upgrading from alt azimuth to equatorial mount

[Christory]

Hi all. I'm a newbie and know little about telescopes so please forgive me if this seems a silly question. I've been thinking of changing the alt azimuth mount of my Celestron LT80AZ to an equatorial mount.  I've only seen a few mounts and they where all different at the tube fixing point.  Can equatorials be adapted for any make/type of scope or do I need to buy a Celestron equatorial mount? I don't need anything fancy but just thought an equatorial mount (maybe a simple EQ1) would be more stable the the alt azimuth. 

[Charic]

Your present mount will be easier to setup.

There is more to understand and setup using an EQ mount, there will be further regular adjustments and rotations of the telescope tube in order to keep the eyepiece in a convenient position whilst you track through the sky, then from experience, on my GEM mount, I had to centralize everything and align the controls before observing my next target. All-in-all very time consuming, but once mastered, its  not an issue, its just time consuming.

My jump from EQ to a Dobsonian was pivotal ( excuse the pun). The need for an EQ  for visual use only, to my mind, is  a waste, and an expensive one too. If I venture into Astrophotography, then an EQ mount may be essential, and one a higher spec than that supplied with the scope, for stability reasons.

An EQ mount, once you overcome and master the system can be  beneficial to many  folk too, as they can use additional   tube rings to  support/carry most types of  telescope, but the EQ system you buy needs to be STRONG and SOLID, otherwise, no matter what telescope you fit,  problems with stability in the wind could be an issue. A Dobsonian on the other hand, was designed to carry a large mirrored telescope easily and effectively, batteries not required?

 

 

[Demonperformer]

IMO, having owned one, 'stable' is not the first one that comes to my mind when I think of the EQ1.

Seriously, the question is, what do you want to do in this hobby. If you are interested in getting into DSO astrophotography [a.k.a. 'The Dark Side'], then an EQ mount is almost certainly going to become a necessity. The images you can take on an altaz mount are limited and/or extremely time-consuming [You can image the Horsehead Nebula with 2-second exposures (I've seen it done), but that isn't the easy way!].

If you are only interested in visual and/or planetary/lunar imaging, then an altaz mount will be fine. Of course, there are mounts and mounts - some are more stable than others. I don't know the mount you have, but if stability is the problem there are a number of solutions to this - sometimes something as simple as hanging a bag of sugar below the mount can increase its stability remarkably (by lowering its centre-of-gravity). Also, as Charic says, the altaz is simpler to setup, so even if you decide to go for a better mount, a better altaz might be better than a poor EQ.

HTH

[brantuk]

The pictures of your scope indicate it has a regular sized dovetail bar (though a short one) which would make the scope transferable to most other mounts that have a Skywatcher or Celestron standard mount shoe. The benefit of an equatorial mount is that it will track in one plane only (RA), after it's been polar aligned (both manual or motorised). For imaging single plane tracking is essential. In the case of manual mounts a small tweak in Dec may be needed infrequently to stay on track - for imaging PA needs to be very accurate and a very stable mount is required.

The EQ1 is perhaps the flimsiest mount in the range and usually comes on not so stable alluminium tripods - not really suitable for imaging. Same for the EQ2, EQ3, and EQ3-2 - I've had several of these and imho they're only good for very lightweight scopes and for observing - even then there's a substantial damping period.

For your mount upgrade I recommend an EQ5 mount minimum (manual or motorised) and for imaging an HEQ5 minimum - and probably a totally new scope like an ED80 for beginner astro photography. Hth

[Christory]

Hi guys.  Thanks for the advice.  I'm glad I haven't already bought an equatorial mount!  I'll stick with what I have.      

[Astro Imp]

7 minutes ago, Christory said:

Hi guys.  Thanks for the advice.  I'm glad I haven't already bought an equatorial mount!  I'll stick with what I have.      

I think that is very sensible.

[Charic]

14 minutes ago, Christory said:

Hi guys............  I'll stick with what I have.      

For now!  There's no rush, just  try and make the best of what you have/own and see what the future holds!
Don't be afraid to ask again, personal views and equipment can change, even over a short period of time.

[Cosmic Geoff]

In common with one or two of the other posters, I would suggest you stick with what you have till you are ready to change the whole kit for something better. You are welcome to ask us for advice on what to get at that time. It depends what you are most interested in doing.

An equatorial mount comes into its own if you want to use high magnification for several minutes or more, which is likely to be the case for looking at double stars, the Moon or one of the planets. In this case, not having a powered equatorial or a Goto is annoying.

For low power observation of starfields or the like, an equatorial or powered tracking is not necessary. But conversely, it may prove frustrating not having Goto to find the object in the first place.

If you were thinking of just getting an equatorial (it now seems not, quite understandably as it would exceed the price of your present outfit) I would suggest, like one of the other posters, that you get an EQ-5. It would be overkill for your present scope, but is a popular mount and useful to have as it will take any astronomical scope up to a weight of 9Kg, (for visual observing), which is the typical weight of a f5 8" Newtonian reflector.

[k9wis]

couldnt you just take your alt/az mount and tilt the base at an angle equal to your latitude and call it an equatorial mount?

Brian K9WIS