New Skywatcher Allview Multi-Function Computerised Mount.

[davy999]

I can test it for sun tracking during the next clear weekend if that would help.

[ollypenrice]

That would be great, thanks. It's how to align it that intrigues me.

Olly

[JB80]

Could you not use a compass and inclinometer, it may not be perfect but it would get you pretty close or you could use the true noon shadow to find North.

[FLO]

Could you not use a compass and inclinometer, it may not be perfect but it would get you pretty close or you could use the true noon shadow to find North.

Vixen offer a Quick Polaris Locator Compass that fits on a regular camera accessory/hot-shoe.

[JB80]

That was the exact product I had in mind to be honest.

[PNJ]

Hi

I just got this mount and yes a nice piece of kit for the money, however i cannot get the electronic shutter release to work (snap mode)

I have a canon D40, i cut of the n3 plug, and a mono 2.5mm plug of old leads as there is just 2 wires and joined then, but no avail.

i then plugged in the supplied cable and put a test meter over the open end and still nothing. i then shortened out the n3 cable to the camera and that worked ok. so it must just short the 2 pins together in snap mode, no electronics in the leads.

anyone got any ideas.

it says in the Manuel that the snap exposure setting got t be longer than the camera exposure setting

[Psychobilly]

The supplied lead is 2.5mm stereo to 2.5mm stereo - for the Canon xxxD series cameras.... on the Canon xxxD cameras shorting the tip to the body releases the shutter and ring to the body initiates AF...

Is there a menu setting onthe Nikon D40 that allows the shutetr to be released if the camera isn't focused ? With a lot of DSLR's with the camera/lens in MF it usually doesn't careless and will just release the sutter...

Peter...

[PNJ]

Hi

i have shorted the 2 wires and the camera is fine, but the All view mount is not sending out a signal to shorten the pins on the 2.5 stereo plug

[Photosbykev]

If the handset database allows you to do a goto Sun move you could do a polar alignment on the Sun. Just goto the sun and then move the mount manually ie not with the handset controls to centre the sun in the view. I use this method quite a lot with my solar ha refractor on an eq6 and it gives a pretty good polar alignment. Once I've done this I use the tracking feature in the DSSR image capture software to remove any minor alignment error by pulse guiding.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk. Blame Apple for the typos and me for the content

[davy999]

Ok, very quick message.

Tried to align on the sun... oh dear.. only gives option of daytime objects or stars, and the sun is not mentioned.

I told it to go to Mercury (as this is close to the sun) and then moved a little to get sun in view.

Whilst there is no sun menu there is solar tracking, so turned that on.

Tracking was quite poor, obviously because it's alt/az and couldnt really figure out what the heck to do. It was ok for visual but the sun would noticably move in less than a minute so it was not suitable for imaging, so I switched back to the SE mount so as not to waste some decent clear skies.

I will try again another day but first attempts were not promising.

Dave

[FLO]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and findings Dave

I think you were the first to order one, which is good because we know you'll give it a thorough going over

Steve

[davy999]

Oh.. so as I am the guinea pig, surely a huge rebate for my woes?? )

Seriously though.. I am very impressed, some issues with solar as mentioned above, and will try with the stars one night, but the DSLR side of things.. just amazingly good and easy to use.

I am sure even SteveB (FLO) could use it given time.

Dave

[FLO]

I am sure even SteveB (FLO) could use it given time.

"Right! I'll ave im!" he says

[davy999]

Forgot to mention, here is a video of it in motion on my balcony

Dave

Not exciting but at least you can see it moving, even if it was taking pictures of the railings.

[FLO]

Apologies for not having done this sooner but we are now listing the shutter release cables for the Allview mount.

[Digz]

Woohoo, Nikon are listed, just a shame my D7000 isn't .....

[garethmob]

davy999 did you manage to give it another go?

[davy999]

Hi Gaz

Unfortunately not yet, but should time allow over xmas I may give it another go with the PST attached.

[Bambi]

When people say this is no good for astrophotography as its an alt-az rather than an EQ mount I get a bit confused. If it tracks at sidereal rate surely this would stop star trails? Or am I missing something fundamental?

I can sort of understand you would get apparent movement at the edge of your frame as the camera isnt rotating its just going up and down, but would this effect be horrendous, and how long would it take for this to become apparent?

This could be easily answered if someone has a long exposure or stacked image example they could post. I have a nice 400mm lens that has enough zoom to get images of Jupiter with some details, and stacking 100's of these a-la webcam imaging would be fun.

My love of photography out weighs astonomy at the moment and I cant afford nice telescope and EQ mount. Its a bit expensive just for auto panaorama's and time lapse with movement.

Anyone got images to share?

[Digz]

The trouble with alt az mounts is the sill suffer from field rotation. Search here and you'll find plenty of info, its also covered earlier in this thread.

[Bambi]

I got it now....

Looks like I am going to have to wait and get a half decent scope on an eq-5 or similar in the future.

[PNJ]

Hi

I have this mount now for a few months, its great, a nice quick light up and go mount. I use my W/O 66 on it but it should take a 80mm ok too. The best part is the other features, panoramic photos and time lapse is really good using this and it also links to your camera, for automation.

Paul J

[emadmoussa]

This will potentially be my grab and go mount. I'll order it as soon as the heatwave is finished by the end of this week No, seriously I couldn't make much use of the clear skies because of the heat recently...quite a Polar bear myself Don't have the physical capacity to deal with hot weather

Anyway, here goes:

1- I was planning on buying a go-to handset for my NEQ6 ( after few months of using EQMod, I realized I'm too lazy to spend time setting up and connecting to the computer and so on and ended up using only the syntrek handset), so it's a bonus that I can use the same handset for the NEQ6. I understand you can flash the handset so it'll automatically turn into equatorial mode once connected to the NEQ6?

2- I like the unique versatility this mount offers. I do time lapse videos of the clouds mostly (trust me, if you pay more attention to the clouds you'll discover how amazing they are - clear sky during the day is a bit boring. I'll probably change my mind once moved to solar imaging). So yes, being able to use the same mount for panoramic imaging, time lapse and astronomical observation is a large bonus.

3 - Astronomical use -- this is the bit I want to be 100% sure about. The only portable telescope I have is the 80ED, so in principle the mount will be 'welded' to this telescope. My main concern is the weight. OK, here's the scope and accessories list I'm planning on mounting: 80ED tube/rings/dovetail + 2 inch diagonal + finder scope (either 9x50 or Altair Astro RACI 10x60) + eyepiece ( big eyepieces will be any of the following: Baader Hyperion 8mm, SW panorama 15mm, Maxvision 20mm or ExSc 24mm). I estimate all will be under 5Kg. So it should be OK for visual?

The images presented by Skywatcher show an 80ED with all accessories. Has FLO tested it with the 80ED or a similar scope??

4 - Exposure time in astronomical mode - can I do exp. for more than 60 seconds??

5 - The mount build - what's the percentage of plastic vs metal?

6- Silly question here, I never used an alt-az mount. So how do you go about polar aligning it?

Thanks!!!

Emad

[Cornelius Varley]

4. The mount is not suitable for DSO imaging (field rotation) so 60 sec would be too much, possibly 20 - 30 sec max.

5. Hard to say. The structural elements should be metal. Covers etc will be plastic.

6. Polar alignment isn't required for alt az mounts.

[emadmoussa]

Assuming it's two/three star alignment then?