Best Portable Telescope Mount For Air-Travel?

[lrt75914]

Hi guys,

I'm searching for a telescope mount that is portable enough to be carried on a plane, yet sturdy enough to accommodate a telescope, camera, filter wheel and 9x50 guide scope - the upper limit for the telescope's size and weight would be the skywatcher esprit 100.  I've been looking at a lot of portable mount systems and the astrotrac travel system seems to be the obvious choice for the task at hand. However, I read through a lot of reviews that would suggest that the astrotrac has some design and/or build quality issues (polarscope mount etc.) which would make the system a lot less reliable than I would want it to be. As far as I can tell the only other alternative would be to marry the astrotrac pier and wedge with the losmandy starlapse.  The starlapse seems to be a lot less proven, though, and sky at night magazine puts the astrotac above the starlapse mount in its overall performance.

I was wandering if anyone of you has some experience with these systems and whether they could support the imaging rig I had in mind? Are there any other options I should be looking at?

Patrick

[D4N]

You are quite a bit overweight for most of the portable mounts but an iOptron ZEQ25 could do the trick.  The mount is slightly heavier and it has a slightly lower payload at 12kg instead of 15kg but it is able to guide in Dec as well as RA which will be a huge advantage if you want to do long exposures.  Obviously being goto is a bonus too but the big disadvantage is that it requires a 12V supply as it does not have internal batteries.

I don't actually own a ZEQ25 though so can't vouch for it in particular only on specs and judging by the iOptron mount that I do own can do.

[MARS1960]

The only other one that may be of interest is this, but it's limit is 5kg ish.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-mounts/skywatcher-star-adventurer-astronomy-bundle.html

[lrt75914]

8 hours ago, D4N said:

You are quite a bit overweight for most of the portable mounts but an iOptron ZEQ25 could do the trick.  The mount is slightly heavier and it has a slightly lower payload at 12kg instead of 15kg but it is able to guide in Dec as well as RA which will be a huge advantage if you want to do long exposures.  Obviously being goto is a bonus too but the big disadvantage is that it requires a 12V supply as it does not have internal batteries.

I don't actually own a ZEQ25 though so can't vouch for it in particular only on specs and judging by the iOptron mount that I do own can do.

I was looking at the iOptron mounts but they seem to be bulkier than the StarLapse while offering no increase in load capacity. The StarLapse apparently is based on Losmandy's GM8 which seems to be capable enough of accommodating a small imaging rig. Whether that translates to it's portable counterpart and wether the additional declination axis could turn it into a comparable system, I don't know.  

8 hours ago, MARS1960 said:

The only other one that may be of interest is this, but it's limit is 5kg ish.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-mounts/skywatcher-star-adventurer-astronomy-bundle.html

My dad already owns the StarAdventurer so I'm covered on that front. I would, however, love to have something that sits in-between the StarAdventurer and my AZ-EQ6 while remaining travel friendly.

[D4N]

The Starlapse is smaller because by default it doesn't have a Dec axis.  You also cannot guide on it unless you purchase the separate Dec axis.

[StuartJPP]

What's your budget?

The Avalon M-Zero is in my mind a cracking solution, it is very versatile (and comes in red) but it doesn't come cheap, unless you get one cheap(er) 2nd hand like I did. I did own an iOptron ZEQ25-GT for about 3 months and I would rather forget the whole experience than bring it up again (there is a review in the review section).

I also own an AstroTrac and I can't fault it, it has been great once the few little things have been sorted...mainly collimating the polar scope and polar scope arm. My polar scope was spot on once collimated, others have had different experiences. I do use the AstroTrac head and wedge but not the pier but it all gets mounted on to a sturdy Gitzo tripod (GT5541LS). I'd use a PoleMaster now with the AstroTrac and ditch the polar scope anyway.

Since I got the M-Zero I haven't used the AstroTrac much, but that may change shortly.

