Alt-Az mounts - Altair Sabre vs Tele-Optic Giro Ercole

[Rob]

Sorry to bring back an old thread!..

 

Morning All, I'm now looking at purchasing a AZ/Giro mount. I recently got a Bresser AR 127-L and only have an EQ5 to use it on. It sure seems to push the EQ5 to its max weight area, so the AZ/Giro seems the way forward!.

So questions??

A, The Altair Sabre V2 looks the business I have to say.. can you ad ADM saddles to this Giro?

B, The Skytee 2 does look great, but the mixed reviews keep making me ponder yes/no. Have things moved on with this mount?.. have they improved over time

 

Thanks

[John]

The Skytee II has not changed. It works well and can handle heavy loads but the stock dovetail saddles need to be upgraded before putting heavy / expensive scopes on them. This adds to the cost of course. I have ADM saddles on my Skytee II which are excellent. The mount has slow motion controls which the others you mention don't. It's not a deal breaker for me but it might be for you ?

I have had a Sabre and that was pretty good. Rather similar to the Giro III in terms of capacity and operation. It takes ADM and other saddles using the same 35mm spaced M6 holes that the Giro mounts use.

I now have a Giro Ercole which is a superb mount and a step above all those mentioned in terms of finish, capacity and operation. Really top notch piece of gear

Remember that you will need to use counterweights with your 127L and balancing the scope fore and aft is important.

If your EQ5 is driven you may find having to move and track manually causes more vibrations with the long 127L tube than you anticipate. I'd highly recommend a 2" steel tubed tripod or even better a Berlebach tripod

 

 

[jabeoo1]

I can vouch for this gear being excellent.  Yes you can attach ADM saddles to the Sabre II & the combination proven to be very good. Its not going anywhere now despite me feeling slightly grumpy about the lack of slo-mo controls in the beginning.  I have now converted 100%.

My mate had a look through the scope on the Sabre II at the weekend and I had set it up in advance.  He walked over to it, and was tracking Jupiter through a plossl straight off, its smooth and intuitive, its a Fracsonian.  

[Rob]

Thanks Guys. I'm just looking to produce a nice stable setup for my new (long) Scope that my wife got me for Christmas.. best gift in years I have to say. It just seemed a little wobbly on the EQ5 as is.

My budget needs to keep sub £500 for a solution also. I have my EQ5 counter weights, so that's one item of the purchase list. I'm mostly a visual user, but dabble with AP through the ED70 that sits like a rock on my EQ5. So just really looking to enjoy the Bresser 127L for Planets & Lunar observing, with a few deep sky old favorites in the mix. 

I understand the 127L is just over 8Kg. I have now purchased a Rigel Finder to reduce the weight by removing the 9x50 Finder, but that said the giro would mean I could use both!.. that's a bonus!. The Skytee II looks interesting indeed. I think (correct me if wrong) I can move the counter weight bar position to place horizontal (so it looks like the above in your pic) to place a 5Kg weight to balance?. I think the slow mow controls would be useful for high mags with small tweaks?.  My only concern with the Skytee II is that it looks like the slow mo control knobs may clash if rotated fully loaded?.

I also am taken by the Sabre & Ercole.. I love well engineered equipment, and the fact it does what it does very well. So I am seriously looking at these too. The ADM dovetail would be a purchase as standard with any of these. I think my EQ5 already has the 2" Leg tripod. Was bought just over a year ago from FLO. If not I assume FLO or others will stock them?.

A few questions there

Best Rob

[Rob]

I've answered one question. I would need to buy a CG5 Tripod for the 2" Steel leg tripod. I can see RVO sell them for £120.

[John]

12 minutes ago, Rob said:

....I understand the 127L is just over 8Kg. I have now purchased a Rigel Finder to reduce the weight by removing the 9x50 Finder, but that said the giro would mean I could use both!.. that's a bonus!. The Skytee II looks interesting indeed. I think (correct me if wrong) I can move the counter weight bar position to place horizontal (so it looks like the above in your pic) to place a 5Kg weight to balance?. I think the slow mow controls would be useful for high mags with small tweaks?.  My only concern with the Skytee II is that it looks like the slow mo control knobs may clash if rotated fully loaded?.

I also am taken by the Sabre & Ercole.. I love well engineered equipment, and the fact it does what it does very well. So I am seriously looking at these too. The ADM dovetail would be a purchase as standard with any of these. I think my EQ5 already has the 2" Leg tripod. Was bought just over a year ago from FLO. If not I assume FLO or others will stock them?...

 

Hi Rob,

My APM / LZOS triplet 130 weighs around 9kg fully loaded and is F/9.2 so quite close to your 127L. It's not the weight but the tube length that proves a challenge for the mount though, particularly the top of the tripod legs and the tripod / mount joint. They need to be as strong as possible !

The C/W you see in the picture of my scope weighs 5.2 kg in total so as long as the C/W bar is reasonably long you can use a little less than the OTA weight to balance the scope.

I find that I can track at 300x plus using little nudges but sometimes the slow-motion controls of the Skytee II are nice to have. Not essential for me by any means though. I do use wide angle eyepieces though, which helps with keeping things in view

I don't find that the slow mo's on the Skytee II clash. I just have the standard knobs on them though, not the longer cables that some folks fit.

I'd strongly advise the CG5 2" tripod. Not just for the solidity, which is much more than the .25" increase would suggest, but also it is taller too - very useful for a long refractor !

 

[Rob]

Small update.

I managed to grab the CG5 Tripod, which you can now buy new under the re-badge 'Celestron VX Tripod' for £120. So stage one complete!

[John]

4 minutes ago, Rob said:

Small update.

I managed to grab the CG5 Tripod, which you can now buy new under the re-badge 'Celestron VX Tripod' for £120. So stage one complete!

Check that it is HEQ5 / EQ5 / CG 5 compatible - I had a VX tripod (and a VX mount) and the N peg was in a different position to the other mounts. 

[Rob]

its here.. And sorry listed as AVX

 

https://www.harrisontelescopes.co.uk/acatalog/celestron-avx-steel-telescope-tripod-8000701.html#SID=570

 

 

[John]

Here are pics of the AVX (top) and CG5 / HEQ5 / EQ5 (bottom) tripod heads. The AVX is not quite the same. I think the difference is mostly in the positioning of the N peg though

 

[Rob]

I see.. I guess its a case of removing the peg?!.. or drilling and re-tapping to the correct position

[Rob]

Not to worry!.. solution number 2 now achieved. After a little research I found that the Orion Skyview Pro extension fits the AVX tripod perfectly!. So I've grabbed one of those from Widescreen Center. That also sorts the height issues out also.. (I'm 6ft 3). So it should mean I dont need to extend any legs.

 

 

[John]

1 hour ago, Rob said:

Not to worry!.. solution number 2 now achieved. After a little research I found that the Orion Skyview Pro extension fits the AVX tripod perfectly!. So I've grabbed one of those from Widescreen Center. That also sorts the height issues out also.. (I'm 6ft 3). So it should mean I dont need to extend any legs.

 

 

Sounds a good solution

This was my Bresser 127L with the Vixen ED102SS on the long out of production Ambermille giro-type mount and a CG5 tripod. Good setup that was !:

 

 

[Rob]

Ok so it was a CG5 new tripod delivered today. Also had the Orion Skyview Pro delivered today. Wow its a heavy setup as is! 

[Rob]

Exciting times for getting back into Astronomy for me... been a while