which mount

[wills]

Hi all, I posted a while back about a mount for imaging with my orion sx250, i got the usual reply of an eq6 but i was looking at the ioptron minitower v2 or the ioptron ieq30. has anyone got veiws on these mount or should i go for a vixen sxw. thanks to all and have a good christmas

[Capricorn]

I can see a mini tower V2 and a minitower pro.

The V2 will handle 10Kg and a 250 reflector will be around 12-13kg so not substantial enough, especially as you need a fair bit of a safety margin. For a 12Kg scope you need a mount capable of 18-20Kg. The V2 is an Alt/Az mount so no suitable for long exposure imaging. Long exposure being 20-30 seconds.

The Pro version has a handling weight of 15Kg, not really enough but just more then the scope. Again an Alt/Az mount so not suitable for imaging.

The ieq30 is an equitorial and rated to 14Kg so not a lot if any safety, adding a DSLR will hit the max and then there is no future safety for guide scope, guide camera etc.

The ieq45 would be a better option as it has a loading of 20Kg

[wills]

if i go down the route of the ieg45 would the vexin swx be a better mount with the starbook handset as there is only £200 in it. my scope is only 8kg as the tube is thin metal.

[ollypenrice]

You can't image with an Alt Az mount in any remotely serious way.

I know the iEQ45 quite well and I don't think it would have a hope in hell of imaging with a ten inch Newt. It couldn't manage our 5.5 inch apo. I presume that the iEQ30 would have even less of a chance. The iOptron mounts can only approach their claimed payloads with short OTAs like SCTs and RCs. The odd spring loaded drives don't handle the moment of longer OTAs very well at all and they seem to get worse with age. I stress 'seem' because I havent gone into this carefully.

For a ten inch Newt my budget choice would be NEQ6 and my top choice would be Mesu Mount 200. There would be no other candidates below £7000. Certainly nothing from Vixen.

Olly

[wills]

thanks olly but i thought a vixen would be a good choice because the jap stuff is precise or is that just a myth as ive not used much vixen stuff, i hear that the neq6 suffer from bent bolts and are very heavy to move about.

[petercoxphoto]

Hi Wills -

Something I learned from "normal" photography is the vital importance of a good stable tripod.

In my limited experience with astro photography, I see that it's about 10x more important. I bought my EQ6 before buying a telescope even. Cheating out on a mount is a good way to scupper your chances of good images before you start.

The EQ6 is indeed heavy, but nothing you couldn't move over short distances easily enough. And weight=stability.

As for bending bolts, yes they can be a problem, but its easy and cheap enough to buy replacements that are stronger.

Cheers,

Peter

[petercoxphoto]

Sorry, should read "cheaping out", not "cheating out"!

[wills]

I am thinking i will have to go with an neq 6, but i already have an az synscan goto mount for an 70mm refractor,i was thinking that i could buy the deluxe and just use the hand set from the other mount to upgrade it to the pro or is the handset different.

[E621Keith]

thanks olly but i thought a vixen would be a good choice because the jap stuff is precise or is that just a myth as ive not used much vixen stuff, i hear that the neq6 suffer from bent bolts and are very heavy to move about.

I think the IEQ45 will be better than the Vixen SXW.

Most reviews rates the SXW very highly mechanically, but trash the Starbook controller, especially for AP. The Starbook controller cannot remember the PE, so you need to calibrate it every session. It is also incompatible with non Japanese control software (but there is a 3rd party firmware patch that will make it ASCOM compatible). The SB is also famous for erratic Dec movement. Finally it uses the narrow Vixen Saddle instead of the wider Losmandy saddle.

While I don't own the Starbook, I have it's little brother, the Starbook S, and its predecessor SS2K. The SS2K is FAR better than the SBS. From various reports on the net, the SS2K is also superior to Starbook and its replacement Starbook Ten. If you buy a SXW, you will probably need to spend more money on a third party NexSXD control board and a Celestron Nexstar hand controller to replace the Starbook.

[Ibbo!]

Its not only a matter of weight capacity but force on the mount

a 250 will be much longer than say an small refractor I would say that the standard answer of an EQ6 might not be enough to support the 250 without throwing away lots of subs

not what you want to here I know

You do not say if you have done imaging before if not I would suggest looking at a small refractor to start with on the best mount you can afford.

Steve

[swag72]

Hi all, I posted a while back about a mount for imaging with my orion sx250, i got the usual reply of an eq6 ....................

Do you not think there was a reason for the usual reply of EQ6? Because imagers answered your thread and didn't want you to waste time and money, probably largely based on their own experience, and buy something that was not really capable of what you wanted. Fair play to those who answered your original thread and I'm afraid 'on your head be it' if you ignore their collective advice.

Although saying that I'd go for an NEQ6!!

[perfrej]

Yep. NEQ6 it is. Nothing - NOTHING - beats it in terms of price/performance. SImple as that. Period.

/per

[wills]

i hear what you are saying but i like to go a bit off main stream, i like to give new companies a go lets face it if no one will go up against the big boy then they will just keep jacking up the price.

[swag72]

I'm not sure why you'd want to go away from the norm when there are tried and tested methods out there that already work. It's very admirable to want to support and encourage newer models / companies / or developers for example, However if imaging is your thing you really will want to maximise your imaging time in the UK gathering data, not trying to sort out issues that may need ironing out in mounts that are not so frequently used. I say leave that to the testers!! I'd not want to be a tester for a less used product for free and wasting my own imaging time in doing so.

Things are hard enough as it is with the more tried and tested kit, let alone straying away from the norm. Anyway, just my opinion. I prefer to try to play things safe, so good luck!! Hope you find the mount that suits you!

