Experiences with the iEXOS-100?

[b16707]

I assume there wont be much on this mount since i think its new but I thought I ask anyways.

https://explorescientificusa.com/collections/pmc8goto/products/es-iexos-100?fbclid=IwAR35y94m_Bf0BRDB46vbBGGzAabGJJBnXMgzvWCad0b32kV_ZIxlNy6SLhk

Looking for a cheap goto to replace my Star Adventurer. Only have about 5lbs to mount in terms of my dslr and lens combos and maybe a guidescope so I dont need something too crazy. I just want basically my Star Adventurer (price, simplicity, size) + goto capabilities. The iexos will be a bit larger but thats ok.

Edited December 19, 2018 by b16707

[Exploresci]

I would be happy to answer questions for you. The new iEXOS-100 is a portable equatorial mount with the PMC-Eight electronics integrated into the body of the mount. Photographic payload capacity is rated at 15 lbs.; Visual payload capacity is 19 lbs. (this is scope and counterweights combined). A camera with lens that weighs only 5lbs would work fine on this mount for astrophotography. Note that this mount has an auto guider port for long exposure work. If you have more questions, please call us at (866) 252-3811. 

[b16707]

Going to need a non-biased opinion =). Thanks however.

[paulibbitson]

I know this is an old tread but thought I would post my experience for others to see.

I have had the iEXOS-100 PMC-Eight for a few months now and I have to say that I love it. The setup is fast and simple enough for an EQ mount and I love the grips on the RA and DEC axis. I run the ExploreStars software from my laptop and it connects via WiFi without any issues. (The app is for tablets and computers only, it would be 100% perfect if they made the app work on mobile phones. Other apps manage it very well especially the SkyWatcher Synscan app so I cant see why they wont make a mobile app for ExploreStars. They say that you can pipe 3rd party mobile apps through but i would prefer to only use the one app. This is the only let down for me but it is a very big let down) apart from that I cannot fault the accuracy or workings of the mount or the windows version of ExploreStars. I solely do astrophotography (I don't even own any eyepieces), and this mount has worked very well with my Altair Starwave 70ED on it along with my Canon 1000D. I also have my guide scope and ZWO guide camera plonked on top of the scope. The mount with its two 1kg weights holds all this sufficiently for my astrophotography.

I recently acquired a Bresser Messier 102 achromatic frac with a focal length of 1000mm and is quite a beast. I got it for planetary imaging and I gave it a go on the iEXOS at the weekend. I didn't hold out much hope, but I was very pleasantly surprised. I had to use both counterweights and an additional 2kg weight but it held an absolute treat. I thought I would be pushing it too far but it aligned and tracked flawlessly. The 3 pictures I have uploaded were all taken using this mount and the Bresser 102/1000. The first two are obviously Jupiter and Saturn both 2 minute (unguided) videos and the third is the Fireworks Galaxy, this one was 20 x 3 minute exposures (guided) and as you can see, the tracking was spot on and the mount worked perfectly with what I will say was a, well over the limit payload for AP.

I have a website that I run for beginners and more seasoned astrophotographers and i put all my pictures on there so if anyone would like to see what I have taken with this setup and how good it performs then follow the link below to the iEXOS review that I wrote that gives a bit more details than I have written here.

https://paulsastrophotography.co.uk/iexos-review.htm

 

[NicolaTerry]

Thanks for post Paul (and link to review)

Had just about decided to go for EQM-35 pro.

Having second thoughts now???

[johngm]

Hi Paul,

I am also late to this post, and enjoyed your thoughts. I, like the opening post, was looking to replace my star adventurer. Don't get me wrong, its a fantastic portable mount. The only thing wrong, even with my knowledge of the night sky, it can take me up to 30 mins to locate/align and centre my target for imaging. There are 2 lightweight travel mounts I was looking at:

Explorer Scientific iEXOS-100 PMC  or

iOptron smartEQ Pro+ Goto.

I am concerned after reading this review in the sky at night magazine https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/reviews/mounts/explore-scientific-iexos-100-pmc-eight-equatorial-mount-review/ that the mount loses its tracking if the WIFI signal I lost, and this can happen when your tablet goes into standby mode. Reading the review for the EXOS-200 PMC, they have the same issue, and they raised this with Explorer Scientific, who say they are looking into it. My question would be, when they have a solution, can this be rectified with a firmware update ? or would only be available on future Mounts. ?

All said and done, we are looking at budget mounts, but I don't want to ruin a nights imaging due to lost tracking. What I do like about the ES, is its belt driven, and tracks very well once aligned, (from what I have read that is) plus, it has a 6.8Kg imaging load capacity compared to the 5Kg of the iOptron, but there again, I would only be imaging with my Altair 60EDF and DSLR, so both mounts would comfortably suit my needs. I am attending the IAS-2019, so, I hope both ES and iOptron are both on display and gauge opinion from the exhibiters. 

As this post is a few months old now, I'm hoping other SGL members have purchased either of these 2 mounts and can give there input to this thread.

