philon

No, the pointed out Geoptik AERTHA is NO Triangulum!!! The thread is about the Triangulum, which is a DUAL-AXIS EQ-Platform. We should not compare apples with oranges here. I would have bought the TEPP, if it was not so heavy (30 kg!). Unfortunately, the buyer stopped selling it for now and also his domain. The Geoptik AERTHA has almost nothing in common except the flexible altitude design with the Triangulum. I owned one and tested it thoroughly with my 16-inch Dobson. I but selled it because of various reasons: No Declination axis at all and no ST4 Port (due to no high level drive unit) Instead, a very simple Ardunino-based manually speed correction. This 1$ "drive-unit" went into smoke, when I accidentally slipped the platform and thereby inducting current through the motor. This could nowadays easily be prevented with a little circuit under the stepper driver. Support helped due to guarantee, but it was really avooidable. No good quality of the whole Electronics (see 2., cables went loose, cheep construction and not reliable for the long run) NO ENDSTOP at all for the RA axis !!! Not precise and very slippery belt drive construction (I always had trouble and in the end put a 3D printed array on the part). It uses a very cheap planetary gear with a lot of backslash. Not usable for higher altitudes (I live in southern Germany around 49 degrees north). The two base rings only had a distance of around 20 cm, so the whole construction went nuts, the instrument wobbled around 2-4 mm (!!!) in altitude. I had to manually fix the South Pole with special construction (see https://www.astrotreff.de/forum/index.php?thread/267791-massive-eq-platform-geoptik-aertha-polhöhe-verstellbar-30-60-800-fp/) Then the platform was then usable at least for my geographic location. Very high center of gravity (no good stability) Altitude knobs can not be used without tools and not from above, which is very impractical in the field. The platform is very heavy Unfortunately, I can not recommend the AERTHA platform for higher altitudes than 40 degrees at all – it will be not stable enough for a dobsonian. Would I buy it again: no. Sorry to say. I now own a very simple, used EQ-platform from Dieter Martini made of wood – at least with an end stop. It is very strong, very light (1,5 KG) and simple. I am planing to build a dual axis platform by myself in the future, if not a newer, lighter and more affordable TEPP-like EQ will come into place. Cheers Axel

Hi, look at facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stellarmate and Twitter: Despite this looks very good, I am a little bit disappointed, that stellarmate is sticking with Rasperry-PI hardware only. There are much more powerful alternatives out there (for e.g. using firecapture ...). Cheers, Axel

Very old but very actual ... finally found something web based https://www.clearskyinstitute.com/fits/fits.html works offli e too 😀