I have said this in other forums/threads, you need to weigh everything you will need to take with you if you are imaging. Every little bit adds up and even the M-Zero setup takes up all of my luggage allowance. I created a spreadsheet with every item listed along with their respective weights...

 

[lrt75914]

6 hours ago, StuartJPP said:

What's your budget?

The Avalon M-Zero is in my mind a cracking solution, it is very versatile (and comes in red) but it doesn't come cheap, unless you get one cheap(er) 2nd hand like I did. I did own an iOptron ZEQ25-GT for about 3 months and I would rather forget the whole experience than bring it up again (there is a review in the review section).

I also own an AstroTrac and I can't fault it, it has been great once the few little things have been sorted...mainly collimating the polar scope and polar scope arm. My polar scope was spot on once collimated, others have had different experiences. I do use the AstroTrac head and wedge but not the pier but it all gets mounted on to a sturdy Gitzo tripod (GT5541LS). I'd use a PoleMaster now with the AstroTrac and ditch the polar scope anyway.

Since I got the M-Zero I haven't used the AstroTrac much, but that may change shortly.

I have said this in other forums/threads, you need to weigh everything you will need to take with you if you are imaging. Every little bit adds up and even the M-Zero setup takes up all of my luggage allowance. I created a spreadsheet with every item listed along with their respective weights...

 

The M-Zero looks amazing but unfortunately it's out of my prize range.  I was hoping to stay below 2000-2500€ for the whole setup. If you don't mind mr asking, how much did you pay for your used mount?

[StuartJPP]

15 minutes ago, lrt75914 said:

The M-Zero looks amazing but unfortunately it's out of my prize range.  I was hoping to stay below 2000-2500€ for the whole setup. If you don't mind mr asking, how much did you pay for your used mount?

£2.5k, still a lot but I haven't looked back wishing I had bought something different...buy once and you save money long term.

The AstroTrac is still a good option, but you can spend quite a bit of time framing targets.

[lrt75914]

On 10. September 2016 at 00:17, StuartJPP said:

£2.5k, still a lot but I haven't looked back wishing I had bought something different...buy once and you save money long term.

The AstroTrac is still a good option, but you can spend quite a bit of time framing targets.

I've been browsing the astrobin website to see what the m-zero is capable of. What struck me the most is that some of the pictures were taken with 8" celestron edge hds, 8" gso ritchey-chrétiens and larg(er) apochromats (see here and here). If that's true it's load capacity for photographic use could well exceed the 10 kg mark, making it way more capable than the astrotrac and starlapse systems. Would you agree with that assessment?

Another thing I would like to know is wether the design, build quality and materials used are as good as the price would suggest? In other words, do I get a quality product for a quality price or could there be a cause for concern when taking it on the road (i.e. due to rust or rough handling)?

Patrick.

P.S.: Sorry to bombard you with so many questions, but I'm always a bit cautious when it comes to pricey gear and italian engineering . 

[StuartJPP]

No problem Patrick,

The load carrying weight is conservative looking at what some people image with...but i wouldn't push it too far. My OTA and camera and bits weigh in at about 7kg...

The quality of the mechanics is excellent, it is all milled aluminium with stainless fastenings, no rust. The counterweight is stainless as is the counterweight bar. I haven't opened up the RA/DEC sections so I can't comment on the drive quality but it hasn't given me any problems.

There are some bad points, the polar scope holder isn't great...but I now use a PoleMaster anyway. The hand controller is very simple as you are expected to use your phone/tablet or laptop for GOTO. I use Stellarium on PC or SkySafari on Android phone.

Although it can do horizon to horizon with no meridian flip your OTA needs to be right to support it...it is difficult to say if it will beforehand. There are quite a few configurations it can be set to...E.g. filter wheels and cameras etc. Mine is no problem and in my previous posts you can see what it looks like.

If you can see one in the flesh it would be worthwhile.