John 

[asanmax]

Hello everyone and let me chime in into this discussion. I am a new user on SGL and would like to share my experience with the iExos-100 mount. I was going to build a budget solution that would work at my backyard and would make a great portable setup that I could take with me anywhere.

I've been using the mount for 4 months now.

For the first month I was doing visual connecting to the mount from my Samsung A-10 tablet via WiFi. No troubles, just needed to figure out how to download the app and the database. The mount responses to the app commands well.

But then I figured I'd do astrophotography and I switched to my old laptop and switched the connection type to serial (it is actually USB connection). I followed the video tutorial on how to install POTH Hub and ASCOM and how to connect to the mount. I was actually surprised how easy it is to operate the mount using ASCOM platform. There are so many way to control the mount through different applications such as Cartes Du Ciel, Stellarium, APT etc.

So, I build a small guide scope from the doublet lens objective I had, 37mm/130mm and attached the cheap AR0130 sensor to it. I installed PHD2 and set everything up for autoguiding. I initially used 200mm, 300mm and 500mm lenses to test the mount and actually got some pretty good results, good guiding, no star trailing. Finally I put my Celestron C5 on the mount and hooked up my Canon 450D to it. The focal length was 1350mm thanks to the Meade extension tube. Keep in mind that 450D has a cropped sensor. I took it outside, set everything up with no hopes that I would get any good images. To my surprise, the total RMS kept within 0.8 to 1.2 arcseconds and almost 100% of frames came out with no star trails. To say that I was super excited is to say nothing, it was a WOW moment for me.

The next step for me was to setup a plate solving solution for the mount as I don't really like GoTo and wanted the whole process of centering the object to be automated. I use APT for imaging and it has its own plate solving. I installed the needed components and tried it out the next day. Again, surprised how precise the application centered the first star I chose within 1 minute. The same night I spent 5.5 hours imaging M31 and M33 galaxies. Centering objects has now become a breeze.

Of course I had some questions along the way and ES were very quick to answer them, whether on the CL forum or in the live chat on their website.

All in all, I've had some really great experience with the mount and having to image at 1350mm focal length I can't think of a better solution at this price. Here is the link to the official thread, please look at the recent posts to see the results from the folks that use this mount. https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/643240-now-available-our-new-explore-scientific-iexos-100-pmc-eight-399/

And here is my latest M33 and M27 shots. 480mm and 1350mm respectfully.

 

[Shaun_Astro]

Great, can you use smart phones with this yet?

How about polar aligning with just a tube to look down?

[asanmax]

On 04/11/2019 at 04:50, Shaun_Astro said:

Great, can you use smart phones with this yet?

How about polar aligning with just a tube to look down?

I used the PHD2 drift align feature which took me about 30 minutes. Then I just marked the mount legs positions on the concrete of my patio. Now I just bring the mount out, align the legs to the previously marked spots and start imaging right away.

[paulibbitson]

On 27/06/2019 at 09:16, paulibbitson said:

I know this is an old tread but thought I would post my experience for others to see.

I have had the iEXOS-100 PMC-Eight for a few months now and I have to say that I love it. The setup is fast and simple enough for an EQ mount and I love the grips on the RA and DEC axis. I run the ExploreStars software from my laptop and it connects via WiFi without any issues. (The app is for tablets and computers only, it would be 100% perfect if they made the app work on mobile phones. Other apps manage it very well especially the SkyWatcher Synscan app so I cant see why they wont make a mobile app for ExploreStars. They say that you can pipe 3rd party mobile apps through but i would prefer to only use the one app. This is the only let down for me but it is a very big let down) apart from that I cannot fault the accuracy or workings of the mount or the windows version of ExploreStars. I solely do astrophotography (I don't even own any eyepieces), and this mount has worked very well with my Altair Starwave 70ED on it along with my Canon 1000D. I also have my guide scope and ZWO guide camera plonked on top of the scope. The mount with its two 1kg weights holds all this sufficiently for my astrophotography.

I recently acquired a Bresser Messier 102 achromatic frac with a focal length of 1000mm and is quite a beast. I got it for planetary imaging and I gave it a go on the iEXOS at the weekend. I didn't hold out much hope, but I was very pleasantly surprised. I had to use both counterweights and an additional 2kg weight but it held an absolute treat. I thought I would be pushing it too far but it aligned and tracked flawlessly. The 3 pictures I have uploaded were all taken using this mount and the Bresser 102/1000. The first two are obviously Jupiter and Saturn both 2 minute (unguided) videos and the third is the Fireworks Galaxy, this one was 20 x 3 minute exposures (guided) and as you can see, the tracking was spot on and the mount worked perfectly with what I will say was a, well over the limit payload for AP.

I have a website that I run for beginners and more seasoned astrophotographers and i put all my pictures on there so if anyone would like to see what I have taken with this setup and how good it performs then follow the link below to the iEXOS review that I wrote that gives a bit more details than I have written here.

https://paulsastrophotography.co.uk/astrophotography/iexos-review.htm

On 27/06/2019 at 09:16, paulibbitson said:

I know this is an old tread but thought I would post my experience for others to see.

