Mount Advice

[junior]

Well I am considering taking the plunge and upgrading my scope (a little birthday treat). I have decided to possibly buy a 2nd hand 6SE off of another member on this forum.

However this would only be the OTA as the mount has already been sold.

Can anyone recommend a good mount for this scope?

I am tempted to save and get a new First Light Optics - Celestron Nexstar SE Mount & Tripod

for the scope as the goto capability appeals to me. I also need something that will be able to track a target so that i can get more use out of my SPC880.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[russ]

For the same price you could go for the EQ5 Pro Synscan or Celestron CG5 GT. Both are EQ style mounts and provide a more sturdy platform for the C6. But they will be less portable than the SE mount.

Or better still look for a secondhand HEQ5 Pro which sell for roughly the same money.

All those options have Goto but the HEQ5 will give you more upgrade options down the road should you decide on a bigger scope.

[junior]

I have no experience of any of these mounts and am a bit hesitant when it comes to the equitorial mounts and setting them up, I dont want to get one and be put off by the setting up of the mount.

Is this something others have experienced or is it simple to set up and get going?

[Demonperformer]

Junior

I have a 6SE.

It depends really on what you want to achieve. If you are mainly interested in 'visual', the SE mount will be great. Simple to use, portable, matches the scope perfectly.

However, if you are interested in imaging, the SE mount (being alt-az) is severely limited, particularly in view of the slow (f/10) scope, and you would be much better off going for one of the EQ mounts Russ mentioned. If your only photographic interest is lunar/planets, the SE mount with a webcam will be fine.

Are there any members near to you who you could meet up with and get a 'tutorial' on setting up an EQ mount? I agree they are daunting, but the rewards (photographically) would be equally as great.

HTH

[russ]

Totally understand you being hesitant. My CG5 gets almost no use, once or twice a year at best. I prefer a simple AltAz mount with no motors, no electrics, no wires and no Goto. If i had the SE it would probably share a similar fate as the CG5.....i simply couldn't be bothered to hook it up and align.

But John is right. If it's only visual and planetary imaging, the SE will be just fine. But it may limit your future upgrade path (bigger scope or deepsky imaging).

[junior]

Many thanks

As much as in the future i would love to do some deep sky imaging i will be realistic and admit i dont think i could ever afford it to be able to do it justice.

I think i will be going for a normal SE mount either new or second hand so if anyone has a one available then im sure we could come to an agreement

[johninderby]

I agree with the above comments.The SE 6/8 mount is a very good Alt-Az mount, just so long as you don't try to put too big an OTA on to it. Capable of doing some lunar / planetary / solar imaging. However forget about DSOs. For that you'll need an EQ mount.

I too like the simplicity of an Alt-Az manual mount.

John

[Demonperformer]

You probably already know this, but just in case, there are two different SE mounts, the bigger one is for the 6" & 8" models. If you buy second hand, don't get one of the smaller ones (for the 5") as I suspect it will not cope.

[Astro Imp]

Hi,

Don't know if this is of any interest Astro Buy and Sell

You would need to check if it is the haevier duty model.

[junior]

Thank you for the post Astro Imp will wait and see what money i get for my Birthday on Monday and see what sort of budget i have.

Many thanks