What Is The Strongest Alt azimuth Mount With Motor Drive?

[refractordude 41]

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.

[RichM63 4,820]

Probably the Lovell telescope at Jodrell Bank has the strongest Alt/Az mount.

[JAO 34]

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

 

Edited April 30, 2018 by JAO
typo correction

[Doc 1,965]

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

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

 

 

[JAO 34]

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.

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

[ollypenrice 28,468]

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

[orley 59]

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

https://trackthestars.com/

The Mammoth holds even more...

Tom

[R26 oldtimer 625]

How about AZEQ6?

[schmeah 153]

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

[25585 1,318]

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.

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

 

 

Awesome 150 Esprit! ?

[25585 1,318]

Meade 16 inch SCT and mount 

[Doc 1,965]

7 hours ago, 25585 said:

Awesome 150 Esprit! ?

No a 120 Esprit

[Stu 30,382]

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.

[25585 1,318]

Shame there is no AZHEQ5. A less expensive but stronger mount than an AZEQ5. Would the big Vixen APZ Alt Az which can be motorised qualify there?

Edited May 11, 2018 by 25585

[25585 1,318]

2 hours ago, Doc said:

No a 120 Esprit

Looks so chunky! 

[BGazing 461]

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?

[Ullomat 47]

Hi, the problem of the AZEQ5 is its bad tripod/pier combination. The rest is ok imho. 

But I heard there is a new version of it, but I am not sure. 

cs,

Uli

[Pancho61 23]

Hello, you have forget the kokhusai koki TREX mount it can be motorize. We have one in our club with home made motorize, very powerfull ans stable mount. Maybe we have a new run in the future according to barry wait and see...

https://kokusai-kohki.shop-pro.jp/?pid=87897500

Damien

Edited March 17, 2019 by Pancho61

[Ullomat 47]

Hi,

I had the T-Rex, a really capable mount. There is (probably was) a motor set for the Avalon mount driving system. 

cs,

Uli