Best manual mount for Celestron 8SE?

[jonathan]

Just wondering if anyone uses a non-goto, non-powered mount with an SCT of this size (8"), and what would be the smallest advisable in terms of Alt-Az or EQ?

As I already have an NEQ6 if I can get just a mount that would fit the tripod that should save me some money.

[ollypenrice]

I suppose the reason people tend not to use undriven mounts with SCTs will be the long FL which will need lots of hand tracking to hold the object in view. We have a 20 inch Dob of that FL and tend to stick to around 80x, except on special occasions, for this very reason.

If Alt Az I'd certainly want slow-mo controls, not a simple push-to. In EQ I'd have thought the EQ5 would be very marginal.

Olly

[Ludd]

I regularly use my 8SE scope on a Vixen GP mount - it's certainly a lot more solid than the SE mount. I usually run an old Skysensor drive to track, as the 2 metre focal length makes tracking by hand a chore.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I have a GP mount which was sold with my C8. It is very solid, and has no problems even at 250x + magnification. The single axis motor drive is sufficient to keep things in the FOV even with fairly cavalier aiming of the polar axis. I actually prefer star hopping with an EQ mount.

[jonathan]

Thanks for the replies. I'm just wondering about something I can easily slew by hand like I do with the ST80 on EQ1, I find that I see a lot more when I don't have to fiddle around with precise polar alignment (still not sure if I've ever got this right with the NEQ6) or hand controls, batteries, goto alignment, etc.

[johninderby]

Skytee 2 Alt-Az mount. Has slo-motion controls and will handle a C11 let alone a C8.

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/alt-azimuth/skywatcher-skytee-2-alt-azimuth-mount.html

John

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Thanks for the replies. I'm just wondering about something I can easily slew by hand like I do with the ST80 on EQ1, I find that I see a lot more when I don't have to fiddle around with precise polar alignment (still not sure if I've ever got this right with the NEQ6) or hand controls, batteries, goto alignment, etc.

As I said, precise polar alignment is not really needed for visual work. I have the mount set to 53 deg latitude, set it up level, and point the polar axis north. I then uncouple the clutches to manually slew to the right spot, put the clutches back on, and use the motor fine controls on the RA axis and manual fine control on the declination axis.

The motor takes 6 C-cells in a compact battery pack, but if they fail, you can use the mount fully manually. I now use a Skywatcher powertank, which has yet to require topping up. Though the mount can easily be used manually (which I had to do last summer, when the hand controller failed), I find it very convenient that anything I get in the FOV stays put without me having to nudge the scope continuously (even through the good slow-motion control of the mount). This means I can focus on observing. With the little 80mm I had on the GP mount in France, manual tracking was tolerable. With the smaller FOV of the C8, it was a real pain.

I only align on Polaris for planetary photography. The built-in polar scope of the GP mount makes that a 2-3 min job to get Polaris on the cross hairs (good enough for planetary photography), a minute or two more if I first want to set hour angle right and get Polaris in the little circle. I only do the latter for long exposure work (which I have not done in quite a while).

[jonathan]

So when I use my EQ1 I just tend to do what you do, I plonk it down level and aim the mount at the point in the tree line which points magnetic South. I don't tend to bother setting or reading the RA or DEC co-ordinates on the mount.

Could I just do the same with my NEQ6 then? That would probably improve my confidence and enjoyment, take away some of the stress knowing that it doesn't really matter if it isn't precisely aligned.

If I wanted to do some imaging then I would just have to get to grips with precise alignment, I suppose.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

So when I use my EQ1 I just tend to do what you do, I plonk it down level and aim the mount at the point in the tree line which points magnetic South. I don't tend to bother setting or reading the RA or DEC co-ordinates on the mount.

Could I just do the same with my NEQ6 then? That would probably improve my confidence and enjoyment, take away some of the stress knowing that it doesn't really matter if it isn't precisely aligned.

.....

I do not see why you could not use the NEQ6 that way. I used the mount of Olly's TEC 140 for some visual work in much the same way, just release the clutches and hang the setting circles . Motor controls are fine for slow-mo, but for quickly slewing to the right spot, just do it manually, and don't faff around with goto if you know your way around the sky anyway.