[pete_l]

i hear what you are saying but i like to go a bit off main stream, i like to give new companies a go lets face it if no one will go up against the big boy then they will just keep jacking up the price.

I understand your motivation: you want to be different.

So on that basis, a quick look at the mounts on OO's "readers pictures" website shows that the mounts that have produced results with a 250mm reflector are in the £3,500 - £5,500 range. Vixen Atlux, SXP. Something with a load rating of over 16kg.

That could be why people are pointing you in the direction of an NEQ6 (the Ford Transit of mounts: not very exciting, but well-known and reliable) which has a visual load limit of 25kg and for imaging 15kg + a little.

So, what else is there?

A CGE Pro would do it with capacity to spare for £5,500

A 10-Micron GM1000 rated for 21kg for £5,800

A GTO 900 if you can find one for £7,600

or possibly an Astro DreamTech 200GE for £3,800 - you could well be the first (only?) UK user of this mount. That would certainly fulfil your desire for something a bit unusual.

The problem is that once you get away from the NEQ6, mounts with similar capabilities are much, much more costly. Whether that extra expense is worth whatever intangible benefits they offer is a personal decision. Good luck with whatever you decide to go with.

[r3i]

I think if you want to be different from the EQ6 crowd but also want to succeed, your choices are either to spend a significant amount more (£3k-5k into the Mesu/CGE-Pro/etc. area) or else look at the CGEM or CGEM/DX (roughly in the same price/performance ballpark to the EQ6 & EQ6 AZ) - whether this is sufficiently different/non-mainstream only you can decide.

[wills]

ive been looking at the alternatives and as i can not Rubbish money will have to give up on the non main stream idea and go with an neq6 pro. thank you all for your input, maybe one day i will find the money and a nice non main stream mount to play with. one more thing does anyone know if i can swap the hand sets from my other mount to that neq6 so i dont have to buy the pro and get the deluex. thanks chris

[perfrej]

I don't think the non-pro version has the right control board for EQDIR control, allthough I am not 100 per cent certain about it. If the difference is just the handset, then yes you can get it, otherwise no.

/per

[ollypenrice]

Vixen, with their post Polaris mounts, have made no friends in imaging and the Atlux is absurdly expensive for an indifferent performance. Also, if you have a problem, you might just as well talk to the Sphinx as to Vixen.

if you want to avoid the mainstream and still have a superb mount then go for the Mesu Mount 200, the only mount I have ever used which never ever drops a sub to guiding error. And I do mean never ever. It has a non-mainstream roller drive with no backlash. Does this slip? Not in the first three hundred hours of imaging and counting...

As Per said, at around a grand it's NEQ6. It should have a rival by now - of course it should - but it doesn't. And far from hiking the price, they brought it down about seven years ago and have kept it low. We have to be fair!

Olly

[ollypenrice]

Sorry, I meant to say 'Vixen since their Polaris mounts,' abve, because the Polaris was rightly popular.

Olly

[nephilim]

I am thinking i will have to go with an neq 6, but i already have an az synscan goto mount for an 70mm refractor,i was thinking that i could buy the deluxe and just use the hand set from the other mount to upgrade it to the pro or is the handset different.

With the eq6 Syntrek u can use EQMOD instaed of a controllor, i know it means u need a laptop but the download is free.

[ampleamp]

The EQ6/EQMOD combination is an excellent piece of kit and I thought long and hard before selling mine in favour of the Mesu. Without sounding sycophantic, the price to capability to capacity to reliability ratio is as good as it gets without heading north of £8/9000 and even then I suspect it would be a very close equal, at around half the price.

If you want something a little different then this has to be on your list; there aren't many in the country as yet (Bernard at MA will probably tell you how many as he sells them) but with the performance comes an excellent level of backup/service both from Bern and Lucas Mesu himself.

I have zero regrets about investing in one and have said before, it has improved my enjoyment no end.

[E621Keith]

Sorry, I meant to say 'Vixen since their Polaris mounts,' abve, because the Polaris was rightly popular.

Olly

Do you mean Polaris as in the original Polaris, or Polaris as in the Polaris family (i.e. from Polaris to GPD2). The Great Polarises are very good mounts and you can tell it is very popular by the number of clones derived from it.

Vixen should have continued with the modular Polaris concept, but instead they lost their mind and made the Sphinx. A Sphinx user is stuck with Starbook, which is what killed it in the end, while the GP users can swap to a dozen other motor and GOTO options on the market. Although Takahashi won't admit it, I think their new PM1 mount borrowed a lot from Vixen's Polaris family.

[ollypenrice]

Do you mean Polaris as in the original Polaris, or Polaris as in the Polaris family (i.e. from Polaris to GPD2). The Great Polarises are very good mounts and you can tell it is very popular by the number of clones derived from it.

Vixen should have continued with the modular Polaris concept, but instead they lost their mind and made the Sphinx. A Sphinx user is stuck with Starbook, which is what killed it in the end, while the GP users can swap to a dozen other motor and GOTO options on the market. Although Takahashi won't admit it, I think their new PM1 mount borrowed a lot from Vixen's Polaris family.

Indeed, I meant the pre Sphinx. They did indeed lose it with that one. Such a shame because I'm sure it could have been sorted.

Olly

[Ajohn]

Just a suggestion that is fairly serious. If you want a very substantial mount have you talked to Beacon Hill Telescopes? Another thought. Orion would have supplied that telescope like this some years ago but more often on a pier. May not be a GPDX. I would want it with a drive. I think one of the problems with sw is the drive power they provide. It seems to be a general thing with many many mounts. This scope is 250mm F4.8 and probably more heavily built than yours. Might even have a near full thickness mirror.

Must admit that I have never explored the drive power of these stands but people did put much larger scopes on them.

John

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