What Alt-az Mount?

[pbyrne]

Hi everyone.

 

I have decided that it is time to go back to simpler things and ditch the CG-5 and move to an alt-az mount.  There are a couple that I have my eye on and I am looking for some advice and opinions from all you good folks.

Here's the contenders:

 https://www.365astronomy.com/SKYTEE-2-Heavy-Duty-Dual-Load-AltAzimuth-Mount-by-ovl.html

https://www.365astronomy.com/365Astronomy-Giant-Alt-Azimuth-Telescope-Mount-Head-ONLY.html

I plan to use the tripod from the CG-5, the scopes will be a Celestron C8 Newtonian. 5.6kgs. and 100mm Bresser refractor, 3.9kgs for deep sky.  120mm Evostar, 5.1kgs for solar and 127mm Skywatcher Mak, 3.2kgs for lunar.  I also plan to attach my 20x90 binoculars via the correct bracket.

The Skytee has slow motion controls, but I wonder how accessible they will be when at the eyepiece of the Newtonian or the long tube of the Evostar.  The weight limit is 15 kg.  There is also €100 in the price difference, that could buy the binocular bracket.

The 365 head has a weight limit of 12kgs.

The 365 head have the scopes mounted on the ends of the arms, the Skytee has one on top.  Would this make a difference?

The Skytee has a counterweight bar, the 365 model does not, is this counterweight necessary with the scopes I use?

The  365 head is stated to weight 8 kgs while the Skytee is 6 kgs.

Any opinions and first hand advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[heliumstar]

Now I didn't use AYO II (which looks like it would suit you ) but considering I used AZ3, AZ4, Porta II, AYO VAMO and handled Altair Sabre if I were to choose a new Alt-Az mount I would look nowhere else than for any of Beat's creations.

[rwilkey]

Hi Paul,

Not sure what telescope you have but I use the Skytee II with my 200P and found it would not sit easily on the top mounting (too high, and my preferred configuration) so I set it on the side mount and it looks a bit uncomfortable there but it works.  Also I found that I don't need the counter-weights, the tripod is strong enough to bear the mount head as well as the telescope.  I have no experience of your second choice but if your telescope is a 200 or smaller should fit OK on either mount, but if it is larger than a 200P you will need to consider your options more carefully.  I was lucky enough to buy my Skytee second hand on this forum so very pleased with it.  I see the Skytee is lighter but more expensive, I would not be willing to pay that price for it.  I quite like the look of the GIAZ and the price looks more palatable, though no obvious slo-mo controls which the Skytee has (this was important to me as I am slightly disabled and this helps with my gittery hands). Hope this helps! 

 

[Guest]

I mount my eight inch F4. 4 Newtonian on an Altair Sabre mount. These can be bought from Altair Astro. 

[Knighty2112]

For the Skytee 2 you could attach longer cables for the slow motion comtrol. Makes it much easier when you have longer scopes on the mount. Don’t have mine anymore (sold to Doug), but worked well when I had it. I did add a few mods on top of the longer slo motion controls though to improve things better.

[John]

If you go for the Skytee II it has the capacity on the side arm for your 8" F/5 newtonian but you need to budget to replace the dovetail clamp - the stock one is really not up to the job.

Not sure about the Giant alt-az mount - I've seen one in use but it had a 4 inch F/7 refractor on it so not much of a challenge.

The Altair Sabre would also be suitable or the Giro Ercole if you can find one.

I used to put my 10" F/4.8 Orion Optics newtonian on a heavy duty giro type mount and it worked very well:

 

[jock1958]

Got my Tak 100 mounted on a Skytee 2 with a couple of extension cables attached to the Alt slo-mo control. Works well for me.