Chris

It will be interesting to see which scopes appear on these mounts. I'm certainly more than tempted by a couple of recent releases including this one, but I'm sitting on my money for a week or two to make absolutely sure. Are @FLO going to keep the AZ-GTI as a mount option only? or bundle it with different OTA's as with other AZ goto's? It would be interesting to hear what OTA's people think would suit this mount? Even if the scope was a separate purchase. I've been following the Wifi tech for some time, but was priced out with the Celestron Evo, heard not so great things regarding the Celestron Astro Fi but it was my kind of price bracket (was very close to buying one of these), now here is Skywatchers version at an affordable price also. I really hope the Wifi is stable, and there are no/or few sticking/un-responsive/miss behaving app issues, as I (as I'm sure a lot of people) really want this tech to succeed, fingers crossed!

Hmm? I honestly don't know, I just set my camera and lens to manual and focus to infinity on bulb mode and ISO800. It's been a while now though.

I might have to give that one a bit of a Google! You'll need a decent LP filter at f/2 unless at a dark site. We're veering off topic I've just realised, sorry, back to the AZ-GTI

Absolutely, if people want to do this with a very fast f/2 lens, indeed why not, might be interesting Edit: just thought, there aren't many very fast lenses around that you can have wide open at f/2 without big issues with star shapes off axis. That could be a problem. I have some very nice prime lenses, but when imaging I stop down to about f/5.6 to get good corner stars.

One of the scopes this mount is bundled with is a 130p, so it should be spot on.

You'd be better off with the SA then, as it's equatorial and won't have the field rotation present in long exposures. The new AZ-gti looks really good apart from a couple of reports concerning twist in the tripod head, but it strikes me more as a grab and go mount for visual and short exposure imaging of planets, moon, and Sun rather than a deep sky AP mount

Wow really, are you sure they were serious?

Only short exposures are required for solar, lunar, and planetary imaging, so either mount would be fine. You obviously don't need the goto feature to find these objects, so the AZ-gti Wifi goto might be overkill.

Only the Goto feature, but for long exposures the AZ would have field rotation so wouldn't out weigh the benefit of the SA being an equatorial mount.

It could be one of those mini bottles of wine, like i sometimes buy because I'm a light weight

Looking at a couple of different retailers; the bundled scopes seem to be the Skymax 102, 127, and the 130ps Newt (not sure how the ps differs from the p other than it looks like you can't collimate the primary). So no refactor package like with the Pronto or AZ5 have? I know you can just use whatever sub 5kg scope you like, just seems weird having a frac bundle with the other new AZ's but not this one? Is anyone else thinking the pier looks like a handy place to grab the mount by when carrying

I like how the scope attaches to the outside of the L-shape rather than the inside of the L-shape as per previous AZ Goto's. The bonus being the scope/eyepiece/camera won't bottom out on the mount! (obviously at the slight expense of not keeping the scope over the centre of gravity, but it should be fine forthe light scopes it's designed for. Also like the sound of Freedom find combined with Wifi and optional good old controller. These could be very popular if the App works well, and the wifi is stable

I see Skywatcher have also released an AZ-GTI Wifi mount based on the same pier and tripod. @FLO Will you be stocking this mount also? I've been following the Wifi tech since the Celestron Evo was released, but always hear mixed reviews regarding Goto via a tablet so can't make up my mind about it. https://www.harrisontelescopes.co.uk/acatalog/sky-watcher-az-gti-mount.html#SID=568

It's food for thought if you say it is, Brian. though I remember my Meade 80 triplet seemed to show a slightly more 'magical' views than the Skywatcher ED80, and by magical I mean slightly more speck like stars on an even darker contrasty looking background. I think I sold it due to the weight of the thing and nothing else, blimming heavy for an 80mm but the views were simply lovely. Never looked through a quad but if it's like the triplet with a flat field I could imagine it to be pretty special if well collimated.

My bad

It has as well! Did you buy it, Bryan? the above slightly implies it, maybe?

Just checking, but you do know he was joking about the AZ4 right? Well at least I think he was, that's how I took it lol

Yeah something like a G11 would set it off nicely I reckon

Just checked and a C11 is 12.5kg so 14kg is one massive 5" refractor. I'm guessing there is a lot of metal in the cell for 4 x 5" elements, big focuser too!

Well that rules out me even if the decimal does slip to the left, think it might be too much for my EQ3 with single counter weight 14kg, doesn't a C11 weight about that!

Haha! If you move the decimal place once more to the left I might afford it It sure is a pretty scope though

I've not seen one of these before: http://ensoptical.co.uk/apm-130mm-quad

Jobs a gooden!

Great looking setup, Jules. I'll have to have a closer look at the Star discovery mount, do you know if it remembers date and time info? i.e. internal clock?

I knew it! Lovely, you'll enjoy that