Will a Heritage 130p mount on a Celestron SLT goto mount

[Warped Drive]

Apologies if this has already been asked, I couldn't find a thread directly about it. Slow day at the office yesterday so I was looking through the various Buy and Sell sites and came across a Celestron Nexstar 102 SLT for sale at about a quarter of the new price. I am more interested in the mount than the scope although it seems to have gotten good reviews on here and other sites. Does anyone know if the Skywatcher dovetail will match up with the Celestron one . I just watched a video on you tube of a guy ( who looks uncannily like Roger Daltry from The Who ) setting one up and the dovetail looks similar, but would there be a weight issue or would the OTA on the Heritage be to big and get in the way of it having full free movement. I was thinking it might kill two birds with one stone as in

1. No more trying to see my azimuth circle with a red torch and holding an iPone on the side of the tube to get the Alt. And destroying my night vision getting the co-ordinates off my iPad .

2. Having to build some sort of stand as the patio table is not ideal nor is the chair I have to use when hiding from the Sodium security light on the college at the end of my back garden.

Or just put that money in the kitty and continue saving for the big Dob. Is there anything that the 102SLT would be better at than the Heritage as there is probably not much chance of selling the scope without the mount.

[Cornelius Varley]

If the SLT mount uses a standard vixen dovetail then there shouldn't be a problem.

[Golfey]

Agree about the mount.  The SLT might be better for Astro Photography.

As I have been looking at all things Astronomy recently I can say that there are a lot of scope only (OTA) sales on ebay and elsewhere.

[Helen]

The dovetail holder is the standard one, and Celestron sell a variation of the SLT with a 130 tube, so you should be OK.

I wouldn't recommend it for astrophotography though, except lunar and planetary, as the tracking is Alt Az and the mount is relatively lightweight.

Helen

[Warped Drive]

I hadn't thought about the astro photography aspect as I didn't hold out much hope of mounting my Pentax K30 on the Heritage but it might work ok with the SLT as you say for moon and planet shots plus I suppose I could use it for a bit of terrestrial viewing seeing as I live right beside the sea. The Queen Mary II was anchored out in the bay about two weeks ago that would have been worth a look. Although from that vid on you tube it looks like a fairly chunky bit of kit so it might not be too portable. Decisions, decisions!

Is there anything in particular to look out for in that type of mount that might suggest its dodgy (apart from the stepper motors hanging out the side and smoke billowing out of it) as it is pretty cheap they are asking €160.00 and the are €600.00 new on the site I bought my Heritage from.

[happy-kat]

I enjoy having my small refractor as well as my heritage as it gives a different experience.

[cotterless45]

You'll be needing a good dose of aperture fever !

Old Nick.