Best Mount for Imaging (£5k-£6k Budget)

[Jessun]

Waiting too. Not that it'll make a difference on my decision, but I'm always happy to salute success!

I think it comes down to finding an hour with no clouds...

/Jesper

[LDUNN1]

I'm not sure I followed your post either John - was it for, or against, the specs of the AP900, or the other mounts????

I don't really mind either way, just curious though.

I went for my AP900GTO partly on the user comments I kept reading (the user friendliness), rather than the detailed specs. I suspect that the AP is nicely manufactured (machined), but falls short on the technology / specs front compared to the other scopes being discussed here, but I don't really know, I have not compared the specs of them all, but I can see the attraction of many of these newer 'trick' mounts.

So far I have not tried the AP unguided, might be an interesting test........mind you, with the weather in the south UK over the past 3 months, I have not done much guided running either........clouds are a great leveller of kit - Rich save your money don't bother buying astro kit !!!! ;-)

[Jessun]

The Resolute specs mentioned on AP's website reads:

• Resolution: 67 million pulses per rotation, 0.019 arc second per pulse.
  

It also mentions $8000 plus change...

/Jesper

[perfrej]

I just woke up because of someone's car alarm went off. The clouds have rolled in. I did, however, find six 60-minute subs in my image directory. One of them has a slight tracking disturbance, the others look like this (unprocessed 100% crop of center region):

It is M106. I can't make any use of it because of the moon, and some city lights from afar, but nonetheless; it has more or less perfectly round stars!

Now, mind you, this is with the pointing/tracking model in-mount! I don't see a reason why a five-hour one wouldn't look the same. After all, the first of six had a disturbance, the rest look like this. I feel very good about this as I am moving the GM2000HPS to a remote location in Southern France come June and I really do not want to do guiding!

Back to bed

/per

[ribuck]

Per that's an amazing result, the star are like you say just about perfect. I salute you sir, a fine job indeed. Maybe it might be worth you posting a your results in a new thread so it's easier for people to find

[perfrej]

Thanks, Rich!

I'll wait for a good night and do some really ddep stuff M106 is new to me and is well positioned in the sky from our latitude (+59° 16') and is an interesting one with thousands of fuzzies in the background. Amazin that at least 15 of them can be seen in a single sub! The stars are gone, of course, as is the core of M106, but it is an interesting prospect.

Four of the subs have acceptable background and one was too cloudy to be used. I'll stack them for fun and see what comes out...

/per

[LDUNN1]

Rich, next clear night why not give the HEQ5 a go at unguided 1 hour subs & compare to Per's ;-)

......I've got an nEQ6 remember which is broadly the same as the HEQ5, I have not imaged with that unguided for quite some time, but I image that if I tried my stars would end up looking more like Per's galaxy!

Jesper - thx, I'll take a closer look at the AP site details.......

[ribuck]

unfortunately i'm unable to play with my mount, all my current astro gear is in storage, as i sold my house and i'm living in rented accommodation until my new house is built. I'm desperate to get back out under the stars. Just before i packed my Heq5 away, i did a belt drive mod on it, but haven't even had a chance to test it as i had cloud for 1 month after upgrading it, and then had to put it in storage before being able to test it..........sigh........

At a push, before modding the mount, i managed about 2-3 minutes unguided, so will be interesting to see if i can push it to 3-4mins with the mod..........but it still not quite up there with per's 60 mins subs

Can't wait for the next for weeks to see pers results with his gm1000hps, as i think in the specs it's has a ever so slightly lower rms tracking value of 0.5 vs the gm2000 which is 0.6, so i'm expecting the results to be very similar.

[LDUNN1]

Rich, need to also consider the focal length when talking unguided subs, but your unguided sub times are pretty much what I'd expect from the nEQ6 too, possibly less for me due to poor polar alignment on occassion.

Jesper, I found those specs on the AP site - but remember than is for the new AP1600GTO mount & not the AP Mach1/900/1200 mounts.

The AP1600 is just under $12,000 & those encoders are just under $8,000 for both RA & DEC as a factory or customer installed option.

Bringing that kit into the UK will also have heft import duty, VAT & shipping charges, so the total landed price kind of put the AP1600 in a while different ball game from the mounts being discussed here I think.

I have not read anything at all on the possibility, or otherwise, of the encoders being retro fitted to existing AP Mach1/900/1200 mounts, but the way AP have built their mounts does mean that there has been a degree of interchangability of parts between models in the past. For example, the new polar finder for the AP1600 is being offered with an adapter for use on the 900 & 1200, & AP also state that the 1600 uses the same GTOCP3 control box as the Mach1 & 900 & can be interchanged between the models in an emergency, so we might yet see absolute encoders being offered as an option for Mach1/900/1200 owners in the future.

