vixen polarie mount is it better than astro track?

[Daniel-K]

i have been looking at the new vixen polarie mount and for the price it seems a cracker but it does what the astro track mounts do but at half the price i have seen the reviews and there very good just woundering if any one has any comments on this mount

[garethmob]

There's some photos in the dso area taken with it. And I had a thread about all the different types of mount out at present. The only thing the at wins is the guiding port but I don't know of that makes a difference

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[ollypenrice]

Doesn't the Polarie have a very limited payload and as yet no polarscope? Not knocking it. Madjohn's images say it all.

Olly

[Psychobilly]

It has its own (relatively expensive) polarscope available as an accessory- I thought I read somewhere that there may be an adaptor made to use the cheaper Skywatcher Polarscopes...

Peter...

[E621Keith]

The main advantage of Astrotrac is the screw drive mechanism. It gets the PE down to a very low level, because it acts as a giant worm wheel. The Astrotrac can handle a small APO in addition to telephoto lens.

Polarie is designed for DSLR imaging with a short lens. It's drive mechanism won't be as accurate as an astrotrac. The load capacity is also much smaller. Vixen have the GP photoguider for heavier loads.

[JB80]

Just curious but I'm sure I read that it was going to be shown at Astrofest with stock arriving in Februrary.

Any ideas of who will be stocking them either in the UK or Europe?

Edit: OK Astronomia have them in stock.

[callump]

Yes, it was at Astrofest.

I think Astronomia and Widescreen had them on their stands.

You can see a demo of the Polarie made at Astrofest on YouTube

Callum

[E621Keith]

I think Widescreen Centre have them too.

[JB80]

Cheers for the vid link.

I suppose they would both deviler to the continent if asked nicely. I guess if there is some demand others might follow.

[MjrTom]

Yeah it comes down to weight capacity more than anything.

Gain Lee uses his Astrotrac with a 102mm APO with great results

[JB80]

Capacity vs Portability.

[MjrTom]

Accuracy as well.

The peak to peak drift is only 5 arc seconds over 5 minutes

[JB80]

I don't think anyone is going to question the performance of the astrorac, it's established itself fairly well based on how good it is.

But it's probably not entirely fair to compare the two in every aspect as they are two different designs completely.

As Olly said, Madjohn's pictures say a lot and if you are after something the size of a video cassette to slap on an already existing camera tripod then this seems to be a good choice.

I'm not knocking the astrotrac at all it's just another option to consider.

The only thing holding me back from purchasing either of the two is the terrible LP here and the fact I want a DMK 41 too and I can't have both(well I can but the wife would murder me if I spent near on 1000 quid in one go).

[TheDaveWalker]

The Astrotrac is winning on my wish list as it has an ST4 port, tho the Polarie looks lovely and small...