Mesu 200, three month review

[ampleamp]

Suddenly there seems to be more threads on the Mesu, which is good, and I am going to add to them .

Earlier this year I was in the market for an upgraded mount and there was promise of all sorts of choices, some new and still yet to arrive and some well known but very expensive. Ultimately I was left with the usual suspects or Mesu.

I have not done a review of this mount until now as I wanted to be more comfortable about its use, the controls etc. If anyone is interested or missed it, there are some intial thoughts here -

Back in May I collected the Mesu from MA, set it up, looked at at, and virtually didn't touch it again for about six weeks. Like everyone else, Shropshire had more than its share of cloud and rain, and when clear skies were forecast, we always seemed to have high cirrus cloud.

Now that I have been using it, I can say that I am very pleased. It is remarkably easy to use, and just a joy; you can concentrate on having fun which is why we are here?? A quick word on appearance - there have been some comments about its industrial or utilitarian appearance - who cares? I bought this mount for function, not looks, besides, we use these at night.

OK, why is it so good?

Out of the box - once secured to a pier, everything is pre setup by Mesu so there are only a few cables to connect to the ServoCat box.

Capacity - I certainly haven't tested the upper weight range fully, but right now I have a Meade 127 & 80 as well as a guidescope and various cameras/ reducers etc all mounted on ADM bars; total weight 17Kg. It is rated as having a capacity at anywhere from 70-100Kg so plenty room for upgrades in the future (just don't tell my wife). The Mesu easily copes with my current setup, in fact so well, I have this crazy idea to put a C11 on the other end of the dual bar to replace the Meade 80.

Balance - very straight forwards and didn't take any time; a thoughtful addition are two little locking bars that physically stop the mount rotating in RA and Dec when loading up. They are much more secure than the clutches on the EQ6 and allow safe loading, then the addition of counter weights.

Polar Alignment - large solid screw adjusters make PA very easy. The mount does not come with a polar scope and mine is still on order, but hopeful for this week.

Control - One of the reasons for considering the Mesu was the reported ease and accuracy of use. Once you are used to the two handsets, it is; it is just different. Mesu 200 comes with two control handsets (Argo Navis and ServoCat) and there have already been various comments about this. AN is essentially two buttons and a wheel - simple, straight forwards and very intuitive, although there are a lot of menus largely related to function and target lists. The SC is is more like a standard handset in that it has NSEW, slew, fast/slow button and is used for contolling movement of the mount through an attached box (to which AN connects as well). I have used the Mesu through CdC and Ascom, but now I actually prefer the handsets; reason, just as i wanted, ease of use. The SC Ascom driver is available here - http://www.unm.edu/~eschman/ (If you don't read the instructions use COM 1-16!!).

PE - another feature of the design is the very low PE of around 4". If you want more details, have a look at http://www.mesu-optics.nl/mount2_en.html as I took this one as read.

Backlash - err, none. When moving the mount to align you can do this either by slew or just manually pushing; the mount remains exactly there (so long as balance is halfway decent).

Accuracy - After a single star alignment, the mount has never yet failed to put a target on the chip, usually centred. Despite not paying a great deal of attention to PA, native tracking holds it there but I have not let it run any real time preferring to get guiding going.

Guiding - Obviously there is more to guiding than just the mount but I am using 3 second subs, and default settings on Maxim. I have had the flatest graphs I have ever had using the Mesu.

Issues - not many from me. The no-park option doesn't bother me as I only have to walk 20yds to my shed and it is very quick to setup. Any remote operation, as far as it gets for me, is through Teamviewer, however, no-park would definately be a problem for remote imaging. AN and SC are due to have their firmwares upgraded soon and I am happy to wait for them. The polar scope comes seperately and like I said, i still haven't got one, but I haven't really missed it as there are alternatives. You can drift align, or use someting like Alignmaster, but I do prefer a polarscope.

Many say that the most important piece of equipment you can have is your mount and £4500 isn't cheap, but for me this has been one of the better decisions I have made and has significantly improved my enjoyment of astronomy. If you are considering an upgrade, then you will probably have similar decisions to make as me. The usual suspects are excellent, and I did seriously consider them, but at near half the price, similar performance and a European manufacturer, I was prepared to take

the risk. Not once in the last three months have I regretted this purchase.

[ollypenrice]

I agree with every syllable.

Olly

[r3i]

Great review, this mount does appear to be getting a strong foothold in the 'beyond the EQ6' category.

Would be great if you could also do a 6 month and then a 1 year on review etc. etc. as long term satisfaction will be critical when spending such a significant amount of money.

[ncjunk]

very good update

I threw that letter bomb i had ready for Olly away as he was completely right about this mount!

(any uk law enforcement officers reading this then that was a joke...no bombs were harmed in the posting of this reply!)

[ampleamp]

Would be great if you could also do a 6 month and then a 1 year on review etc. etc. as long term satisfaction will be critical when spending such a significant amount of money.

A longer term review at six months will see me well into the winter and hopefully a lot more hours under my belt. Like everything it is practice practice practice ;-))

Hopefully as more user reviews become available, more and more people will gain the confidence to look at Mesu. The relative lack of reviews was certainly a consideration for me, but ultimately you have to make a decision and run with it.

[ollypenrice]

Yves' Mesu has been running at my place since the beginning of January and we do an awful lot of imaging. It hasn't dropped a sub in an absolute age and when it did it was down to cloud.

Is this mount 'beyond EQ6' or 'Beyond Paramount?'

