Rowan AZ100 Mount Owners Thread

[johninderby]

Well with the much anticipated Rowan AZ100 mounts now being shipped and will be arriving this Friday so thpught it would be a good idea to start a thread where all the new owners can share their experiences. 

Will post pics on Friday of mine which I will be using with just one scope at a time. 🙂

 

Edited December 24, 2019 by johninderby

[omo]

If dpd follow there usual form, Derek will probably get here between 7 & 8pm on Friday

I'm going to make up shorter cables for the dsc to encoders connections, take advantage of the positions being fixed.

 

[johninderby]

DPD usualy delivers between 12:41pm and 1:41 around here. 🙂

[johninderby]

Not much longer to wait now. 🙂

[JeremyS]

4 hours ago, johninderby said:

Not much longer to wait now. 🙂

Have they been yet, John?

[johninderby]

Arrived about a minite ago. 👍🏻

Edited December 27, 2019 by johninderby

[johninderby]

First pics.

Not short of mounting holes for the saddle. I used the Altair dual fit saddle as I had one and didn’t see any sense in buying the Rowan one and the Altair matches the mount very well.

 

Edited December 27, 2019 by johninderby

[Miguel1983]

Nice !

Good luck with the new mount ✨

When did you order the mount ? I've ordered a Skywacther mount an some bits on monday morning, all in stock, still no movement at FLO HQ tough 😞

[FLO]

11 minutes ago, Miguel1983 said:

I've ordered a Skywacther mount an some bits on monday morning, all in stock, still no movement at FLO HQ tough 😞

That was the day before Christmas Eve but if you email us details either myself or a colleague will reply with an ETA. 

HTH, 

Steve 

[FLO]

It is good to see your mount has arrived, John 🙂 

Steve 

[johninderby]

12 minutes ago, FLO said:

It is good to see your mount has arrived, John 🙂 

Steve 

Hi Steve

And very nice it is too. 👍🏻

Now if only the forecast for some clear skies on Sunday is accurate. 🙏🏼

 

 

[omo]

I have just escaped from the box after getting lost in the foam things for half an hour, just unwrapping it now 😀

[johninderby]

Thought at first it was just a box of foam chips. 😂

 

[johninderby]

Test fitted the 8” Classical Cassegrain. Feels so different to the TS-AZ5 (Skytee). Much more stable with no feeling like the whole thing is going to tip over without a counterweight unlike the TS-AZ5. Movement is so much smoother and find the OTA balances a bit further backwards than the TS-AZ5.

Found I could back off the Alt clutch so it just kept the OTA in postion but could move the OTA manually without the slo-mo controls but the slo-mo controls still worked fine without tigtening the clutch.

WOW what a mount. Thoroughly impressed even without having it outside yet. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Edited December 27, 2019 by johninderby

[FLO]

These photos of the Rowan Dual Saddle for AZ100 (not shown in John's photos) might help 🙂 

 

[John]

I agree 100% John - the Rowan AZ100 is a very impressive piece of work indeed. When you see and handle one you really "get" just what you are paying for. Real craftsmanship and thoughtful design. Designed and produced by a small UK company as well

 

[johninderby]

If I hadn’t already had a spare Altair saddle would certainly have bought the Rowan one. 🙂

[johninderby]

Just now, John said:

I agree 100% John - the Rowan AZ100 is a very impressive piece of work indeed. When you see and handle one you really "get" just what you are paying for. Real craftsmanship and thoughtful design. Designed and produced by a small UK company as well

 

Built to a standard not a price is the way I would put it. 👍🏻

[Alan White]

2 hours ago, johninderby said:

Built to a standard not a price is the way I would put it. 👍🏻

That's how I felt John when I had a good old look and try at the IAS.
Pleased you have the first one and are happy, looks great my friend, so pleased for you.

 

Edited December 27, 2019 by Alan White

[johninderby]

Detail from the instructions.

[McNewt]

18 hours ago, johninderby said:

Test fitted the 8” Classical Cassegrain. Feels so different to the TS-AZ5 (Skytee). Much more stable with no feeling like the whole thing is going to tip over without a counterweight unlike the TS-AZ5. Movement is so much smoother and find the OTA balances a bit further backwards than the TS-AZ5.

Found I could back off the Alt clutch so it just kept the OTA in postion but could move the OTA manually without the slo-mo controls but the slo-mo controls still worked fine without tigtening the clutch.

 

 

Are you able to keep this configuration reasonably balanced when you are using a heavy eyepiece?    I also have the TS 8" CC, which is rather back heavy.  Adding a diagonal and a long focal length eyepiece and an extender for the focuser I need to tighten the alt clutch on the AzMaxLoad a bit too much for my liking.  Perhaps the AZ100 is a bit different in this regard?     

[johninderby]

It balances easily with the alt clutch only partly tightened. With the AZ100 you have the alt clutch knob, the alt lock knob and the worm gear mesh adjustment as well so you can adjust the mount to handle a poorly balanced scope if needed. It’s been designed for real world use.

Edited December 28, 2019 by johninderby

[johninderby]

Load of better photos taken outside in proper light.

[johninderby]

And more with Big Red mounted. 🙂

Been searching for a mount worthy of Big Red for years. Can’t beleive it’s been nine years since I built Big Red. 🤔

 

Edited December 28, 2019 by johninderby

[johninderby]

Mount fits perfectly to the EQ5 Berlebach tripod although had to make up an adapter and thread the tripod to take an M12 bolt to allow fitting an EQ6 mount. Can’t understand why Berlebach doesnt offer an adapter or just produce a dual fit one. Can be changed from EQ5 to EQ6 in about a minute without using any tools.

Edited December 28, 2019 by johninderby