Equatorial Mount Recommendations..

[J_M_Franklin]

Hi all, as i intend some upgrades in the New year I have decided that my LX90 needs a new mount as the standard Alt/Az that comes with it is simply not up to the standard I need to get back into imaging.... The drives have way too much slack in them..and boy are they noisy..I have a large field tripod and could add a decent wedge to it....but I am thinking that a whole upgrade is on the cards...

I have had a look at a few,

• Skywatcher AZ EQ6-GT GEQ & Alt-Az Mount
  
• Losmandy GM 8
  
• Celestron CGEM GOTO
  

I see all three of these as premium mounts for the price range involved without getting silly. I have used a Losmandy in the states many years ago, before GOTO but with drive and tracking....that was a very special mount indeed.

I know that two of the mounts can be sourced from FLO, but FLO are not a distributor/retailer of Losmandy so i do not know what insight anyone here is able to give.

I have seen the comments about the new Skywatcher mount and am impressed, but if it has some software foibles then that flags up reservations for me. I understand things do not always go right, but the software side is one i would expect to get right when the app on my phone does it better for 63p..although i accept they are attempting to redress this..However they are charging a lot of money for this drive and it should not be on sale to the public with such obvious deficiencies in the control software..in my humble opinion anyway.

I would appreciate honest comments as I will be making the purchase around the end of January and want to get as much information together as possible.

It would be good if i could "rent" all three mounts for a month to run on the fly comparisons, but i know that is not possible.

[ollypenrice]

The Losmandy GM8 is not remotely a premium mount in my book (other than by price!) and I'd rather have an NEQ6. Unless you want to pay for a premium mount (Losmandy G11, Mesu Mount 200 and up) I'd go for the NEQ6.

Olly

[VigdisVZ]

As I've understood it the NEQ-6 is to prefer over the CGEM due to being slightly easier to transport (and slightly cheaper).

With that being said, I am super happy with the NEQ-6 and so are quite a few of my buddies in the astronomy club.

[J_M_Franklin]

The Losmandy GM8 is not remotely a premium mount in my book (other than by price!) and I'd rather have an NEQ6. Unless you want to pay for a premium mount (Losmandy G11, Mesu Mount 200 and up) I'd go for the NEQ6.

Olly

Come on Olly, you can't wave a carrot and then leave it at that...do you want to give some practical reasons why you feel the Losmandy is overpriced and not up to par..

[perfrej]

I can concurr with Olly. I checked it out when I was shopping around for an NEQ6 replacement (upwards). Even the dealer in question said that it is no good. Actually, my conclusion was that both the 8 and the 11 where outdated. If you want to get above the NEQ6 there is the MESU 200 (if you don't need to remote your observatory), the 10Micron GM1000HPS (would be my choice) and the ASA. Ig those are on the pricy side, NEQ6 is the norm and works very well with a few tweaks. It is also a safe bet in that it has the largest community support, both hardware, software and modifications, of all mounts on the market.

I have obtained excellent results with my old NEQ6 after I changed all the bearings to SKF ones and did a careful re-assembly with care. My next step was 10Micron GM2000HPS and that I do not regret!

/per

[ollypenrice]

Come on Olly, you can't wave a carrot and then leave it at that...do you want to give some practical reasons why you feel the Losmandy is overpriced and not up to par..

Yes, OK. I've seen two here and neither guest was satisfied with their GM8. One, an engineer, had entirely rebuilt his and still found it indifferent. The motors seemed like an afterthought and could be the first thing to collide when past the Meridian. There was very significant play in the dec drive of the other. Tracking was unremarkable in both. The design is very long in the tooth and doesn't, in my view, make sense at the price.

The trouble is that, ordinary as they are, the HEQ and NEQ are proving hard to beat even when those trying to do so allow themselves a significantly bigger budget. Having tried an iOptron 45 for a good while I can see that it scores on portability, setup time and GoTo precision but there are some question marks over the design. The spring loaded mesh is not totally convincing and the worms are too exposed to contaminants for my liking. You can actually see them if you pull back on the motor. The Vixen Sphinx has had a chequered history, to say the least, with software issues plaguing good mechanical construction. Given that 'Sphinx' might well describe Vixen's customer service department (if they have one) then I wouldn't go in that direction.

I went for a Tak EM200 and even that gave me gyp to start with, though it is now pretty good. For the price it should be better, though. Latest Tak mount prices are insane. Later editions of the G11 seem reliable and accurate though again the design is very old and needs refreshing. However, we are no longer anywhere near the HEQ/NEQ budget.

What we need is for Lucas Mesu to turn his attention to a small mount but as mass production is not his field, so far as I know, then this may not happen. His roller drive Mesu Mount 200 has put a huge bomb under the £4000 plus market, though. It is the most painless, simple, reliable and consitent mount I've ever personally seen or used.

What has happened to the promising small GEM from Astrotrac? They seem like good engineers.

Olly

PS, Synta could surely boost the precision of their engineering, use better materials, get the PE down to about a quarter of its present value and the QC consistent and charge about £2K or less for a Super NEQ6. This, though, would probably have descructive marketing implications since it would be an admission the the standard ones could be better. The NEQ6 is a cheap rip off of the Tak EM200 design. A slightly less cheap version could be just the mount we all want.

