New SW AZ5

[John]

1 hour ago, GavStar said:

The capacity appears to be less than the vixen porta 2, not sure what the benefits of the az5 are over the porta?

I'll put it on a more sturdy tripod and see how it does compared with the stock one.

[tooth_dr]

5 hours ago, John said:

When I test the AZ5, I'll be trying 3 scopes on it:

Skywatcher ED120 F/7.5

Takahashi FC 100 F/9

Vixen 102 F/6.5

When I had an AZ-4 I found the ED120 just a little too much for that mount even when it was on a 2" steel tubed tripod.

It will be interesting to see how the AZ5 fares. FLO are also sending me the Pronto version to compare with the AZ5 as well.

Thanks FLO

 

This guy is also going to try his televue np101 on it for the eclipse  hope it doesn't fall off 

[AdeKing]

5 hours ago, mikeDnight said:

It's just a shame the flexi drive is poorly situated on the azimuth axis, but its not an insurmountable problem.

I was disappointed by the azimuth flexi-drive location as well, especially as the azimuth control on the AZ Pronto looks to be better placed in my opinion.

[John]

55 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

 

This guy is also going to try his televue np101 on it for the eclipse  hope it doesn't fall off 

It's a shortish 10 lbs OTA so it should be OK.

Edited July 28, 2017 by John

[tooth_dr]

58 minutes ago, John said:

It's a shortish 10 lbs OTA so it should be OK.

 

More the price of it!

Edited July 28, 2017 by tooth_dr

[John]

Just now, tooth_dr said:

 

More the price of it...

Insurance is a marvellous thing

[mikeDnight]

 Well I've had my eye on the AZ5 mount since I first saw it in last year's SkyWatcher calender. When Piero told me they were now on sale I was a bit disappointed, as the time of wonder was over and it was now time to make a decision. Did I want to spend my money on a new AZ mount when my AZ4 already does a splendid job of carrying my FC100DC solidly enough 

It arrives on Tuesday! 

[Alan White]

Mike that's great another tester, please post up how you find it.

 

[John]

1 hour ago, mikeDnight said:

 Well I've had my eye on the AZ5 mount since I first saw it in last year's SkyWatcher calender. When Piero told me they were now on sale I was a bit disappointed, as the time of wonder was over and it was now time to make a decision. Did I want to spend my money on a new AZ mount when my AZ4 already does a splendid job of carrying my FC100DC solidly enough 

It arrives on Tuesday! 

Did you order the mount and tripod Mike, or just the mount head ?

[mikeDnight]

1 hour ago, John said:

Did you order the mount and tripod Mike, or just the mount head ?

Just the head John! I thought about the half pier and tripod but I already have a heavy duty aluminium tripod that I use with the AZ4, so I'll be using that.

[John]

7 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

Just the head John! I thought about the half pier and tripod but I already have a heavy duty aluminium tripod that I use with the AZ4, so I'll be using that.

Sounds sensible to me Mike. So far the tripod looks none to impressive with these new alt-az mounts. The rest of the AZ5 looks very interesting though

[Stu]

Shame you can't buy the pillar with the head as that looks a really good idea.

At some point, assuming it gets good feedback, I may look into the AZ-GTi. On the Gitzo tripod it would make a great grab and go mount for the Tak but not sure if that one is being sold as just the head.

[John]

10 hours ago, Stu said:

Shame you can't buy the pillar with the head as that looks a really good idea.

At some point, assuming it gets good feedback, I may look into the AZ-GTi. On the Gitzo tripod it would make a great grab and go mount for the Tak but not sure if that one is being sold as just the head.

The pillar is available on it's own for £24. I suppose that puts the cost of the tripod in perspective - £169 for the mount head plus pillar, £40 more gets the tripod as well.

[paulastro]

On ‎29‎/‎07‎/‎2017 at 19:39, mikeDnight said:

 Well I've had my eye on the AZ5 mount since I first saw it in last year's SkyWatcher calender. When Piero told me they were now on sale I was a bit disappointed, as the time of wonder was over and it was now time to make a decision. Did I want to spend my money on a new AZ mount when my AZ4 already does a splendid job of carrying my FC100DC solidly enough 

It arrives on Tuesday! 

Mike, can I borrow yours for a few months to give it a good test and see if it's suitable for me?  Of course, I''d let you keep it for a week or two before I 'borrow' it!    You may not believe this, but I lent a good friend of mine a pair of orthos, and didn't get them back until four years had passed. 

[mikeDnight]

1 hour ago, paulastro said:

Mike, can I borrow yours for a few months to give it a good test and see if it's suitable for me?  Of course, I''d let you keep it for a week or two before I 'borrow' it!    You may not believe this, but I lent a good friend of mine a pair of orthos, and didn't get them back until four years had passed. 

Sounds fare to me! ?

[mikeDnight]

My new AZ5 arrived this afternoon, so here is a preliminary report.

The AZ5 altazimuth head arrived securely packaged and looks a beautiful bit of kit straight out of the box.

There were a couple of problems to overcome before I could fit the head to my Vixen tripod. There is no hole underneath the AZ5 head to accommodate the azimuth peg protruding from the tripod top, so my cure for that part of the problem was to cut the useless peg off using a Jr hacksaw. Problem solved!

The next issue to overcome was to exchange the Vixen securing bolt for a 3/8" bolt plus a few spacing washers. This added a further £1.02 to the over all cost. 

