notice the video adjustments now include WB(R) and WB(B). ZWO changes this app on every release. Most of the ASIAir videos now are outdated for details but are still needed because ZWO will not update their user manual.
quick question what mount are you using?
Hey there! I'm using a Skywatcher EQ8 Pro mount :-) hope that helps!
What camera are you using? Also are you using a Barlow? Just curious. I do a lot of DSO, planetary is a different ballgame.
Hey Ron! - this was just captured with my old regular DSO setup, the 2600mc Pro camera and no barlow 👍
Hope that helps!
So you’re telling me I can use my 2600mc pro to do planetary? 🥹
Absolutely Ron! - with a region of interest crop you can get acceptable framerate from it :-)
@@lukomatico wow this makes life so much easier. Thanks man. I very much appreciate your help.
No worries man!! Glad to help :-)
Have zwo removed this feature or am I doing something wrong? I have no option to stack after taking video using either my 178mm or 2600mc
Hey mate! - It should still be available, not sure what's going wrong for you with it unfortunately! could be worth making a fresh video capture or something just to double-check it's not a file issue!
Good luck :-)
Eventually sorted it. The interface has changed since you posted this..
You need to pick the stacking type.. ie planet, lunar, solar... before going into the file selection....
Planets and lunar aren't really my thing, but having this in the app gives people things to try when the weather isn't perfect...
Keep up the good work
@@AndyUkLeic excellent news mate and good on you for sharing the solution!! :-) I'll have to get on with recording newer versions of this kinda thing!
Clear skies 👍👍
Great video Luke! I really enjoyed the on the fly processing. I am hoping that my hints were heard and that I might get the Plus for Xmas. Happy holidays to you!🎄🎅
Fingers crossed for you mate!! I hope you get that Plus for Christmas! :-D
Thank you for watching and happy holidays my friend!!
Which telescope ? Which camera ?
Hey Gunnar! - the scope is a skywatcher 250pds and the camera is an asi2600mc pro, hope that helps
Great video Luke, as always! My wife has bought me the ASIAIR plus for Xmas😀 I watched your vid on a 55” 4K tv and the moon shots in particular looked fantastic mate! Already got the ASIAIR pro, so now need another dedicated Astro camera! Might go mono, but then will have to add the filter wheel and filters to that! What would you suggest as a second camera to my 2600mc pro? Cheers Luke👍
Hey Simon! - Ah that's brilliant mate!! I really do think you'll love it, even given that you have the Pro already! :-) Merry Christmas to you and yours by the way!
As to cameras, that's a tough one!! - If you're wanting to get the best available currently, then it's the 2600mm or 6200mm (same sensor tech, different sizes)
That said, if you're in no rush, it may be worth seeing if anything else is announced in the first quarter of 2022?
It's a toughie!
All the very best, and thank you so much for all the support you've given this year mate, I truly appreciate it :-)
Luke
@@lukomatico Thanks Luke, I’ll wait a bit and see what happen! Happy Christmas to you and Yours😀 And a prosperous new year with plenty of clear skies!
Can I ask something
Please tell me how your mount
Just go to the R A and D
And meanwhile me can't even use Barlow because when I use my target get out of sight
Max mag is 150x
But I didn't go upto 50x
Yet 😭😭. Why why why
It's just down to GoTo and Plate-Solving making the alignments perfect I guess mate! it's a lot easier than having to do it manually :-)
Clear skies!
@@lukomatico oh I see thanks bro
Is stacking available in asiair pro?
It is indeed Greg, I'm sorry about the late reply by the way!