Takahashi EM-11 mount from Ian King Imaging

[mbrickley]

I've thought I would make a brief post to say that I have recently been using a new Takahashi EM-11 using the sky-x to drive it and mounting a TV101 onto it. I have been looking for a light no hassle combination for some time and this really does seem to fit the bill for me. If anyone else is looking for a reliable and easy to use mount for a small scope then I haven't found better. Ive tried the whole gamut of mounts before this, some of which such as the Mach 1 and the HEQ5 have been very good but the EM-11 seems to have a good combination of amazing polar scope, 1 star alignment and accurate gotos on one side of the meridian. Ive been getting 1-2 minute unguided subs with a atik 460ex on this combo but actually use it mostly for visual use. The mount only adjusts up to 50N but actually I just made the northern tripod leg a bit longer and this worked well to allow polar alignment at my 52N. The main gotcha's are a relatively slow slew speed (but I tend to use it to hunt open clusters in one constellation), the need to buy an aftermarket adaptor (such as ADM's) to mount non tak. scopes to it and near impenetrable instructions. Having got past these the mount is amazing. I have no connection with Takahashi at all but I would highly recommend this mount for 4 inch refractors or less or the like.

Hope this info is useful

Mark

[StarryEyed]

Nice...

I wanted ones of those but then sat on the fence and got all undecided.

What focal length are you imaging at?

[perfrej]

What's with the "on one side of the meridian"?

/per

[ollypenrice]

The polar alignment is an upside, certainly. One of the downsides is the price of spares. A simple cable for my EM200 at £90 from Tak Europe. Not nice! I felt as if I'd been mugged.

Olly

[mbrickley]

Hi

Thanks for the replies / comments...

Re imaging length...... I have produced this set up with a specific goal in mind, that of a 'minimal' astronomy rig, intended with the idea of very small, light and reliably functional rig for visual observing hence the equipment choices. I have developed a idea of visually observing an object, often sketching it then making a single short ccd image, of only a minute or almost 2 to document the observation. This a really unstressful way to observe and fits my particular set of prejudices well. For this to work the imaging has to be entirely quick and hassle free, fitting in with the visual observing through the same scope. Why say this ...,. Well this has driven both my choice of camera, a 460ex atik from FLO which can quite literally be swapped with the eyepiece because it is so small and light and the focal length which is the raw 540mm of the tv101. The em-11 is very up to making these 1-2 minute exposures unguided.

Re meridian swap...... You can of course point on both sides of the meridian after a single sync in the sky x but because the em-11 uses only a single sync star, the accuracy far away from the star synced is critically dependent on orthogonality and polar alignment. Further as I said the slew speed is quite slow so what I do is if I'm going to observe on ethe other side of the meridian is loosen the clutches manually move the scope to a bright star in the region of the area I want to observe then resync on that in the sky x. It takes literally 30 seconds to do which is less time than the slew and keeps the goto's spot on. I guess this wouldn't work if you wanted to hop all over the sky but my main interest is currently working through the Bedford catalogue a constellation at a time so it s no disadvantage for me.

Tak prices.... Gosh I know what you mean Olly and in fact I'm just buying a cable from Ian. I do however think the Tak products are the best quality with the sort of fit and finish you'd expect. The same doesn't however go for the manuals which are complete rubbish IMHO.

Cheers

Mark

[davew]

It sounds as if you've thought about your mount very carefully and bought the right one for you. When I was looking at mounts its predecessor, the EM 10, was about. As a light and accurate mount they are hard to beat but are rather expensive I'll admit. I went for a second hand EM 200 Temma 2  and the Tak Polar routine has to be the quickest and most accurate visual alignment on the planet ! Up and running in minutes and " Good enough " alignment for guided 30 minute exposures. When I first got the mount I tried these software solutions to getting accurate alignment but they were very slow in comparison and only as good as your ability to tune the Alt / Az by touch alone.

If I had a fixed mount in an Obsy then I'd probably look elsewhere.

If you are using a PC to drive the mount, are you using the Temma driver form here - http://ccdastro.net/temma.html

Just a note about cable prices. You really don't need to re mortgage the house to by cables. Astrodevelopments - http://www.axio35.dsl.pipex.com/astrodevelopments/ make cables and I've used two of them for years with out any problems. They also make patch cables for other traders.

I believe the manuals in Japanese are fine

Dave.

[mbrickley]

"Just a note about cable prices. You really don't need to re mortgage the house to by cables. Astrodevelopments - http://www.axio35.ds...rodevelopments/ make cables and I've used two of them for years with out any problems. They also make patch cables for other traders.

 

I believe the manuals in Japanese are fine  :shocked:"

 

Thanks Dave thats a great steer on the cables, I had already ordered mine from Ian but I will keep this in mind for the future. I haven't tried the temma driver yet although I have downloaded it, so far the sky native driver seems to be working fine though. 

 

Sounds like your em200 is a great mount too, I already have a permanently installed setup so I was looking for something lighter for this but I have to say that after trying the em-11 if I was ever in the market for a bigger but still portable mount the em200 would be right up there. I think generally Tak mounts deserve more exposure than they get in the UK. 

 

Cheers

Mark

[giorgio_ne]

+1 for the EM-200. It's such a simple mount to use that really lets you concentrate on observing/imaging rather than wasting time in ancillary tasks... Expensive? Yes, but I also think future proof because it relies on well machined parts rather than software and fancy electronics.