Once attached to the Vixen tripod the AZ5 head appeared to be equally as solid as the AZ4, which I always found to be a sturdy mount for a scope like mine. After attaching the telescope and fitting an eyepiece the AZ5 head damped out at three seconds, which is the same as the AZ4.

The slow motions can be operated using the short knobs or longer flexi controls, both supplied. My scope is short, so i prefer the short knobs which are easily reached while looking through the eyepiece.  At first there was some backlash on the azimuth control, so by gently tightening the grub screw on both the azimuth and altitude worms, I was able to adjust the slow motion controls to my own liking and getting rid of any back lash.

There is a locking nut on both axes which when tightened allows the use of the slow motion controls, but when released the AZ5 moves in both axes with a buttery smooth motion at the touch of a finger.

So far I am very pleased with my purchase. The next step is to wait for a clear night to get a true feel for this little beauty. Then, if my friend paulastro can be coaxed into it, I'll try his DL on the AZ5 to see if the extra length of tube makes any noticeable difference.

 

Edited August 1, 2017 by mikeDnight

[F15Rules]

That looks superb Mike ..

So you just bought the head and used an existing Vixen ali tripod?

Do you think the ali tripod handles the weight ok? I've always been a bit dubious of them, preferring either the stainless tubular legs (preferably 2"), or a wooden tripod. But I can see that the whole point of this mount is for portability, so this setup you now have definitely ticks that box.

Am sorely tempted to get one for grab and go and holidays for my newly acquired Vixen ED103s F7.7..

I also like that extension tube they offer for £24, as it would allow the tripod to be reduced by the same amount and therefore probably be more solid?

Congratulations on a lovely bit of kit

Dave

[mikeDnight]

6 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

That looks superb Mike ..

So you just bought the head and used an existing Vixen ali tripod?

Do you think the ali tripod handles the weight ok? I've always been a bit dubious of them, preferring either the stainless tubular legs (preferably 2"), or a wooden tripod. But I can see that the whole point of this mount is for portability, so this setup you now have definitely ticks that box.

Am sorely tempted to get one for grab and go and holidays for my newly acquired Vixen ED103s F7.7..

I also like that extension tube they offer for £24, as it would allow the tripod to be reduced by the same amount and therefore probably be more solid?

Congratulations on a lovely bit of kit

Dave

Hi Dave,

Yes I just bought the head thinking that's all I'd need. The tripod is a more heavy duty version of the Vixen tripod than some I've seen, and is taller with a wider spread than those available from SkyWatcher. When I bought it, it was advertised as a HAL tripod, though it doesn't look like the modern HAL. I suppose it is heavy duty so I'll go along with the claim, though I don't know if Vixen did make some early HALs this way?

I think the Vixen ED103s will benefit from the slow motion controls as its capable of critical high power observing. I may be tempted by the half pier in the future but I'm going to wait for John's report on the set-up first.

I think id be inclined to stick with a better tripod than the flimsy looking tripod advertised.

[mikeDnight]

45 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

That looks superb Mike ..

So you just bought the head and used an existing Vixen ali tripod?

Do you think the ali tripod handles the weight ok? I've always been a bit dubious of them, preferring either the stainless tubular legs (preferably 2"), or a wooden tripod. But I can see that the whole point of this mount is for portability, so this setup you now have definitely ticks that box.

Am sorely tempted to get one for grab and go and holidays for my newly acquired Vixen ED103s F7.7..

I also like that extension tube they offer for £24, as it would allow the tripod to be reduced by the same amount and therefore probably be more solid?

Congratulations on a lovely bit of kit

Dave

Just a point that might be of interest Dave, which I didn't mention earlier. The old AZ4 was a smooth mount but it suffered from a seemingly insurmountable problem, that of static friction. Once in motion the AZ4 glided but if left for a short time it took a little effort to start it moving, which at high power often meant over shooting the target. The AZ5 appears to have overcome the static friction problem and moves immediately with a gentle touch.

[Mark at Beaufort]

Thanks for the initial review and photos Mike. I do like the Mount but not too keen on the tripod. I have a quality Cullmann photo tripod with a hook underneath to hold weights making the tripod very stable. I was thinking of getting the pillar thus making the tripod even more stable.

So at the moment its either the AZ5 or the WiFi version for my Heritage 130P

[Alan White]

Mike

nice review and answers a few questions.

one thing you don't say is how heaven is it in comparison to the AZ4?

look forward to yountesting paulastros larger scope out on it

[mikeDnight]

4 minutes ago, Alan White said:

Mike

nice review and answers a few questions.

one thing you don't say is how heaven is it in comparison to the AZ4?

look forward to yountesting paulastros larger scope out on it

Hi Alan,

I didn't compare the respective weights of the mount heads but I didn't notice the AZ5 being any heavier than the AZ4, so I'd imagine they are very similar weight wise.

 

[Piero]

That looks very nice, Mike!  

I look forward to reading your thoughts under the stars!  

[GavStar]

Hi Mike,

what is the dovetail clamp like? Does it look like it could be upgraded to say an adm clamp?

Gavin

[mikeDnight]

1 hour ago, GavStar said:

Hi Mike,

what is the dovetail clamp like? Does it look like it could be upgraded to say an adm clamp?

Gavin

Hi Gavin,

The clamp does look like its detachable, but I couldn't say for sure if the adm would fit it.