Skytee 2 - New arrival

[Alan White]

I have finally got myself a Skytee 2, have looked at them so many times and then gone another direction.

Well got one yesterday and put it on my EQ5 Steel tripod and used my 150p f5 Newtonian.

Very smooth with clutches off and very smooth with clutches on, very nice indeed.
Moved my little 150p very well.
Nice comfortable viewing position obtained for my back, which is very important.
Damped to vibration almost instantly, but well under 1 second, was stood on concrete.

I am pondering putting it on a Berlebach tripod in time, but for now and for the finances sake, the steel tripod works very well.

 

One thing I was delighted to find was its drilled on the second end for M6 to fit another V clamp.
Not quite inline, but I think that is solved with some undoing of lock screws and aligning, yet to do this.

As per everyone else's comments, the clamps are dreadful as supplied, even the newer versions.
Dumped and an ADM Tak 6 clamp I already had fitted, much better.

I have been on quite some journey with mounts and don't SGL members know it!
Well like others have said before me, my journey is done!   For now?
It is such a nice mount in use, all the things I have been looking for and now I am sorted.

I did not think I would be worried by the slow motions, but now I have the option available, it is rather nice indeed.

Had a great first use last night with my 150p f5, which has been a similar journey to the mount.

As an aside, it was purchased from AstroBoot UK and was supplied as new goods, 12 month warranty.
They are being reliable as a supplier as per another post reviewing them by me.

[iPeace]

I've always liked the look of these, and the concept, and the feature set seems to have no competition in its price bracket. Always feel tempted yet again when I see another new one celebrated.

 

26 minutes ago, Alan White said:

I did not think I would be worried by the slow motions, but now I have the option available, it is rather nice indeed.

Curious: If not for slo-mo, why a SkyTee? With other options without slo-mo available, it's not the obvious choice for me - but just seeking your thoughts on this.

 

They have a good following, and there are also those who have not succeeded with it - when I take stock of all the commentaries I've read on them, it's hard to believe they're all referring to the same product... As stated, I really like the look and the concept, wish you good luck and clear skies with yours!

[Alan White]

The slow motion was part of the appeal but I knew it worked well without.

I wanted to see both actions.

The result is a bargain priced smooth mount and a very happy owner.

If I had bought expecting perfect clamps I would have been upset, but I knew the supplied clamps were scrap at the outset and had the ADM ready to roll.

 

[iPeace]

1 minute ago, Alan White said:

The slow motion was part of the appeal but I knew it worked well without.

I wanted to see both actions.

I can understand that - it is indeed very appealing.

2 minutes ago, Alan White said:

If I had bought expecting perfect clamps I would have been upset, but I knew the supplied clamps were scrap at the outset

Difficult to not be aware of this - you'd think that if they wanted to stay at a certain price point they would have got the message by now, leave off supplying any clamps at all, and make it that much cheaper.

3 minutes ago, Alan White said:

The result is a bargain priced smooth mount and a very happy owner.

That's what we all want to hear. Nice one.

[Alan White]

1 minute ago, iPeace said:

I can understand that - it is indeed very appealing.

Difficult to not be aware of this - you'd think that if they wanted to stay at a certain price point they would have got the message by now, leave off supplying any clamps at all, and make it that much cheaper.

That's what we all want to hear. Nice one.

Yep, Skywatcher OVL should get the message, the clamps are a pointless cost and weight addition to shipping!

[iPeace]

5 minutes ago, Alan White said:

Yep, Skywatcher OVL should get the message, the clamps are a pointless cost and weight addition to shipping!

Maybe we should organize an alternative Bonfire Night at an iron works somewhere, have everyone bring along their original SkyTee clamps, invite the press, chuck them all in... (yes, the clamps)

Don't mind me, I'm a bit of a nutter.

[Alan White]

5 minutes ago, iPeace said:

Maybe we should organize an alternative Bonfire Night at an iron works somewhere, have everyone bring along their original SkyTee clamps, invite the press, chuck them all in... (yes, the clamps)

Don't mind me, I'm a bit of a nutter.

I quite like the idea, nothing odd in your thought process here at all.

The queue of participants stepping up to the melting pot would be quite long.

[Alan White]

Must add, I listened to John (Huntley) and went with my head not my heart on this purchase.

[John]

Good purchase Alan

Very strong capable alt-az mounts. I use mine on either an Oberwerk hardwood tripod or a Berlebach Uni 28 depending on the scope thats going on there - the big TMB/LZOS 130 gets the Berlebach !

Nice to see that they are drilling the other end for another DT clamp if you wanted to use it that way. My earlier version does not have that.

I find that I use the alt slow motion for fine alignment but nudge the az axis. Don't quite know why but it seems to work for me !

Hope it provides excellent servce for you

 

[iPeace]

16 minutes ago, Alan White said:

Must add, I listened to John (Huntley) and went with my head not my heart on this purchase.

Yes, I certainly didn't expect John to end up (does it ever end?) with a SkyTee. But it just goes to show that it can definitely just work - or in some earlier cases, be made to work - just as nice as you like. Encouraging.

Perhaps the later version (the 2) is (even) better?

[Ben the Ignorant]

What is wrong with those clamps?

[alanjgreen]

Nice one Alan. I love my skytee-2! Ive had it 3 years or so and its been great. Only issue was that it used to freeze up on very cold nights during its first winter but Ive not had that issue for a couple of years now. I also had to play with the tensions on the slow-mo controls to get them as I wanted them when it was new.

You are right about those clamps, they are just too small and only one locking screw I changed mine to use the ADM too. I would not trust any expensive scope and eyepieces of mine to the junk clamps that skywatcher supply.

Alan

[Alan White]

2 hours ago, Ben the Ignorant said:

What is wrong with those clamps?

Ben, the engineering is terrible, the clamps are also small and the user experience is underwhelming. I would not wish to leave my equipment fixed to such a clamp.

The ADM is bigger and very well engineered.

Truly the supplied clamps really spoil the product, they would be better supplied clampless like so many other Alt Az mounts.

[Paul73]

Glad that you are pleased with your new toy. StyWatcher has made up for agricultural engineering by using bigger chunks of metal!! I’m a big fan.

Paul

[John]

1 hour ago, Alan White said:

... they would be better supplied clampless like so many other Alt Az mounts.

Which is what Telescope Services have done with their version of this mount:

https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p4539_TS-Optics-AZ5-Azimutale-Montierung-mit-Feinverstellung-in-beiden-Achsen.html

There are ways to get the stock clamps workable and safe which involves replacing the clamping knob with something much more hardwearing. It should not be required though and even with this modification the stock clamps are too small for the larger OTA's that the mount can handle IMHO.