consolidation to a skytee 2?

[Fozzie]

Morning all..

I've been playing with the idea of selling my 200p/EQ5 and after a house move next year maybe looking for a 10 or 12" dob... but I like the size and usability of the 200p ota and let's face it with the weather as it is that investment in astro gear could be a justification too far..

So I'm considering selling the eq5 and probably the AZ4 and opting for the skytee 2.

How would this behave with the 200p and would it be a completely daft thing to do?

Thanks in advance

Fozzie

Edit... I'm open to other suggestions on this not just the skytee 2.

[Moonshane]

hi mate

I bring a giro 3 to school most days and if you are ever my way again you could bring a couple of scopes and give it a trial run. personally I like this more than any other mount I have ever used for visual. I'll bring my extension piece too if you wanted to see how the 100 f11 fits.

[Fozzie]

Shane, many thanks, very gracious offer again.. There are rumours of sometime over the Christmas period heading to Wales but I wouldn't want to impose during the festive period.. i am in Manchester quite a lot with work so I'll DM you to see if we can hear something up..

The f11 has been great on the AZ4, defo needs a extension, just waiting for someone to get one in stock.. That's why I'm thinking heavy duty az for the 200p..

I might pop in to green witch and have a good look at the saber mount if I can get out this week..

Thanks

Fozzie

[RobertI]

Hi Fozzie,

I think the Skytee 2 is a great peice of kit for visual. Weight wise it is about the same as a EQ5 without counterweights and should have similar load carrying capacity but is not exactly grab and go. Setting the Starwave up on one side and the 200P on the other would be a great setup for general observing at low to medium powers. Probably not so good for high powers, planetary, etc, as you will have to be constantly adjusting both axes (I assume you know this from your experience with the AZ4).

It can take my C8 plus accessories with no problem without using a counterweight, not sure how much heavier the 200P is?

One advantage of the Skytee 2 is that it has slow motion controls which is useful for higher magnifications but can also be 'pushed' if required. Personally I use the slow mo controls a lot.

I have modded mine by adding a third Vixen Saddle where the counterweight bar would normally go - this means I can have two telescopes either side pointing in the same direction with no counterweights needed.

ONE BIG WORD OF WARNING - the saddles are not good and, unless they have improved the design, you will need to replace the standard saddle with one of these for £60; it's a hgh quality saddle which is more than up to the 200P.

The reason is that the standard saddles only have one thumbscrew which is made of inferior aluminium and the thread will STRIP if you tighten it too much!! I know this because one of my refractors fell to the ground when this happened to me. I know others have had the same problem. For heavy scopes you definitely need the new saddle, for lighter scopes you can get away with a new thumbscrew of M6 thread from a supplier like this.

So you will need to budget for a new saddle if you go the Skytee 2 route. For information I believe the Giro's do not come with saddles either as standard.

Apart from the saddle problem I would highly recommend.

Hope that helps.

Rob

[Fozzie]

Hi rob, thanks for the response, valued reading.. I've been on the Google all afternoon and I'd seen the issue with the saddles... Crazy, why do something that instantly needs a mod so that people would trust before they use..

I like the look of the giro3 and the saber, and as I can't see a time I'd be duel mounting the scopes (tricky enough giving one a run out at the moment) then the saddle price is restricted as they all look like extras on which ever mount you get.. The sabre is about 315 pounds for one saddle and counter weight.. Similar I think to an upgraded sky tee2

Ta

Fozzie

[RobertI]

Hi Fozzie,

I guess if you don't need dual mounting and are happy without slow motion controls then you have more options, the Giro and Sabre both look nice. I agree with you about the Skytee - why they still haven't sorted it is totally beyond me.

I notice the Sabre/Giro saddles also only have one knob - I'm not sure that I'd be happy securing a heavy scope with a single knob saddle, although I know Altair Astro stuff is very high quality. Might be worth investigating whether the saddles for the Giro/Sabre are adeqaute for the weight of your 200P.

The Skytee's are popular so they often come up on Astro Buy & Sell, so that is another option if you are not is a rush.

Let us know what you decide!

Rob

[damnut]

Hi There,

Love the skytee II, this is my current config, chap who had it before me put a 10"snt on it!... Pete's s the firt pic, mine is the second.

Tis chance that we both had a st120.

[RobertI]

Hi There,

Love the skytee II, this is my current config, chap who had it before me put a 10"snt on it!... Pete's s the firt pic, mine is the second.

Tis chance that we both had a st120.