I have had the iEXOS-100 PMC-Eight for a few months now and I have to say that I love it. The setup is fast and simple enough for an EQ mount and I love the grips on the RA and DEC axis. I run the ExploreStars software from my laptop and it connects via WiFi without any issues. (The app is for tablets and computers only, it would be 100% perfect if they made the app work on mobile phones. Other apps manage it very well especially the SkyWatcher Synscan app so I cant see why they wont make a mobile app for ExploreStars. They say that you can pipe 3rd party mobile apps through but i would prefer to only use the one app. This is the only let down for me but it is a very big let down) apart from that I cannot fault the accuracy or workings of the mount or the windows version of ExploreStars. I solely do astrophotography (I don't even own any eyepieces), and this mount has worked very well with my Altair Starwave 70ED on it along with my Canon 1000D. I also have my guide scope and ZWO guide camera plonked on top of the scope. The mount with its two 1kg weights holds all this sufficiently for my astrophotography.

I recently acquired a Bresser Messier 102 achromatic frac with a focal length of 1000mm and is quite a beast. I got it for planetary imaging and I gave it a go on the iEXOS at the weekend. I didn't hold out much hope, but I was very pleasantly surprised. I had to use both counterweights and an additional 2kg weight but it held an absolute treat. I thought I would be pushing it too far but it aligned and tracked flawlessly. The 3 pictures I have uploaded were all taken using this mount and the Bresser 102/1000. The first two are obviously Jupiter and Saturn both 2 minute (unguided) videos and the third is the Fireworks Galaxy, this one was 20 x 3 minute exposures (guided) and as you can see, the tracking was spot on and the mount worked perfectly with what I will say was a, well over the limit payload for AP.

I have a website that I run for beginners and more seasoned astrophotographers and i put all my pictures on there so if anyone would like to see what I have taken with this setup and how good it performs then follow the link below to the iEXOS review that I wrote that gives a bit more details than I have written here.

https://paulsastrophotography.co.uk/astrophotography/iexos-review.htm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 26, 2020 by paulibbitson
Link address update

[paulibbitson]

On 27/06/2019 at 09:16, paulibbitson said:

I know this is an old tread but thought I would post my experience for others to see.

I have had the iEXOS-100 PMC-Eight for a few months now and I have to say that I love it. The setup is fast and simple enough for an EQ mount and I love the grips on the RA and DEC axis. I run the ExploreStars software from my laptop and it connects via WiFi without any issues. (The app is for tablets and computers only, it would be 100% perfect if they made the app work on mobile phones. Other apps manage it very well especially the SkyWatcher Synscan app so I cant see why they wont make a mobile app for ExploreStars. They say that you can pipe 3rd party mobile apps through but i would prefer to only use the one app. This is the only let down for me but it is a very big let down) apart from that I cannot fault the accuracy or workings of the mount or the windows version of ExploreStars. I solely do astrophotography (I don't even own any eyepieces), and this mount has worked very well with my Altair Starwave 70ED on it along with my Canon 1000D. I also have my guide scope and ZWO guide camera plonked on top of the scope. The mount with its two 1kg weights holds all this sufficiently for my astrophotography.

I recently acquired a Bresser Messier 102 achromatic frac with a focal length of 1000mm and is quite a beast. I got it for planetary imaging and I gave it a go on the iEXOS at the weekend. I didn't hold out much hope, but I was very pleasantly surprised. I had to use both counterweights and an additional 2kg weight but it held an absolute treat. I thought I would be pushing it too far but it aligned and tracked flawlessly. The 3 pictures I have uploaded were all taken using this mount and the Bresser 102/1000. The first two are obviously Jupiter and Saturn both 2 minute (unguided) videos and the third is the Fireworks Galaxy, this one was 20 x 3 minute exposures (guided) and as you can see, the tracking was spot on and the mount worked perfectly with what I will say was a, well over the limit payload for AP.

I have a website that I run for beginners and more seasoned astrophotographers and i put all my pictures on there so if anyone would like to see what I have taken with this setup and how good it performs then follow the link below to the iEXOS review that I wrote that gives a bit more details than I have written here.

https://paulsastrophotography.co.uk/iexos-review.htm

 

Just to let anyone who wants to view the review on my website, the link above is broken. If you follow this link then it takes you to the correct page.

https://paulsastrophotography.co.uk/astrophotography/iexos-review.htm

[Guest]

Great to find this thread. I have been searching for a ST-4 compatible mount so go with my Canon 600D and Sky-watcher Evostar 72ED purchased this week for my starter astrophotography setup. I am not bothered with the tablet limitations as I need my laptop attached for Backyard EOS anyway. Would give me software tracking options before acquiring a guidescope and camera and moving to plate solving.

The question still remains whether to get this, the iOptron SmartEQ Pro + EQ GOTO Mount or a second hand more expensive model but this would also have more longevity as can be used as a travel mount even after upgrading later down the line.

[Gmx76]

I like the look of this for EAA but have a Macbook Pro and an Android phone, neither of which the ExploreStars software supports.  Is there any Mac software that could control this mount?