Olly

[Interested]

Nice review.

One question I have: does the mount have a ST4 guide-port? If not, what are people using to guide the mount?

The blurb I have read about the mount doesn't specify a guide-port.

Regards,

Pete

[ncjunk]

Nice review.

One question I have: does the mount have a ST4 guide-port? If not, what are people using to guide the mount?

The blurb I have read about the mount doesn't specify a guide-port.

Regards,

Pete

It has an ST4 guide port labled "Aux/AG" and it works perfectly

[Interested]

It has an ST4 guide port labled "Aux/AG" and it works perfectly

Thanks Neil,

I've promised myself not to upgrade my scopes anymore, but mounts......

Pete

[Jessun]

Thanks for the review. Food for thought....

What connectors do the handsets have? I need 5m to get into the warmth so always make my own longer replacement cables. Fairly standard ones?

[ampleamp]

Jessun,

the ServoCat handset cable is a coiled cable, approx 2m coiled, it looks like a 4 wire cable, you have easy access to this one; the ArgoNavis handset has three seperate bundles of wires, all covered by braid and which splits at a fixed point on the mounts - some wires will go to drive the motors and the others go to and from the AN handset. This cable is approx 2m (after the split) as well and contains connections to the handset for the (1) encoders (8way RJ45 plug from which split two sets of 4ways cables); (2) serial ports (for talking to the ServoCat, and can be used to download new firmware etc) and (3) power.

The attached pictures will maybe explain better than I can, (sorry, they are mobile phone pics so not great)

top of ServoCat box,

bottom of ServoCat box,

top of ArgoNavis handset,

split of main mount cabling,

[Jessun]

Thanks for taking time to answer that. Hmm... standard isn't the first word that springs to mind, but it doesn't look impossible to extend them should that be necessary.

Cheers!

[petek314]

Interesting and informative review. Look forward to results of imaging.

[r3i]

The attached pictures will maybe explain better than I can, (sorry, they are mobile phone pics so not great)

Thanks for the pictures - very interesting. It does look a bit complicated having 2 separate controllers but I would imagine once you start to use it regularly it will all work nicely.

[ampleamp]

Thanks for the pictures - very interesting. It does look a bit complicated having 2 separate controllers but I would imagine once you start to use it regularly it will all work nicely.

really, it is a doddle! Like most things electronic, I know it does soooo much more than what I do with it; but what I do, it does very well and there will be lots of time to explore everything else, this is definitely a keeper.

[fwm891]

Great review - further question (don't think I missed this anywhere!)

Do you need the SC & AN controllers or can the Mesu be run direct from a PC via ascom/EQmod/CdC etc...?

[steppenwolf]

The latest version of the Mesu mount comes with the SiTech Servo II controller and this is fully ASCOM compatible. EQMod only works with SkyWatcher based mounts but as CdC is ASCOM compatible, it works very well with the latest Mesu. I am running the Mesu with CdC as I write this!

[fwm891]

Thanks Steve

[ncjunk]

For ascom only the sitech ii is good enough and has the required functions.

Dont get the servocat fr ascom control its not designed for it.

Sent from my GT-I9003 using Tapatalk 2

[ampleamp]

Hi Francis,

I have connected ascom to the Mesu using AN/SC and it does work, but for the last 9 months+ I have not, simply as I have not seen the need. I like the freedom of not needing a pc to run everything and it really just works, with half decent PA. Like everything it depends on what you want to do; if you are after full pc control then the Sitech is undoubtedly the only choice for you. I don't, i walk the 20yds, open the shed, switch on the mount, align with whatever, and that is it. I like simple and I prefer the pc to be doing other things. I cannot claim Olly's sub rate but for a rank idiot like me, it is remarkable how easy this mount is to use, how it always hits a target after a single alignment and then holds it.

Fourteen months of ownership and loving it, absolutely no regrets about this purchase, or any desire to upgrade.

[kirkster501]

Rebooting this older thread.

Do you guys still need to guide the MESU?

Regarding the discussion about EQmod and Ascom.  Is EQMod just the skywatcher driver that sits between the ASCOM hub and the Mount hardware?  As such a MESU does not need EQmod - is that what's being said here?

[ampleamp]

Hi Steve,

I will answer as best I can. I am in the throws of upgrading my AN/SC Mesu to Sitech Mesu; in fact I got the "it's ready" email this evening.

To answer your first question, yes, I always guided the mount and will continue to do so post upgrade. I suppose with perfect pa and sky models it wouldn't be necessary but it is certainly easier.

Eqmod does NOT work with Mesu. I am yet to get into the Sitech/ASCOM side of the software (the AN/SC Mesu is stand alone) so perhaps someone else will jump in with more info on the software control.

Are you considering a Mesu. I said three years ago this was a keeper, and I don't think any different now.

[ollypenrice]

I guide the Mesu. To be honest I haven't tried it unguided because I tend to do very long subs. When looking for extremely faint objects, like the tail ends of known ones out of shot and of potential mosaic interest, I'll do a five minute sub to see if there's anything there. These seem to look fine but half an hour's half an hour, after all.

Olly

[Singlin]

The Mesu does need to be guided and was not designed to work unguided.

The Sitech controller II hardware and software that is installed on the Mesu is Ascom independant but also fully Ascom combatible

[ncjunk]

I guide it at 4 or 5 seconds using maxim and the scitech ascom driver.

I don't lose subs with this mount any more and have just put then c11 on and it worked perfectly.

The ascom driver is very good.

Lovely mount.

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk