nexstar 8se - replacing the mount

[J0athan]

Hi all, I absolutely love my 8se put I feel the weak point is the mount & tripod. Vibration when focusing, and if nudged. I have vibration pads, and a weight added to the tripod, but still the stability isn't how I would like it. At the moment I am purely a visual astronomer, so what replacement mount would people recommend?

[Gazabone]

Celestron AVX will be fine for visual but an eq mount is more hassle to set up than your alt az. If your happy to spend more then the new generation of eq/altaz mounts seem to be getting the thumbs up from the community in general but I've not used one so can't really comment.

[Pig]

The only mount I have used that steadies the SCT's are the fork type that support it on both sides. It is attributed to the high power narrow field of view that exaggerates any movement with SCT's.

My Giro mount is extremely steady with refractors but as soon as I mount my 150mm SCT I get slight vibrations when focusing.

[Peter Drew]

The 8se OTA sits quite well on a Vixen GP mount. 

[melsmore]

My C8 works very well on a Vixen GPD2

[strutsinaction]

My 8SE works very well on my Avalon Linear. Great for visual. All I had to do was replace the Vixen dovetail with a Losmandy dovetail.

Regards

John

[J0athan]

hmm thanks all. 

I have looked at the azeq-6 and azeq-5, and they do look very interesting. Not sure which would be more suitable? Haven't seem many azeq5 user reports yet either...

Celestron AVX is definitely on my possible list, looks good, but switching to an eq mount makes the setup a little more complex.

An Avalon Linear looks amazing but is probably a bit rich for me, maybe the M-Uno: eq & Az!? One can dream  

I do wonder if the upgrade to the Losmandy dovetail is a key part of the answer though.

[Marki]

I used my old 8SE tube with both the EQ5 and AZEQ6 (in EQ mode), It was pretty heavy for the EQ5, but the AZEQ6 held it perfectly.

[strutsinaction]

hmm thanks all.

I do wonder if the upgrade to the Losmandy dovetail is a key part of the answer though.

Alternatively, a Vixen/Losmandy adapter, to avoid having to replace your dovetail:

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/adm-losmandy-type-d-series/adm-losmandy-to-vixen-adapter.html

Some mounts even have a dual fit saddle so you wouldn't need to change dovetail e.g. AZEQ6.

Regards

John

[J0athan]

The adapter is more expensive than replacing the dovetail! 

AZEQ6 versus AVX looks like the current shoot out. Obviously the azeq is considerably more expensive, but offering me the alt-az, which seems really cool.

I did wonder about the ioptron mounts as an alternative, do people have much experience with ieq45-az?