Skywatcher az4 ?

[Ju Piter]

Hi everyone i am going to buy the skywatcher az4 for my 130p then next year buy a new ota for it so has anyone had experience with this mount and whats the max ota that will fit on it.

[RikM]

Hi Neil, I have the AZ4 and use it quite happily with a 150P f/5 but I don't think a 200P would fit. I'm not going to be at the next Cotswold AS meeting on 12th Sept in Shurdington unfortunately but if you want to meet up and have a look at an AZ4 drop me a PM.

[John]

I had an AZ-4 on the steel tubed tripod for a couple of years. It's an excellent mount and easily carried my F/6.5 4" Vixen refractor. I also used it occasionally with my F/7.5 ED120 refractor (about 15 lbs in weight) and it was OK but not great at high powers.

I suspect that a 6" mak-cassegrain, a 6" SCT, a 6" F/5 newtoinan and a 4" F/10 refractor would all be OK on the AZ-4 (not all at the same time !!!) but those are about it's limits.

[Joseki]

Its a good mount, I've got the steel tube version. I had a 6" f5 newt on it ok, but it was slightly difficult. My 4" refractor (f9) works well but you need the pillar extension for comfortable use. It doesn't have fine adjustment though.

[Ju Piter]

thanks for the reply guys i did think a 150 would be the max for stability just needed to check.ive been looking at the 150pds for next year so that would fit perfectly then maybe in a couple of years i could get a nice eq driven mount and dip my toe into ap

[Ju Piter]

Its a good mount, I've got the steel tube version. I had a 6" f5 newt on it ok, but it was slightly difficult. My 4" refractor (f9) works well but you need the pillar extension for comfortable use. It doesn't have fine adjustment though.

hi i am not really bothered about slow motion controls(i am getting really good at nudging )

[Joseki]

hi i am not really bothered about slow motion controls(i am getting really good at nudging )

It doesn't bother me either btw and its easy to adjust the friction in the axis. It definitely helps to make sure the scope is balanced properly.

[Ju Piter]

well guys i have done a total turn around and just bought the 130pds even though i love my heritage 130p the focuser is really the only thing i can say i am not happy with and the pds focuser will be a lot better.

just a quick question on the pds will i get a better field of view with it having the 2" focuser ?

[RikM]

By itself, no, the focuser doesn't affect field of view. Your current eyepieces will give you the exact same view as with your Heriatage. The 2" focuser will allow you to use 2" super/ultra/hyper-wide angle eyepieces in the future and those will give you a wider field of view.

[Stu]

well guys i have done a total turn around and just bought the 130pds even though i love my heritage 130p the focuser is really the only thing i can say i am not happy with and the pds focuser will be a lot better.

just a quick question on the pds will i get a better field of view with it having the 2" focuser ?

If you use 2" eyepieces then yes, you will get a larger fov than just 1.25".

With a 24mm Panoptic or 32mm plossl you will get around 2.5 degrees which is the max with a 1.25".

With a 24mm 82 degree afov Maxvision which is 2", you will get just over 3 degrees and with a 40mm 68 degree afov Maxvision you would get just over 4 degrees.

[Ju Piter]

thanks again you guys are awesome i love wide field views and my 30mm vixen npl is my most used ep now i can look at 2" eps