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Alt-Az mount for Tak100DL

festoon

By festoon
in Discussions - Mounts

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festoon

festoon

Posted
Posted

I'm wondering if I can have some advice as to what mount I should get.

I have a Tak100DL and am looking for a Alt-Az mount with GOTO capability. This is purely for visual use (not astrophotography) so ease of set up is really important. Ideally the mount will not be too heavy. I've had a EQ6 before and found it too heavy, and find that my HEQ5 is just about a limit to what I find comfortable to carry.

I've been very tempted by the Ioptron AltAz range like the minitower pro, or minitower 2, or AZ pro, but have been put off by poor reviews/issues of ioptron mounts. If people have found one of these not to have problems also I'm happy to be corrected :)

I've also considered a celestron evo mount but am not sure any pillar extensions exist for this to allow for longer fracs.

 

 

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festoon

festoon

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6 hours ago, disciplus55 said:

Hey there,

i just got myself a SW AZ GTi, the new little one, on a solid tripod (I have a Berlebach UNI 18), and it is very stable with my DL. So stable that I sold my EQ5.

Thanks for the reply @disciplus55 :)

Just so I understand do you have a Berlebach UNI 18, then a HEQ5 adapter to Berlebach 3/8" Photo Adapter, then the SW AZ GTi?

Do you use it with the pillar extension as supplied with the GTi. I haven't actually seen one, but it looks a bit plastic, and I wondered how stable it might be? I presume I could replace the Berlebach UNI 18 with my HEQ5 2" tripod?

Many thanks :)

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RT65CB-SWL

RT65CB-SWL

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1 hour ago, festoon said:

Hi @Philip R...thanks for the reply :)

Please forgive my ignorance...What is an AYO?

Link here ---> https://www.firstlightoptics.com/alt-azimuth/aokswiss-ayo-ii-alt-az-mount.html

...and here --->  http://www.aokswiss.ch/ayo/main_ayo.html

 

@festoon I was on a bus at the time of my original reply to your post and unable to cut & paste the links.

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kerrylewis

kerrylewis

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I use mine with the Ioptron az pro that I bought earlier this year. The mount is excellent and the support from  Ioptron in the US is also excellent. I think that the issues with Ioptron mounts refer to other models and/or older equipment. They seem to get good reviews for the AZ pro and users on this forum also rate it highly. 

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John

John

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I'll be interested to read the replies you get on this.

I use a Skytee II mount for my Tak 100DL but thats not GOTO and not driven so not what you are looking for.

I guess the issue with many alt-az GOTO mounts is that the length of the fork arm/arms suits a shorter tube than the FC 100DL has :icon_scratch:

I reckon something like an AYO II fitted with encoders might do the job although that would be "push to" rather than "GOTO" I think. Likewise the Tele Vue Gibraltar fitted with their "push to" system might be worth thinking about.

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kerrylewis

kerrylewis

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John makes a fair point about the tube length but I find that the scope with diagonal etc clears the tripod  OK. Sometimes I fully retract the focus just to be sure. 

I notice that you live in Cambridge which is only 45mins or so from me. If you do consider the Ioptron I would be glad to demonstrate it to you if you want. 

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festoon

festoon

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Thanks so much for the input on this...some of these I have not considered before as options so apologies of these questions are silly :)

Does the SW GTi mount need to be balanced with a counterweight? @disciplus55 it would be great if you could please post a photo the next time you have everything together :)

I'm not against the idea of a push to set up, and the AYO II looks a lovely mount. Push to is something I've never had any experience of before. Is there a way of connecting the encoder position to something like a program on a mobile phone or screen with a map, so you know where you are in the sky and a target where you are heading to?

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festoon

festoon

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On 11/24/2017 at 16:36, kerrylewis said:

John makes a fair point about the tube length but I find that the scope with diagonal etc clears the tripod  OK. Sometimes I fully retract the focus just to be sure. 

I notice that you live in Cambridge which is only 45mins or so from me. If you do consider the Ioptron I would be glad to demonstrate it to you if you want. 

Thanks Kerry - I'd really like to take a look sometime at the AZ pro with you - as I would seriously consider this mount as an option for me. I'll send you a PM and we can discuss offline :)

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festoon

festoon

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I'm not sure how happy I'd feel having one screw hold my Tak FC100DL....The SW AZ GTi looks a lovely mount and some great technology. Given that telescopes often cost a lot of money, you'd think SW would have thought that new models of mounts would have a safe securing mechanism, or at least an option to buy an upgrade :)

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Stu

Stu

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On 24/11/2017 at 14:14, festoon said:

Do you use it with the pillar extension as supplied with the GTi. I haven't actually seen one, but it looks a bit plastic, and I wondered how stable it might be?

The pillar is actually made from metal, Ali I think, but is very solid and stable, no issues there.

I agree about the clamp, would be nice to have a upgrade possibility but in reality the single screw holds the scope perfectly well, touch wood I have had no problems. A safety screw at the top of the dovetail is always a wise precaution obviously.

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Stu

Stu

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I've been using the AZGTi a fair amount recently and actually really like it. I use it with a Synscan handset now which I find very convenient, but set/alignment is so trivially easy that it is not much hard than a manual mount to setup. Gotos are accurate enough to get within a widefield eyepiece which is good enough for me.

One strange effect is that the mount sometime hunts around when zeroing in on target, passing backwards and forward maybe 4 times before stopping. Not a massive deal, just a bit quirky :) 

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festoon

festoon

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Thank you for clarifying about the pillar @Stu :) It does sound like a great little mount and really easy to work with.

Not sure what you mean by "A safety screw at the top of the dovetail is always a wise precaution obviously." can you please clarify what this means or maybe a picture?

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Stu

Stu

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1 minute ago, festoon said:

Not sure what you mean by "A safety screw at the top of the dovetail is always a wise precaution obviously." can you please clarify what this means or maybe a picture?

I just mean that if you use a bolt which protrudes from the underside of your dovetail to secure the top tube ring, then if the scope slides down it will stop when this bolt hits the clamp rather than falling out completely. Hope this is clear but I'll try to sort a picture if I can.

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festoon

festoon

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Oh thats a great idea...I'd never thought of that before! I have the screw in a recess currently as I use the clamshell to attach the OTA to the mount, but I could certainly put a screw on the end of the dovetail just to act as a safety precuation

Thank you @Stu :)

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  • 2 weeks later...
festoon

festoon

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Morning all, I'm just re-opening this thread as I have been looking at an AZ-EQ5 and wondered if anyone could give me some opinions if this could be a good mount for my needs?

Just as a reminder, I have a Tak100DL and am looking for a Alt-Az mount with GOTO capability. This is purely for visual use (not astrophotography) so ease of set up is really important. Ideally the mount will not be too heavy. I've had a EQ6 before and found it too heavy, and find that my HEQ5 is just about a limit to what I find comfortable to carry.

Based on the discussion so far the contenders are the AZ GTi and the Ioptron AZ Pro

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