Astrotrac, Polarie, Fornax or HEQ5???

[scoobee]

I would like to break into AP starting with widefield, solar and lunar then moving up to bigger things.

I have a canon 550 DSLR and a Philips 900 for imaging.

But lost on what mount I should get!!

Can anyone share some thoughts?

Cheers

Matt

P.S the Astrotrac would be the travel version

[garethmob]

i asked this exact question not long ago and ended up buying a astrotrac AT

i also bundled mine with a AZ3 mount and a camera head (435 i think it is) for my canon 1100d with up to 200mms.

i went for the astrotrac in the end because of portability (im not going on a plane, but in 5 mins its all connected and lifted easly to where i want to go, another 5 mins and its snapping away

but i only do widefield AP for anything heavier than say a megrez 72 i would go for a HEQ5. i will eventually upgrade to a autoguider for it for my images.

steve richards did a cracking review of the AT fornax and a few others in S@N a few months back it was quite a supprising review to tell you the truth

you may find my previous posts of the AT not working, but it was because my camera head i was using previously was rubbish, and... i'll admit i was PAin to the wrong polaris:P

[scoobee]

thanks for your response, I was leading in the way of the astrotrac after plenty of reading.

mind The HEQ5 SynTrek looked a good deal but when you think for an extra few quid you can get a Skywatcher Explorer 200P on a EQ5 GOTO

I think a headache is coming on

[rowan46]

Astrotrac is the most portable and gives good widefield but If you want to get seriously into astrophotography you need to be guiding .That means the heq5 imho

[scoobee]

Astrotrac is the most portable and gives good widefield but If you want to get seriously into astrophotography you need to be guiding .That means the heq5 imho

Thats what is bugging me, the HEQ5 either the pro or the syntrex are going to benefit me in the long term

[Ags]

Don't forget the Ioptron Star Tracker!

If you want to try widefield then move up to guided GEM, what about the Losmandy Starlapse. It is pricy but is basically half a GEM - you can buy the other half later and you have a complete GEM mount capable of guiding I believe.

[scoobee]

Don't forget the Ioptron Star Tracker!

If you want to try widefield then move up to guided GEM, what about the Losmandy Starlapse. It is pricy but is basically half a GEM - you can buy the other half later and you have a complete GEM mount capable of guiding I believe.

many thanks, just been looking at the starlapse and its looking good

[jerryTheC]

The trouble with most of the camera mounts is that by the time you budget for everything you need, you're up to a sizeable fraction of the cost of a full blown goto GEM, which is much more capable... So unless you really need the portability, that's what I'd recommend

Of the designed for camera mounts, I like the Kenko Sky Memo - compact, with around twice the tracking limit of the vixen Polarie, nicely engineered, and with probably the best polar finder I've come across.

[scoobee]

The trouble with most of the camera mounts is that by the time you budget for everything you need, you're up to a sizeable fraction of the cost of a full blown goto GEM, which is much more capable... So unless you really need the portability, that's what I'd recommend

Of the designed for camera mounts, I like the Kenko Sky Memo - compact, with around twice the tracking limit of the vixen Polarie, nicely engineered, and with probably the best polar finder I've come across.

The trouble with most of the camera mounts is that by the time you budget for everything you need, you're up to a sizeable fraction of the cost of a full blown goto GEM, which is much more capable... So unless you really need the portability, that's what I'd recommend

Of the designed for camera mounts, I like the Kenko Sky Memo - compact, with around twice the tracking limit of the vixen Polarie, nicely engineered, and with probably the best polar finder I've come across.

The more I think about it the more it make sense to go for a GEM

[E621Keith]

Don't forget the Ioptron Star Tracker!

If you want to try widefield then move up to guided GEM, what about the Losmandy Starlapse. It is pricy but is basically half a GEM - you can buy the other half later and you have a complete GEM mount capable of guiding I believe.

Has the Ioptron Star tracker been released yet? If not, it would be like suggesting the Sightron Nano tracker/Borg 9786 or the Toast Pro all of which are very nice, but only available in Asia.

I think there are two class of star trackers

Light weight (camera only)

Vixen Polarie, Sightron Nano, Ioptron ST...

Medium weight (camera or small scope)

Astrotrac, Fornax, Vixen GP2 Photoguider /TS GP/EQ5 Photoguider, Kenko Skymemo, and Losmandy Starlapse

However, if you are not interested in travelling light, then a HEQ5 will probably serve you better.

[scoobee]

Keityh, many thanks for your detailed list of possibilities.

Now, decided to go for a GEM, not sure as to which one but at least I have narrowed the field?!