[r3i]

Hi all, as i intend some upgrades in the New year I have decided that my LX90 needs a new mount as the standard Alt/Az that comes with it is simply not up to the standard I need to get back into imaging.... The drives have way too much slack in them..and boy are they noisy..I have a large field tripod and could add a decent wedge to it....but I am thinking that a whole upgrade is on the cards...

I used to have an 8" LX90 and encountered similar problems when trying to do imaging with it on a wedge. Finally conceded defeat and as a first stage in my gear upgrade I got an NEQ6 - I de-forked the LX90, which was suprisingly easy and fitted a Losmandy dovetail rail on it. Worked quite nicely.

At the price point you're looking at, the NEQ6 is hard to beat.

[Velvet]

I can only go on experience and I would recommend NEQ6 any day for imaging, around that sort of price. Higher prices, someone

else would have to comment as I have no experience with those

velvet

[J_M_Franklin]

Per / Olly, many thanks for the explanations, that makes a world of difference, personal experience trumps marketing blurb anytime...having now read many reviews of the Mesu 200 I can understand what the hype is about, but at more than £4K it is not economically feasible, if it was around the £2K then it would be feasible...The 10 Micron Mount and the ASA mount are simply silly money at this time and way out of my budget, that would seriously impact other projects and thus not even worth consideration...

If I had the time, and a workshop, I would build one myself for the kind of money being asked for commercial offerings, I have the equipment to forge and stamp Aluminium and some alloys, a couple of years back i experimented and made myself an alloy out of 15% Copper, 3% Chromium, 3% Nickel and 79% Aluminium that, when hot, could be forged or stamped into any shape I wanted, did not weight a great deal and yet had serious strength when it was cooled in water, heated to around 400°C and quenched again about 4 times...

When i build my house in a few years i shall have a fully functional workshop with a smelter, furnace etc etc, but until then i have to limit my budgets for projects to stay on track with both the House and the 20" Nasmyth I will build, bearing in mind i am allocating a significant chunk of money to building an observatory in the grounds of the house to house the telescope.

I think based on your comments, and the reviews, despite the software glitches that have been highlighted, it would appear the mount I will go for will be the Skywatcher AL EQ 6GT as that would appear to be a quality mount at a reasonable and sensible price for the product you get.

[r3i]

When i build my house in a few years i shall have a fully functional workshop with a smelter, furnace etc etc, but until then i have to limit my budgets for projects to stay on track with both the House and the 20" Nasmyth I will build, bearing in mind i am allocating a significant chunk of money to building an observatory in the grounds of the house to house the telescope.

That sounds like a fantastic project - I hope you'll be able to report on the build progress of both the scope and observatory on this forum when the time comes.

[ollypenrice]

If you're a good engineer, and it seems that you are, then fine tuning an NEQ6 will be child's play for you.

Can I just say something about the word 'hype' as used of the Mesu, though? The term came into being to describe advetising and marketing which greatly exaggerated the virtures of the product in question. (Perhaps the most astonishng Hype in history concerns Dan Brown's risible, idiotic and abominably written book The DaVinci Code!!) Now in fairness to Lucas Mesu his website does exactly the opposite of this. There is a frank and scholarly discussion of the merits and demerits of different drives and his claimed PE is consitently what his customers find their mounts to deliver. It would be a shame if 'hype' came to mean enthusiastic but accurate reviewing.

Olly

[J_M_Franklin]

If you're a good engineer, and it seems that you are, then fine tuning an NEQ6 will be child's play for you.

Can I just say something about the word 'hype' as used of the Mesu, though? The term came into being to describe advetising and marketing which greatly exaggerated the virtures of the product in question. (Perhaps the most astonishng Hype in history concerns Dan Brown's risible, idiotic and abominably written book The DaVinci Code!!) Now in fairness to Lucas Mesu his website does exactly the opposite of this. There is a frank and scholarly discussion of the merits and demerits of different drives and his claimed PE is consitently what his customers find their mounts to deliver. It would be a shame if 'hype' came to mean enthusiastic but accurate reviewing.

Olly

Fair comment Olly, I have read the website this morning, and dowloaded the drive software as it uses Ascom controllers, (I want to play with it a bit) and i will accept that there is no marketing blurb at all on their site, it is rather cold, analytical and to the point...just as it should be on such products to be honest. My use of the word hype in my earlier post was a little unfair in it's meaning...

[VigdisVZ]

(Perhaps the most astonishng Hype in history concerns Dan Brown's risible, idiotic and abominably written book The DaVinci Code!!)

Yep, he takes the most awesome conspiracy concepts and turn them into dull novels.

[dph1nm]

What has happened to the promising small GEM from Astrotrac? They seem like good engineers.

Good question. I had a chat with Richard from Astrotrac a few months ago, trying to convince him that worm+gears were outdated and that there was a gap in the market for a decent 2k mount. I seem to remember that he basically said he knew and they were working on it, but I haven't heard anything since.

NigelM

[ollypenrice]

Good question. I had a chat with Richard from Astrotrac a few months ago, trying to convince him that worm+gears were outdated and that there was a gap in the market for a decent 2k mount. I seem to remember that he basically said he knew and they were working on it, but I haven't heard anything since.

NigelM

Great. Let's hope something comes of this.

Olly