Mount upgrade ideas

[Mark1489]

Hello all

So I’m at the stage where I think I want to upgrade to a better mount. I’m using the star adventurer currently, and although it’s great, I find I might be pushing it a bit unguided. I know most people would recommend guiding, but I want to try imaging unguided for simplicity and ease of setup. Less things to go wrong essentially. I’m using the Samyang 135mm with a crop sensor (6.1arc secs per pixel scale) with the view of getting a WO Redcat in the next year or so, what would be my options for a mount around £500-£1000? Are there any mounts in this price bracket that would have low enough periodic error for unguided performance to say, 400mm focal length? I look forward to hearing your views!

Mark

[Davey-T]

HEQ5 is generally recommended to get into imaging, a belt modded one should be better for unguided and well under £1000.00

As with all mass produced stuff some perform better than others but as long as you don't get a complete lemon it should be OK

Dave

[spillage]

Are you going to be using this in one location or are you looking for a portable mount as this will may be a decider on the options available? I think the idea that unguided is less complicated may be the wrong way of looking at AP. I am sure due to not guiding you will have to do more work when post processing you images to try and remove issues that have been created by not guiding. You can get hold of a cheap second hand guide cam and guide scope so I would give it a go. PHD2 is fairly straight forward to set up and if you are looking to guide in the future then why not now.

I too felt the same about plate solving and put it off for months and months. What a mistake that was.

Cheers,

[Mark1489]

On 29/05/2019 at 15:30, spillage said:

Are you going to be using this in one location or are you looking for a portable mount as this will may be a decider on the options available? I think the idea that unguided is less complicated may be the wrong way of looking at AP. I am sure due to not guiding you will have to do more work when post processing you images to try and remove issues that have been created by not guiding. You can get hold of a cheap second hand guide cam and guide scope so I would give it a go. PHD2 is fairly straight forward to set up and if you are looking to guide in the future then why not now.

I too felt the same about plate solving and put it off for months and months. What a mistake that was.

Cheers,

Most definitely portable! To be honest the guiding scenario I’d really want to avoid for now, I’ve done a fair bit of research and I’m trying to keep my setup as simple and straightforward as possible. There’s no doubt I’ll eventually go for it though!