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What Is The Strongest Alt azimuth Mount With Motor Drive?

refractordude

By refractordude
in Discussions - Mounts

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JAO

JAO

Posted
Posted

I'm not that familiar with driven Altaz, but the Bray Tablet Mount had a very high capacity, I saw them with C14 OTAs attached. Although not made anymore they occasionally come up second hand. I use a Tele Optic Giro II, I mount a Mirage STF 7" Maksutov Cassegrain on one side and a Televue NP101 on the other. The Giro mount sits on top of a Berlbach Tripod. With a finder, eyepieces and diagonals the total load is around 30lb. Like you I'm happy to find stuff with a chart and finder.

Skywatcher AZ EQ mounts are driven, but also have Goto so probably are not what you are looking for. There was a mount I saw a few years ago called the Kokusai Kohki T-REX, not driven and fitted with DSCs, but it had a big capacity, so could take a C11 OTA.

Hope this helps

 

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Doc

Doc

Posted
Posted

I think either of my homemade mounts would handle a C11. They are really heavy mounts and over engineered so capable of heavy loads.

03MyM5.jpg

T7kYoX.jpg

As for professional mounts I would say The DM6, Bray Tablet and T-Rex.

 

 

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JAO

JAO

Posted
Posted
7 minutes ago, Doc said:

I think either of my homemade mounts would handle a C11. They are really heavy mounts and over engineered so capable of heavy loads.

03MyM5.jpg

T7kYoX.jpg

As for professional mounts I would say The DM6, Bray Tablet and T-Rex.

 

 

Not my thread but I must say they are two beautifully made Altaz mounts Doc, beating a lot of Pro Kit to my eye

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

Posted
Posted
On 4/30/2018 at 20:56, refractordude said:

Or can have a motor drive attached to it. The hunt for objects is great fun to me. Thus, I do not care for goto mounts. 20 to 35 pound capacity. Thanks for your advise.

Used anywhere but the poles an alt-azimuth mount needs not one but two motor drives and a computer to manage the relationship between the two in conjunction with a virtual planetarium. This being so, nobody (I don't think!) is going to make such a mount without GoTo since you need mostly the same technology to track as to go to. This does not oblige you to use the GoTo, though. You could drive the mount to the object using the handset. On most mounts (I think, but do check) you could not free the clutches in Alt Az mode, move the mount by hand and re-tighten the clutches without losing the synchronization with the sky which allows the Alt and Az drives to work together to keep the object centered. Personally I find driving a mount via motors and a handset absolutely maddening, though I like hunting with a manual mount.

The drives on my equatorial Mesus use Stellarcat motors and an Argonavis handset. This setup was primarily conceived to run Dobsonians so it can be configured to control alt Az mounts. It is an absolutely outstanding system which it might be possible to fit to any alt az mount.

Olly

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schmeah

schmeah

Posted
Posted
On 5/3/2018 at 12:40, orley said:

The TTS Panther has a payload of 22kg. Fully motor driven.

https://trackthestars.com/

The Mammoth holds even more...

Tom

Doc’s first homemade mount above looks just like a TTS Panther. Wonder if it performs similarly. The Panther seems like a great mount from the reading I’ve done.

Derek

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25585

25585

Posted
Posted
On 30/04/2018 at 21:38, Doc said:

I think either of my homemade mounts would handle a C11. They are really heavy mounts and over engineered so capable of heavy loads.

03MyM5.jpg

T7kYoX.jpg

As for professional mounts I would say The DM6, Bray Tablet and T-Rex.

 

 

Awesome 150 Esprit! ?

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Stu

Stu

Posted
Posted

Olly’s answer is a very good one and covers the main things to consider. Can you give more detail about what you want to achieve? I would agree with the suggestion of an AZEQ6, can be used as a full goto or skewed manually using the motors, or have the clutches released and be physically pointed wherever you need. Very good mount.

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  • 9 months later...
BGazing

BGazing

Posted
Posted

Just to resurrect this. How come only SW tapped into the market for bigger driven alt-az mounts. And how come they opted for hybrids (az and eq). From what I understand, AZEQ5 is not really a good platform for imaging, and one has to start at HEQ5, wouldn't it be easier to execute a sturdy AZ only mount than a combo mount? Could it be that the market for visual taps out after certain size and has no meaningful base save for combining it with the demand for sturdy imaging mounts?

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