Damian - Wow, that's quite a setup and a good illustration of what the Skytee can do. I see your mount also has the additional 'third' saddle mod like mine?

Fozzie - Despite the saddle problems, I think the Skytee does add some additional features which may provide future proofing over the Giro and Sabre. I would certainly consider finding a secondhand one with the saddles already upgraded.

Rob

[John]

The Skytee II will take some weight - but not on the standard dovetail clamps

I didn't find the slow motion controls of the Skytee II much use either - lots of backlash which I could not seem to get rid of. I found the controls to be in an awkward place much of the time too.

I've owned a Skytee II but I prefer the Giro although getting the balance of the scope right is more critical with the Giro. You can pick Giro's or clones up on the used market for quite low prices:

http://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/propview.php?view=90441

I used to have my 10" Orion Optics F/4.8 newtonian on a Giro type mount and it worked very well. The OO 10" weighs around the same as a Skywatcher 8" F/5.

[nightfisher]

I have a skytee 2, really nice mount and regards the upgrade saddles, i put one of these on mine and saved a bit of cash    http://www.firstlightoptics.com/dovetail-bars/baader-vixen-style-dovetail-clamp.html

you need new screws to fit it, i got some 12mm countersunk ones of ebay for a quid, i only did one saddle as i bought my skytee used and it already had one of these on it

[Fozzie]

Morning just going to rejuvenate this tread I starred with an update...

So while I had two generous offers to look at a giro and sky tee before I took the leap, I never managed to take them up due to work going bonkers, buying a new house and having little Oliver (who's just starting to wake up too).

Anyways I managed to get me a second hand skytee2 with an upgrade saddle and great 7 kg cw, and I've already sold the eq5... my problem is for some reason I can't convince myself to let the AZ4 go too..

Anyone think of a rational reason not to let it go, or a reason to sell it.. All I've got is that it might be useful for Oli in 10 years time!

Be interesting to hear your thoughts as rational people..

Ta

Fozzie

[nightfisher]

Hi Fozzie,

how are you liking the skytee? i will be interested to see if you have the same opinion of this mount with 200p as i did, i hated it from word go, but as people will know i am not fond of newts at best of times (they have there uses) the starwave on skytee is a great set up and works very well though.

I would suggest keeping the AZ4, i wish i had kept mine as its a great grab an go mount

[Fozzie]

Morning Jules, not really given it a proper outing with the newt yet.. would say though I was playing with the saddles and put both original ones on first before the adm upgrade and the difference is huge.. my first impressions are I think it holds the 200p very close to the way the eq5 did.. If that's the case then I can live with it.. (probably because that's what I'm used too) Overall the mount feels a bit stiff, a bit too stiff, so our machinery wizard at work is going to strip and tweak it for me.

Might invest in some slow mo cables and a pier for the frac but I need to invest more time under the sky's first..

That's my feeling with the AZ4, but then I think we'll hang on there's not "too" much difference really between them especially as the frac shouldn't (could get away without) need a counterweight.. and size wise is it much more space in the car... little devil's in my head saying keep it, the rational side says you could quite happily live without! (and it would mean the entire swap around cost in the region of £50)

Ta

Fozzie

[birchy]

I recently bought a secondhand Skytee 2 in great condition but wasn't happy with the dovetail clamps after having read some related posts. So, whilst I like the look of the ADM upgrade it was a bit pricey for me at £60 each at the present time so looked for an alternative option. The main problem is I think that the female threads in the clamping knobs are fairly quickly stripped because they are made from aluminium and screw onto a steel male thread. If the female thread was also steel there wouldn't presumably be a problem so I set about finding a way to insert a steel thread into the knob shaft.  My thoughts turned to Beacon Hill Telescopes who I knew were usually happy to help out with such modifications.  They came up with a brilliant idea which was to cut off a portion of the aluminium shaft and replace with a 6mm female threaded stainless steel section which is secured throught the top end of the knurled knob with a hex socket head cap bolt.

They also inserted a pin through the stainless shaft into the end of the cap bolt to secure it permanently.

I now needn't worry about stripped threads and already my scope feels much more secure on the original dovetail clamps.

Hopefully I have also saved myself over £100 for both clamps against the ADM upgrades.  OK mine don't look as good as the ADM ones and I still have only one clamping screw per dovetail, but they seem sufficient with the scopes I am mounting (6" Mak and 120mm frac).

Top marks for Beacon Hill Telescopes - I'd recommend them to anyone. 

If anyone can tell me how to upload a photo I'll be happy to do so.