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Dave says"This remarkable device has completely transformed how I do my imaging. It makes it so easy to find, centre, focus and image an object. Polar alignment and auto-guiding are built-in. The price is reasonable too. We truly are living in amazing technological times!"
Dave says
"This remarkable device has completely transformed how I do my imaging. It makes it so easy to find, centre, focus and image an object. Polar alignment and auto-guiding are built-in. The price is reasonable too.
We truly are living in amazing technological times!"
Model: zwo_asiair_plus_256Part Number: ZWO AIRPLUS-256G
Suitable for use with ZWO, Canon, Nikon & Sony cameras.
Please note: From early May onwards, this no longer has the TF card slot shown in the photos and mentioned below. (Most people use a USB drive for expansion if required.)
ASiair Plus Quick Guide pdf
Took the plunge and ordered the Asiair Plus to try and make more effective use of imaging opportunies. After delivery I had a clear night and was amazed at how quickly this setup could acquire targets and be taking guided images.-It almost seems like cheating! The caveat is that it requires 'red' cameras etc to work... As an oldie, I'm looking forward to this new era of imaging from indoors!
I have one running my EQ6-R, EAF, main and guide cameras for nearly 2 years now working perfectly and with very fast image setup.Simplicity and reliability with fantastic results.I love it so much I bought a second one and have it running an AVX mount with a Draco 62 and ZWO 533mc pro. A quick polar allaignment on both rigs and monitoring the image sessions with 2 tablets from the house.It works perfectly at remote location star parties.
Hi, my third Air so I do like them and for the price I think its well worth it, BUT, I recently had problems with one of the USB sockets, it seemed to get a bit loose after maybe 20 sessions. The second unwanted feature that proved quite worrying was seeing the mount head off to the southern skys during several GoTo attempts. SO I would recommend that a/ buy a small USB 3 extension box and stick it on the Air. So I now plug my usb stick into this and so don't stress the other sockets on the Air itself. It cost about £12.00 . Also b/ after a bit of googling I saw the recommendation that after running the Polar align process then shut down Air & mount. Re start mount first followed by the Air - So far had two problem free sessions so looks like its a solution- fingers crossed. The rest works like a dream.
Excellent service and an excellent product thank you
This is my second ASIAIR plus. It really has transformed my efforts at astrophotography and makes life so simple that it almost feels like I’m cheating. The software is moderately easy to get to grips with, but there are a few areas that I took some time to fathom out, for example the menus to adjust the gain and frame rate when taking planetary videos were not easy to find. Well worth exploring the software prior to getting all set up and finding you are wasting precious clear skies. My new gear is all ZWO and as anticipated everything works seamlessly, but it is equally at home with my Skywatcher mount. The fact that it can be controlled with my iPad means I don’t need to worry about power for a laptop, useful when away from mains power. No need to download drivers, it just works.
Not used if fully yet, just playing with the setup and features, but it is a superb bit of kit to automate my astro imaging sessions from my tablet on the warm. Love it. Also, as always great service from First Light Optics.
Just upgraded to this from the first generation AsiAir (will use that for something else later) Here's my thoughts on it, firstly it's worth you knowing the rest of my setup. Mount: EQM35-PRO, Scope: WO SpaceCat 51, Camera: ZWO ASI533MC-Pro, Mini guide scope, ASI290MM guide camera and EAF with temp sensor. We just had two clear nights, so I got to use this setup properly for a couple of long nights. The combination of kits as a whole worked extremely well, and the AsiAir Plus is the brains of the operation. I've added a micro SD card, to store images, so that I don't use the emmc - but there's plenty of room to store lots of sessions worth of data.The Polar alignment is super easy to use, with a full goto mount, it works much better, and can result in very fast accurate polar alignment.Selecting the target couldn't be easier, there's star charting software, which allows you to select the target and command the mount to slew to the location.Platesolving is quick (provided that the camera is in focus, more on that later) and allows the scope to be pointed at the desired tartget extremely accurately.The auto focus routine takes a little while to run, you get to see a nice chart as it's focusing, no need to attach focusing masks. It takes care of it for you, just make sure that the mount does not have lots of backlash in the focusing mechanism.Was running my whole setup, including dew heaters for about 6 hours at a time, and on my 500Wh battery, it looks like I'll be able to get about 3 complete nights of use from a single charge. So it's extremely power efficient.Finally to add to the fun, there's a setting that allows the AsiAir to connect to my home network, so once, the polar alignment is completed, I can go inside where it's warm, and control everything in confort, With the temperature sensor, the AsiAir, will refocus the scope when it needs to as the temperature drops, and as the night progresses. And of course, I can connect to the AsiAir from my PC, to download the subframes over the wifi.This is as close to a dream setup as I think you'll get for a long time to come.
FLO have done it again. Super fast in answering questions and super fast with delivery. Astrophotography is such a complex subject with all the new terminology, software and hardware, why when i have a reasonable grasp of NINA to i invest in something new. Answer...because the ASI Air plus is an amazing piece of kit. Like most GUI it takes time to figure what does what but with some perseverance its well worth the change. The biggest advantage of moving to this compact device is that i can control my rig via wifi in the warm. If you are wondering to invest in a brilliant piece of kit i would say, go for it
I have brought all my astro kit from flo and never disappointed with my purchases. The asiair has made locating and photographing so much easier. My kit was all connected up to a pc before and had so many problems. They have all gone since using asiair.