The RA/DEC sections separate, so easier to transport. The RA section is still large(ish) but way smaller than a lot of other mounts...probably about the size of a StarAdventurer.

Luciano is very helpful and genuinely interested in helping people should any problems or questions arise.

However it is a big expense so any other questions fire away...

[lrt75914]

15 hours ago, StuartJPP said:

No problem Patrick,

The load carrying weight is conservative looking at what some people image with...but i wouldn't push it too far. My OTA and camera and bits weigh in at about 7kg...

The quality of the mechanics is excellent, it is all milled aluminium with stainless fastenings, no rust. The counterweight is stainless as is the counterweight bar. I haven't opened up the RA/DEC sections so I can't comment on the drive quality but it hasn't given me any problems.

There are some bad points, the polar scope holder isn't great...but I now use a PoleMaster anyway. The hand controller is very simple as you are expected to use your phone/tablet or laptop for GOTO. I use Stellarium on PC or SkySafari on Android phone.

Although it can do horizon to horizon with no meridian flip your OTA needs to be right to support it...it is difficult to say if it will beforehand. There are quite a few configurations it can be set to...E.g. filter wheels and cameras etc. Mine is no problem and in my previous posts you can see what it looks like.

If you can see one in the flesh it would be worthwhile.

The RA/DEC sections separate, so easier to transport. The RA section is still large(ish) but way smaller than a lot of other mounts...probably about the size of a StarAdventurer.

Luciano is very helpful and genuinely interested in helping people should any problems or questions arise.

However it is a big expense so any other questions fire away...

 

I already own the PoleMaster so a subpar polar scope wouldn't bother me to much. The hand controller has me curious, though. Is the mount unusable without a 'smart device' or do they just provide the goto functionality? More specifically, could I point my telescope to a region of interest in the sky, set the mount to the sidereal tracking speed and follow/image that ROI using a standalone auto-guider, without connecting the mount to a pc or smartphone?

Anyway, the mounts load capacity seems to be high enough to accommodate any telescope that I could reasonably take on an airplane with me and the build quality and performance (as attested to by you and many other reviewers) seem to justify the premium price. I'm not sure if buying this mount is a viable option for me and I definitely have to raise more cash if I decide to go for it. It is definitely on my radar now, though!

Thank you for your quick and thorough reply Stuart. Your advice is greatly appreciated!

Patrick

[StuartJPP]

The mount can be run with a standalone auto guider such as the Lacerta M-Gen or similar. Obviously an ST4 type cable needs to be connected from the guider to the StarGo controller.

When you power on the mount it starts off in an idle state (LED solid). Pressing any button on the hand controller starts the mount tracking at sidereal rate (LED flashing).

You can only do a GOTO using your phone/tablet or PC as the hand controller is very basic.

I was going to get an M-Gen but decided on a combination laptop/tablet (Lenovo Yoga 3 11") which was much cheaper and adds tons of extra features. PoleMaster requires a PC anyway so I am actually not bothered about using a PC in the field. I put it into a low power mode/profile and it will last the whole night.

[clarkpm4242]

I have the complete Astrotrac set up.  Pier, wedge, head and AT-AG.  I now use a Polemaster for alignment.

This carries a William Optics Star71, Canon 7D MkII and unit power finder.

I have found that my problems with the AT system have disappeared with using the Polemaster.  Easy to align and re-align during a session.

Paul

[GTom]

I have the same issue, looking for a decent lightweight mount for a 90/600 Triplet (weighs 4kg/9lbs itself). So far I concluded the Astrotrac to be the only viable solution. The Avalon stuff looks really great, but I just can't justify the price + it is still a bit on the heavy side. Come on, you don't want to put a 5k$ mount in the cargo hold! On several airlines hand-luggage are restricted below 10kg/20lbs, and you need other stuff than astro... Even with the astrotrac+camera+scope+flattener+2eyepieces I would barely stay below 20lbs...