Lightrack II or ???

[SAW]

Hi,

Seriously considering getting a Fornax Lightrack II to use with my small refractors. Currently own a HEQ5 and Star Adventurer, rarely set the HEQ5 up due to time, weight etc and never been impressed with the SA.

Anyone use a Lightrack II, what do you think of it ? I was going to us a Manfrotto 410 head on it so it gives me some fine adjustment, with this head and any of my refractors I'm still under the 6kg payload with out a counterweight. I've got a Berlebach 212 that I can use and just got a Berlebach mini as I would like to take a mount and scope on holiday.

The only thing I'm concerned about is not having GoTo !

Can you do time lapse with the Lightrack II ?

The other mounts I've considered are Ioptron SKyguider Pro but seems to similar to my SA. Vixen Polarie but don't think this will take the weight of a small refractor ?

[Davey-T]

Have you seen the Omegon clockwork one ?

Dave

[SAW]

6 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

Have you seen the Omegon clockwork one ?

Dave

Need a higher payload really.

[thomasv]

I've played  a bit with the lightrack 2, here is an earler post of mine:

It's tracking is really good, but there are a couple of points to bear in mind:

It's limited tracking time before you have to rewind, approx 100 minute. If you want longer, it's a bit of a hassle to reframe the target.

It's tracking accuracy would really deserve a polar alignment accuracy that only a polemaster can achieve, however, to date, I haven't found a satisfactory way of using it with the lightrack. The separate polarscope arm has too much resistance, if you try to swing it, you'll inevitablyy move the mount.

If you want to balancce it in RA, the counterweight kits are quite expensive.

Other option would be to add guiding to your SA

 

[SAW]

Is the arm really hard to move ? I was hoping to use my Pole master with it.