pete_l

Many people consider this part of Andalucia to be a desert, now. In general we get something over 200 clear days a year, 230-250 being the norm. (Although the last few days have been cloudy, it even rained today!) Though when you factor in the Moonlit nights, the number of observing opportunities drops considerably. (cue cries of sympathy .... ) When I lived in the S.E. UK I used to average about 17 observing sessions a year. Due to weather, work, family and social events. I expect that skiers in Abu Dhabi have it even worse than astronomers in the UK

When drawing how many Amps? If you just measure the voltage at the remote end without a load in place, the reading will not be any different than at the supply. You need to know what the maximum instantaneous current will be when all your kit is connected. Then ascertain what the supply voltage is at that instant. IME very many mysterious problems that people experience with their astronomy kit is due to dodgy power from supplies that drop to below the minimum required. Even if that drop is only for a few milliseconds, for example when the motors on the mount both start up and both take a switch-on surge current. That's the real test!

I would place just as much emphasis on the vendor as the brand, since most products are available from many sellers. I have a refractor made by Skywatcher, an SCT from Celestron, an ETX125 from Meade and a GSO rebadged dob from TS.

I do wonder what equipment all these youtubers (not just the astronomy ones) would own if they had paid for it with their own money. Ultimately those are the only reviews / promotions I consider valid..

One thing to remember is that the 300 dpi "rule" is from the days of glossy magazines. And really only applied to those sorts of people who listen to HiFi's in order to try and discern the hiss, crackles, pops and other faults. Consider the resolution of your monitor. Even a large one (70cm across, not diagonal) gives a perfectly acceptable resolution at 1920 pixels per line. That is 70 DPI. The reason is that the larger a screen is or the larger a print, the further away a person views it from. I get poster size photos printed at 100 DPI and they come out as good as I would ever wish for. It may well be that if a person scrutinised one from right up close, they might see a little pixelation, but nobody ever does

Probably because the Pi4 requires a heatsink. That large chunk of metal can reduce the WiFi signal, depending on the type of heatsink used. For reasons of quietness and reliability I prefer passive heatsinks - no fans. However ones that completely cover the Pi4 board, like this one that cover both the top and the bottom make the onboard WiFi unusable. I have 3 Pi4's. One with a fan assisted stick-on heatsink in a plastic case and two with this sort of passive radiator. The plastic cased one makes too much noise. It was fine when new, but after a few weeks became noisy. The other two are great (apart from having no external points to fix the Pi4 to anything) but in effect have no WiFi. I would imagine the same applies to the onboard BlueTooth, although I have no use for that.

You will find that any of those mounts you listed will carry a 12.7kg payload such as an Edge-11, and they will all give you a similar experience for tracking, guiding, pointing accuracy. I understand you are concerned about reliability. Though personally I do not think that one bad experience should rule-out half the world's telescope mounts. On the internet, everyone publicises the problems they have and repeats third-hand stories no matter how old they are. But nobody ever posts to say that their equipment simply works as it should. So if you believed even a small amount of the stuff that is posted, you'd never buy anything. However, what I would say is that much of your bad experience would be due to the company you bought from, as much as the manufacturer. So as well as considering what mount to buy, an equally important point would be the reputation of the seller. Using that principle myself, there is one brand you have mentioned that gave me a terrible time. Simply because once the dealer had my money they simply weren't interested in providing assistance. But that was in England and it was long ago! The other aspects I would give consideration to would be how any of those mounts will integrate with your other equipment? Can you use the mount control software you prefer? Is there an active user community? Are you tied in to buying expensive accessories from just a single source with a limited range?

Since you already own the equipment you lose nothing by trying it out and relying on your own judgement as to whether it gives pleasing images. So at this time, I'd give it try.

Look at the images you have taken. Critically assess them and think about which aspects could be made better. Choose a new scope that fixes those shortcomings.

Yes. If you want to balance the mount then the centre of gravity should be along the axis of the mount. Traditionally the finder is offset in order to make it easier to look through. However if I was using the finder as a guide scope then I would put it directly above the mounting plate. You could always add another "shoe" if you will later require a guider or red-dot finder for visual use.

I use my ED80 with the 0.85 reducer corrector and an 1100D DSLR. So the reduced image size is 22x15mm. That gives a diagonal of 26.7mm. So the unreduced, image circle is at least 31.4mm HTH

I am aware of that. Just trying to get a handle on how much extra work and money is needed. Presumably a user also needs to obtain the correct adapter between mount and tripod/pier? Neither of these mounts appears to be "oven ready"

So to turn this into a usable piece of kit, the owner has to provide a tripod/pier, counterweights and a controller. Is that correct? What about a power supply. I see no mention of that on the product website. Does it come with the mount or is it an extra?

It appeared on CN a week ago with some test images. A couple of Italian sellers have it on pre-order, but with no price shown. They reckon available in October.

If you create a vacuum, would you have problems with heat dissipation? No air means no heat loss through convection.