[LDUNN1]

Rich, I think you have picked a great time to move house & put your gear into storage. Not sure what the weathers been like in Newcastle, but in Southampton I have had very few clear nights since October - I can count them on the fingers of one hand. Conversely in September 2012 I recall being out all night on both Friday & Saturday nights till dawn for multiple weekends. I don't think you have missed much at all over the past 3 months.

[ribuck]

I only have 1 question ? why pay $20,000 when you can pay <$9000 for something that will be better due to it having more features / innovations.

[perfrej]

AP mounts are great mechanical achievements. 10Micron stems from the fine mechanical world and really know their stuff too. Actually, and I'm sticking my neck out here, I would say the Italians are better at fine mechanical stuff than are the Americans (and we have the best ball-bearing company in the world SKF).

/per

[ribuck]

Well i think it's time to just wait for your GM1000 to turn up per and then we can see the results for real.

[LDUNN1]

.......Rich, just to clarify, I was NOT proposing an AP1600 with the optional encoders as an alternative in a 'best mount for £5k-6k range' thread ;-) .........just clarifying an earlier statement on AP encoder specs & them (currently) not being available on an AP mount remotely in this price range.

PS - that $20k was before import duties into UK, VAT, Shipping & handling charges......you might want to add another third on to cover that ;-)

[ribuck]

Well i think the likes of AP and other more expensive manufacturers should start to be very worried, when you have manufacturers like 10 micron are building mounts with such fantastic mechanical build quality and great new electronic features at a lot cheaper price

[jjongmans]

@Per

Do you use an all-sky model or a declination model with your 10Micron? I haven't tried the declination model (MLPT) with my ASA, but with the all-sky model I can achieve 30min subs, probably longer, but I didn't have a change so far...

[Jessun]

I just posted about the encoders as an input about what encoders can do, since that had been discussed. They're Renishaw in the AP as well, so was only meant as a bit of general info.

I only have 1 question ? why pay $20,000 when you can pay <$9000 for something that will be better due to it having more features / innovations.

Better in what way? Up to the buyer to buy what's best for him or her. For me personally it makes perfect sense, for my present and potential future needs. (See a previous post for a list of reasons).

I think that AP will think very carefully though when they bring out the AP900 replacement. The competition is currently ahead, but next year maybe a similar thread will include a AP1000!

Per, outstanding result on the hour subs - just outstanding!

/Jesper

[LDUNN1]

Thanks for clarification Jesper - makes sense now. Sorry for my non-understanding before.

Rich, I think you are correct, it is going to become increasingly harder for AP to compete in the mount market with such effective mounts coming in as such relatively competetive price points. Maybe AP will end up putting more resources onto their 'scope manufacture & get those 10 year + waiting lists down a bit ;-)

Per, does your mount image through the Meridian or does it force a flip? Just curious, as this is one of the often cited pros of the AP mounts, the ability to track a target 2 hours before or after a meridian flip is required without flipping - so the counter weights are above the mount/scope. Not used it much myself yet mind, but have read others have found it very helpful.

[perfrej]

Jesper, thanks! It is marvellous!

Lawrence, the mount can be set to track a number of hours past the meridian. A slew will, with the current released firmware, always slew weights down. In the next release of the firmware, a forced wieghts-up slew can be forced if it does not violate the "max past medridian" setting.

/per

[LDUNN1]

Very good Per, thank you. That next release of firmware might please some folk then......

[ribuck]

Ahhh to be able to go 2 hours past the meridian, with my Heq5 / Eqacom setup, if i went 1 nano second past the meridian it would flip

[Zakalwe]

Ahhh to be able to go 2 hours past the meridian, with my Heq5 / Eqacom setup, if i went 1 nano second past the meridian it would flip

Disabling 'Allow Auto Meridian Flip' in EQMOD would have sorted that out for you.

[jjongmans]

Disabling 'Allow Auto Meridian Flip' in EQMOD would have sorted that out for you.

In combination with limits, it would even prevent mount collisions.

There's nothing wrong with a flip, it can easily be automated (ACP, CCDAutoPilot or CCD Commander).

[perfrej]

I agree, flips are not evil and there should be no preference to one side of the meridian over the other.

/per

[ribuck]

Well, at my old home, i was a little limited in doing an all sky model, so the meridian flip often threw out my pointing / guiding. But that might have just been down to poor polar alignment.