New Mount Help me Decide

[m.tweedy]

I have my own Observatory in the back Garden and am looking to move my modified NEQ6 (SKF bearings, Rowan belt drive, Geoptik head and Counterweight shaft with their counterweights, Improved home made latitude adjustment-similar to the rail) as despite all of this I am not happy with its overall performance. 

The new mount would need to handle my 81mm triplet and ccd etc together with (at a future date) a 10 inch RC.

My options seem to be 

Ioptron CEM60 (with or without RA encoder-unsure if needed in an Observatory).

New EQ8-R

Any other mount-no tripod needed that needs to be a maximum of £3K

Looking forward to thoughts on this.

[wornish]

The EQ8-R is probably more future proof as it has almost twice load capacity and will handle your 10" RC when you get it.

The CEM60 with Encoder however is an excellent mount.  The encoder allows you to take much longer unguided exposures regardless of whether its in an observatory or on a tripod out in the field.  

For observatory use then I would vote for the EQ8.  For outside use on a tripod I would go for the CEM60EC. its much lighter and therefore easier to set up.

[newbie alert]

At your top end of the budget the new eq8 is worth a look..u tube bloggers having a freebie first test.. but the cem 60 ec is worth a good look also.. mesu popped up on and this morn at a bit over budget..choices choices... 

Update.. I looked up the eq8 and it might be the previous version that's £3000, the new one is over £5000... Are they sure they're on par with Avalon, paramount, astrophysics  territory? ..

 

Edited October 23, 2019 by newbie alert
Added info

[Skipper Billy]

Simple......

https://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/propview.php?view=154710

[Laurin Dave]

37 minutes ago, Skipper Billy said:

Simple......

https://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/propview.php?view=154710

Indeed.. I'd second that!

[wornish]

48 minutes ago, Skipper Billy said:

Simple......

https://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/propview.php?view=154710

Very interesting advert, seems almost too good to be true. The MESU 200 has only been out a very short period, I think around 1 year or so.  Be interesting to understand why the owner is selling it?

[Laurin Dave]

9 minutes ago, wornish said:

Very interesting advert, seems almost too good to be true. The MESU 200 has only been out a very short period, I think around 1 year or so.  Be interesting to understand why the owner is selling it?

The owner says so in his ad I think....  This mount ticks all the boxes for me apart from two...   No homing, initial pointing needs a blind solve....  They are using it remotely and I assume want these functions..  That doesn't mean they cant be used remotely, I saw a few being used remotely on my holiday in the Haute Alpes  

 

 

 

Edited October 22, 2019 by Laurin Dave

[Skipper Billy]

Not sure what is meant by 'homing' ??

If it means park to home position then I can confirm that it does have this function - I have three home positions set - one pointing at Polaris and another pointing at my flats panel and another that is suitable for closing the obsy roof.

As long as the scope isnt moved from its last use then there is no need to do a blind solve. 

 

[steppenwolf]

56 minutes ago, wornish said:

The MESU 200 has only been out a very short period, I think around 1 year or so.

The SiTech version of the Mesu 200 was available in early 2013 at the latest so it isn't necessarily a very recent purchase!

[Laurin Dave]

A great mount at a great price and don't be put off by the reasons the vendor has put for wanting something different..   It'll work perfectly as others will attest to.

Dave

[kirkster501]

1 hour ago, Skipper Billy said:

Not sure what is meant by 'homing' ??

If it means park to home position then I can confirm that it does have this function - I have three home positions set - one pointing at Polaris and another pointing at my flats panel and another that is suitable for closing the obsy roof.

As long as the scope isnt moved from its last use then there is no need to do a blind solve. 

 

How do you define three park positions on the MESU?

Great mount OP!

[steppenwolf]

41 minutes ago, Laurin Dave said:

It'll work perfectly as others will attest to.

.... and that includes me! 😎

[Tomatobro]

I seem to recall Tomato mentioning that multiple "park" positions can be set with his Mesu 200.

[ollypenrice]

2 hours ago, wornish said:

Very interesting advert, seems almost too good to be true. The MESU 200 has only been out a very short period, I think around 1 year or so.  Be interesting to understand why the owner is selling it?

Not at all. I've had mine for over six years (it may be over seven, I'm not sure) during which time it has never missed a beat or dropped a sub to guiding error. I then bought another Mk1 (Pre Sitech) example and that's just as good. These mounts are in commercial use, too.

They do rely on a plate solve to get started if used remotely but this doesn't seem to be a problem. I host three other Mesu 200s in our robotic sheds. However, the vendor may prefer a mount even better adapted to remote operation since he's been using it in Spain. These are quite extraordinarily good mounts. Personally I would use nothing else, given the performance of the ones I have. They don't come up often but I paid about this for my second one.

Olly

[Skipper Billy]

1 hour ago, kirkster501 said:

How do you define three park positions on the MESU?

You need to have the latest software and then right click on the park button and a box pops up with Park1, Park2 and Park3 giving the option to save the mounts current position as any one of them.

Once defined to park the mount again right click on the park button and choose your park position.

As long as the mount isn't touched between parking and the next session then no blind solve is required - just power up and off you go - from one session to the next its never more than 10 - 15" out.

[tomato]

That’s a great deal for what I would regard as a high end mount. I wouldn’t hesitate at that price, if I didn’t own one already.

[m.tweedy]

Thank you for your comments. Sadly the Mesu will be long gone before i get the funds for the sale of my gear. It was one that i wanted but was outside my budget new.

I will just have to be patient until i get the funds. 😞