Evolution mount questions

[A McEwan]

Hi all.

I've been out of touch with new hardware for a while, but recently heard about the Nexstar Evolution mounts and scopes. My club has one with a 6" SCT on it, and it gets a lot of use. I haven't been able to try it out yet, and was wondering a couple of things:

Can you buy the mounts seperately anywhere?

Would it hold a Tak FC100-DF with or without a Quark fitted?

How about a Skywatcher ED80?

Can you attach the head unit to a sturdier tripod such as a Berlebach UNI-18, which I own and use all the time?

Ok, I know that's more than a "couple" of questions, but I hope you'll indulge me!  

 

[Cosmic Geoff]

You cannot normally buy these mounts separately. They are only available when somebody has split a kit.

You could mount most scopes up to the design weight, but only short SCT-shaped OTAs will clear the mount when aimed at the zenith.

The mount is designed to fit a Celestron tripod.  They will *probably* fit straight onto the heavy duty tripod used with the CPC800 or  IIRC, the C9.25

Possible alternative mounts: one of the ioptrons, or Sky-watcher's AZEQ mounts

What do you intend to do with it, bearing in mind that it's an Alt-Az mount intended for visual, or maybe planetary imaging?

[A McEwan]

Hi Geoff.

Purely visual but if it can double up as a solar tracking mount that would be good (although the Solarquest mount is another option I may look at separately). To hold: Tak FC100DF - with the Quark fitted this adds to the weight a little, but even so it's not a heavy load. Other scope is an ED80 - probably about the same weight fully loaded.

I have a driven GP for those times when I really want Equatorial style planetary tracking.

For night-time, it would be an alternative to my AZ-4 and/or Skytee II but with tracking built in.

Zenith viewing not essential (although I have seen mods that can make this possible for very little effort).

I see there are several different models of Evo scope too - 5", 6", 8", 9.25", but I can't tell which of these have the same mounts? I imagine that there will be differences between the mount for the 5" and the mount for the 9.25"? Is there a general "best value" version - even given that I would have to wait for a mount to come up available separate from its scope package?

 

[Greymouser]

I have the 9.25 Evolution and love it, though it is not perfect. The OTA is excellent; the mount/tripod is excellent, but to be honest I feel that they are not that well matched. I would say Celestron is pushing things and the mount could have done with being a little larger, as well as the 9.25 being at the limit, weight wise. The OTA has a tendency to collide with the mount as you near the zenith, especially if you use the larger 2" diagonal. ( Which I bought separately. ) It is avoidable, to an extent, but the stability of the OTA is then affected, in my opinion, others disagree! I have also used my C5 on the mount and intend to use a small refractor on it too. It is in fact a great mount and comes with the hand controller, which makes life much easier, as the control from the app is annoying, at least when it is cold. Decent when warm and you don't need any tactile sensation to help you find the buttons. To be honest I also find using the tablet to control things can be annoying, particularly when the app crashes, which it can do.  Then there is the effect it can have on my night vision, which is also annoying, even in night time mode.

The mount/tripod for the 9.25 is heavier duty, I think than for the 6/8. Not sure if that is just the tripod, or the mount as well. Also there is a company which sells the mount separately, but confusingly pictures the 9.25 mount for sale, but states it is the 6/8 mount, which their picture is not. You would need to check up on that to be sure. https://grovers.biz/optics/home/7518-celestron-nexstar-evolution-6-8-mount-tripod.html

[A McEwan]

1 hour ago, Greymouser said:

I have the 9.25 Evolution and love it, though it is not perfect. The OTA is excellent; the mount/tripod is excellent, but to be honest I feel that they are not that well matched. I would say Celestron is pushing things and the mount could have done with being a little larger, as well as the 9.25 being at the limit, weight wise. The OTA has a tendency to collide with the mount as you near the zenith, especially if you use the larger 2" diagonal. ( Which I bought separately. ) It is avoidable, to an extent, but the stability of the OTA is then affected, in my opinion, others disagree! I have also used my C5 on the mount and intend to use a small refractor on it too. It is in fact a great mount and comes with the hand controller, which makes life much easier, as the control from the app is annoying, at least when it is cold. Decent when warm and you don't need any tactile sensation to help you find the buttons. To be honest I also find using the tablet to control things can be annoying, particularly when the app crashes, which it can do.  Then there is the effect it can have on my night vision, which is also annoying, even in night time mode.

The mount/tripod for the 9.25 is heavier duty, I think than for the 6/8. Not sure if that is just the tripod, or the mount as well. Also there is a company which sells the mount separately, but confusingly pictures the 9.25 mount for sale, but states it is the 6/8 mount, which their picture is not. You would need to check up on that to be sure. https://grovers.biz/optics/home/7518-celestron-nexstar-evolution-6-8-mount-tripod.html

Very interesting; thank you!

 

[Highburymark]

I found the Evolution mount to be excellent - always accurate and easy to use with various scopes - I had a C8 Edge on mine and it was fine. It will happily take 3" and 4" refractors weightwise, but as pointed out not ideal as the mount will get in the way of longer scopes. Same mount and tripod used for the C6 and C8 Evolution but beefed up for the 9.25 version (which I've not tried).

[JG777]

I have the 9.25 Evolution, 2 people in my astronomy group have 8 inch versions one being an Edge. The mounts from what I can see are the same, the difference being the beefed up tripod for the 9.25. I have used my Equinox 80 on it without issue, it clears the base and gets to the zenith. I did try a 100 Ed pro but that scope was too long. The mount won't fit my UNI 18.

Mine is a first generation mount with the Roving Networks wifi which is a bit flaky at times especially if there is other network signals nearby. If your buying new , it will have the improved version which although is still not perfect is a lot better than the gen1 version. But if your buying used and a good gen 1 version is well priced nab it because if you want reliable wifi you can add a skyportal adapter with the zentri chip and this works like a charm with Sky Safari. You can find out which version the mount is using a network app to interrogate the wifi. If you go that route give me a shout and will explain exactly how to set this up.

In use the mount is excellent. Recent firmware updates have added some very good improvements to accuracy and quietness. The edge owner in my group has also done some very good imaging as well, though he has a lot more patience than me I am purely visual. I do believe that someone on CN has has fitted a  new battery and documented it, but mine which is just over 4 years old is still as good as it was when I got it. It gets a monthly top up although recent firmware added a feature where you can leave it plugged into the charger all the time, and it just switches down when need be.

Adding Starsense is the icing on the cake but even without SSA a 2 star alignment is quick and easy to do and is just as accurate. I much prefer the original HC over the SSA one for a number of reasons.

All in all its much better quality than the SE mounts and worth the extra cash. 

Maybe if you ask FLO to split one they might, I'm sure they did in the past a few times. 

[A McEwan]

Brilliant info there JG777 - very useful. Thanks!