Equitorial goto mount

[ggreene1]

I was wondering if anyone has an opinions of this mount...

http://www.buytelesc...rial-mount.aspx

I have been having trouble with the drives or clutches on my Celestron 8SE goto. I was thinking about buying a goto Eq mount. (putting the money it would cost me for repairs toward the new mount) My brother is a machinist, so mounting the dovetail should not be a concern. If I get a better mount I will always be able to get a better / bigger OTA in the future. I'm looking in about the $700 USD (450 GBP) range. If this is not a good mount, does anyone have any suggestions in that price range ?

[nmoushon]

With only$700 its going to be hard to find a new EQ goto but as I'm just west of Chicago and have heavy LP I value the goto very much. If you can get some more money together you have these two options(brand new):

Orion Skyview Pro

&

Celestron CG-5

Thats if you buy brand new. You could go to CloudyNights.com. which is a classifieds website that sell all things 2nd hand astro. Can get the same mounts that i posted above for at least half the price if not more. Most the time in great shape to. So can save some money or get a 2nd hand upgrade that would normally be way out of your price wrange. I got a mint Orion Sirius (equvalent to HEQ-5 Pro) for $800 plus shippping. Which can hold up to about a 300mm newt for visual purpose and about 150-200mm newt for imaging. Not sure if your in to AP or not but either way it would hold plenty of future telescope upgrades.

[Capricorn]

I am more concerned about the mount, one bits says IOptron the description says EQ5.

The following link has EQ mounts from TS in Germany and iOptron and Skywatcher are different brands.

http://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/index.php/cat/c20_Montierungen-----parallaktisch.html

If you scroll down you will see iOptron mounts and Skywatcher ones as seperate.

Maybe iOptron take an EQ5 and modify it some way but a little bothered.

Looking I wonder if they have taken an EQ5 and added their own handset and system, then put their name on it as the handset is described as their own.

The EQ5 will take your OTA although I suspect that a bigger OTA would mean a bigger mount.

Your link looks most like the iOptron IEQ45, say that owing to the SmartStar system that it uses the other has another one. If so then it looks good, the retail here is 1800 Euro say about $1500. It also say 20Kg load, for some reason I didn't think an EQ5 was rated at that, I was thinking 15Kg. The HEQ5 may be 20Kg.

It looks good depending on what it actually is.

If the electronics fail then I suspect that you will have a problem replacing or repairing, worth checking.

However I have not heard of a problem but not a common mount/electronics. Vague recollections that people that have bought an iOptron have found them good.

Spending half an hour doing a search could be worthwhile.