AZEQ6 as first proper mount?

[brancusi]

Hi everyone

I'm returning to astro-photography after a rather long hiatus of about 10 years (!) as I finally have a garden again and somewhere to plant my trusty LX90. My appetite was first whetted with a SAC7b webcam and I had great fun, if not great results!

Just before I relocated and had to pack away my kit, I upgraded to a SBIG ST-8E and so somewhat tragically, this expensive camera hasn't really had much of an outing yet - and is rather long in the tooth now to put it mildly!

Anyways, I'm finally planning to setup my kit again and have de-forked my LX90 to put it on a decent mount. I have a budget of 2K and have spent weeks now reading reviews and mulling options such as the NEQ6 / AZEQ6 / IEQ45-PRO / Losmandy GM11 and am starting to go around in circles. I had just about decided on the new IEQ45-PRO but I really like the idea of the dual encoders on the AZEQ6 and the additional payload capacity seems attractive if I upgrade my scope in the future. So my current thinking is the AZEQ6. I worry a bit that I should be saving more for something like the CEM60, but that starts to take me out of my budget.

I could be really tempted by the GM11 on grounds of engineering quality, but adding the Gemini Goto takes me way over budget.

Noise is also a consideration, I'm imaging from a suburban garden and so consideration of the neighbours is important, so I'm likely to prefer a quiet mount to a noisy one all other things being roughly equal. This is one thing that attracts about the GM11 non-goto version as I can manually slew to the target in silence :-) However I think medium term, lack of goto will be frustrating since I intend controlling it all from the warmth of the conservatory and so will need remote control ability.

Overall it seems more people are happy with the AZEQ6 - so should I just buy one now and stop procrastinating?

Thanks!

[Druid]

Az-EQ6 seemed pretty straightforward to me as a first mount. I also found that when I showed my efforts at unguided photos to a much more experienced friend with an older EQ6 that he was very impressed with the unguided accuracy. He seemed to think that the AZ-version must be significantly better than his EQ6 based on the star shapes on 3 min subs. 

[Stridor]

Hi everyone

I'm returning to astro-photography after a rather long hiatus of about 10 years (!) as I finally have a garden again and somewhere to plant my trusty LX90. My appetite was first whetted with a SAC7b webcam and I had great fun, if not great results!

Just before I relocated and had to pack away my kit, I upgraded to a SBIG ST-8E and so somewhat tragically, this expensive camera hasn't really had much of an outing yet - and is rather long in the tooth now to put it mildly!

Anyways, I'm finally planning to setup my kit again and have de-forked my LX90 to put it on a decent mount. I have a budget of 2K and have spent weeks now reading reviews and mulling options such as the NEQ6 / AZEQ6 / IEQ45-PRO / Losmandy GM11 and am starting to go around in circles. I had just about decided on the new IEQ45-PRO but I really like the idea of the dual encoders on the AZEQ6 and the additional payload capacity seems attractive if I upgrade my scope in the future. So my current thinking is the AZEQ6. I worry a bit that I should be saving more for something like the CEM60, but that starts to take me out of my budget.

I could be really tempted by the GM11 on grounds of engineering quality, but adding the Gemini Goto takes me way over budget.

Noise is also a consideration, I'm imaging from a suburban garden and so consideration of the neighbours is important, so I'm likely to prefer a quiet mount to a noisy one all other things being roughly equal. This is one thing that attracts about the GM11 non-goto version as I can manually slew to the target in silence :-) However I think medium term, lack of goto will be frustrating since I intend controlling it all from the warmth of the conservatory and so will need remote control ability.

Overall it seems more people are happy with the AZEQ6 - so should I just buy one now and stop procrastinating?

Thanks!

I`m sure it`s a great mount, and pretty well everyone who owns one is very happy with it. I on the other hand I have used mine probably a couple of dozen times and it has suddenly packed up working; it has blown the the fuse in the power cable which I replaced, but it is still as dead as a Do-Do; Goes back to the shop I bought it from for further examination tomorrow: I`m not happy at all especially as I am on a weeks holiday this week and was hoping to get out and use it.   

[Hobbes]

I've had an AZ-EQ6 GT for about 7 months now and love it.

On the noise front the mount is whisper quiet when tracking, Pretty quiet when slewing and if you are really worried about the noise level when slewing you can de-clutch and manually slew without loosing Go-To alignment.

I'm not an imager so cannot attest to its tracking accuracy but when observing I've had no problems with objects drifting out of view even after an hour plus.

[DannyHarvey]

I have just bought the EQ6 AZ.

What I like:

Build quality is great - mostly 

it's  portable

it has a polar illuminator

the setting circles are fairly decent (as compared to the CG5)

The dual encoders

The AZ mode - I  thought I wouldn't use it but its ideal for terrestrial viewing

What I dont like:

the bubble level is off (hence "mostly" for build quality)

the routing of a wire inside the unit - if I peer down the polar scope hole I can see a red/black cable has been routed over the view of the polar scope - a small niggle

The central bolt to mount the head to the tripod was a bit rough in terms of the threads (a smear of grease helped here) 

overall way way better than my old CG5 (but that was ok for the price)

HTH

Dan

[wuthton]

If you're planning on using Eqmod to control the mount then you can slow down the slew speed. A small reduction in speed reduces the noise significantly on the NEQ6, it should be the same for the AZEQ6.

[johnpd]

Regarding the noise while slewing, it is very quiet relative to the Celestron mounts that I have owned with one exception. If you slew using speed rate #7, it makes a rather strange load noise. This has been reported by myself and several other people. All other slew rates are fine including #8 and #9. It is overall an excellent mount.

JohnD

[brancusi]

Thanks everyone for your input, I think the decision has been made - and yes, I'll stick to the AZEQ6

[Joseki]

I had a AZEQ6  for a couple of months but sold it on again.  Some days I wish I still had it but others (and the majority of them) I'm really glad I've swapped it for a HEQ5, usually when I'm carrying it fully assembled one handed through a cluttered garage   (and I'm not in my 80's yet btw) you might also want to check out the new AZEQ5 http://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-mounts/skywatcher-az-eq5-gt-geq-alt-az-mount.html  .  The AZEQ6 is lovely, nice and quiet but my wallet isn't likely to outgrow the HEQ5 for a good while, if you know what I mean.

[Joseki]

noted comment on payload btw

This is one thing that attracts about the GM11 non-goto version as I can manually slew to the target in silence

with the AZEQ6 it's got "freedom find" so you can unlock the clutches, manually move scope and lock up & continue tracking. - but it's a quiet mount anyway.

[2STAR]

On 29/01/2015 at 16:05, Joseki said:

noted comment on payload btw

with the AZEQ6 it's got "freedom find" so you can unlock the clutches, manually move scope and lock up & continue tracking. - but it's a quiet mount anyway.

The new azeq5 gt can also do this i think or something similar

regards eric

[jambouk]

I would definately recommend the AZEQ6. I turn off the encoders to allow a more precise GOTO accuracy. 

 

[dannybgoode]

Love my AZEQ6 now I’ve finally got to grips with it. Tracks well, is quiet and handles everything up to my Meade 10” SCT with ease.

I’d strongly recommend the SynScan WiFi adapter - the handset (and this applies to all SynScan handsets) is hateful. I have also just bought the Lynx Astro usb to mount cable so I can use my pc for mount control. The WiFi dongle is what’s made the mount usable for me .

Mine guides via on camera ST4 at between 0.5 & 0.8” and that is using a reasonably crude visual PA.

It is a reasonably heavy mount but it’s still very manageable for setting up and taking down in the garden and I’d happily take it somewhere in the car and set it up within a short distance of where I was parked.