Rowan AZ100 Mount Owners Thread

[parallaxerr]

That's the paint job sorted. Just need clear skies for first light now.....Not happening anytime soon judging by the forecast though!

 

[John]

Some interesting developments in the pipeline for the AZ100 by the look of this

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/708353-rowan-astronomy-az100-arrived/?p=10275688

 

[JeremyS]

7 hours ago, John said:

Some interesting developments in the pipeline for the AZ100 by the look of this

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/708353-rowan-astronomy-az100-arrived/?p=10275688

 

A tracking capability would be great, but if I read this correctly it’s still push to not GoTo. When they can do the latter I’ll be very interested.

[andrew s]

Still waiting to join the club. Ordered from FLO, chanting mantras as I wait.

Regards Andrew 

[Saganite]

Like wise. I will be ordering one later today/ tomorrow morning. The motors will, I presume, be an easy retro fit .

Edited June 21, 2020 by Saganite

[Alan White]

I think the motors development is ongoing and shared to show progress.

Be very interesting to see where this fine engineering goes, it’s very much an object of desire for many.

This is a top end Alt Az Mount without doubt.

[johninderby]

23 minutes ago, andrew s said:

Still waiting to join the club. Ordered from FLO, chanting mantras as I wait.

Regards Andrew 

The good thing is the AZ100 will exceed your expectations. An engineering masterpiece. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[johninderby]

5 minutes ago, Alan White said:

I think the motors development is ongoing and shared to show progress.

Be very interesting to see where this fine engineering goes, it’s very much an object of desire for many.

This is a top end Alt Az Mount without doubt.

Remember that before the AZ100 was released there was mention of full GOTO coming one day. Like the idea that retrofitting to any existing mount is the way they are going. 🙂

Edited June 21, 2020 by johninderby

[andrew s]

11 minutes ago, johninderby said:

Remember that before the AZ100 was released there was mention of full GOTO coming one day. Like the idea that retrofitting to any existing mount is the way they are going. 🙂

I wonder what route they will take. Software engineering is a whole different undertaking to mechanics.

Regards Andrew 

[parallaxerr]

Just the other day I was thinking the ability to track with the AZ100 would be good. With a loosely aligned EQ mount of course, you only need to track in RA at a constant speed for visual, but the AZ100 would have to be variable in both axis and reverse itself on the Alt axis when crossing the meridian. I can only see this working as a full goto system so the mount knows when to perform such changes in rate and direction. 

[AdeKing]

Damn, I'd just talked myself out of an AZ100 and now this comes along.

I think I'll wait to see how it develops as I still have a long way to go until the astro fund is sufficiently replenished.

There is no doubt that I want one but I'm finding that choosing the one mount to rule them all is tricky.

Ade

[Alan White]

24 minutes ago, AdeKing said:

Damn, I'd just talked myself out of an AZ100 and now this comes along.

I think I'll wait to see how it develops as I still have a long way to go until the astro fund is sufficiently replenished.

There is no doubt that I want one but I'm finding that choosing the one mount to rule them all is tricky.

Ade

Same here Ade, as you know from our PM's.

The Rowan mount is stunning and if I could fund one, I certainly would some day, but,
I would only want it in full form and that's a lot of hobby funding for me.

 

[AdeKing]

45 minutes ago, Alan White said:

Same here Ade, as you know from our PM's.

The Rowan mount is stunning and if I could fund one, I certainly would some day, but,
I would only want it in full form and that's a lot of hobby funding for me.

 

Exactly my thoughts Alan.

Never mind it's on the ultimate wish list along with a Takahashi.......one day.

[omo]

Its still a modular concept 👍 but i can see the motor kit being pricey , the mounts likely  to loose its clean lines.

Maybe use Sitech type controllers as these are already included in Skysafari? Could save a lot of software design?

[Alan White]

Anyone tried an Argo Navis with the AZ100 out of interest?

 

[johninderby]

Argo Navis is a bit primitive now and don’t think it would work with the AZ100 encoders anyway.

Edited June 22, 2020 by johninderby

[Stu]

On 21/06/2020 at 09:50, parallaxerr said:

Just the other day I was thinking the ability to track with the AZ100 would be good. With a loosely aligned EQ mount of course, you only need to track in RA at a constant speed for visual, but the AZ100 would have to be variable in both axis and reverse itself on the Alt axis when crossing the meridian. I can only see this working as a full goto system so the mount knows when to perform such changes in rate and direction. 

Reading into the CN info, I suspect the motor controller will pick up the location of the target and calculate what rate to skew each motor to track the object.

[John]

On 21/06/2020 at 10:48, Alan White said:

Same here Ade, as you know from our PM's.

The Rowan mount is stunning and if I could fund one, I certainly would some day, but,
I would only want it in full form and that's a lot of hobby funding for me.

 

Back in August last year I posted this in a thread on heavy duty alt-azimuth mounts:

Shortly after that the AZ100 was announced and, after some beta testing, shipped to very happy customers.

The AZ100 is a wonderful mount and, having sampled a couple of units, I can see why it is priced as it is.

However, even in it's basic form, once you have a DT clamp, a counterweight bar and a weight, it is a £1000+ mount.

Having reminded myself of the post I made back in August, I still feel the niche that I mentioned is still there. We need a heavy duty alt -azimuth mount that sits between the Skytee II / Giro Ercole and the high end £1K glories that the AZ100, APM Maxload etc. Something priced around £400-£500 ready to use.

My one regret about the AZ100, as soon as I saw the pricing, was that whatever it's qualities (and it has lots), it has missed this niche 

 

[johninderby]

Bring on the AZ50 or AZ75. 👍🏻

[AdeKing]

47 minutes ago, John said:

Back in August last year I posted this in a thread on heavy duty alt-azimuth mounts:

Shortly after that the AZ100 was announced and, after some beta testing, shipped to very happy customers.

The AZ100 is a wonderful mount and, having sampled a couple of units, I can see why it is priced as it is.

However, even in it's basic form, once you have a DT clamp, a counterweight bar and a weight, it is a £1000+ mount.

Having reminded myself of the post I made back in August, I still feel the niche that I mentioned is still there. We need a heavy duty alt -azimuth mount that sits between the Skytee II / Giro Ercole and the high end £1K glories that the AZ100, APM Maxload etc. Something priced around £400-£500 ready to use.

My one regret about the AZ100, as soon as I saw the pricing, was that whatever it's qualities (and it has lots), it has missed this niche 

 

I remember that thread well John as it came along right at the time I was rationalising my collection of mounts and deciding what I wanted to do with my setup and where I thought I would go in the future.

I agree with you that that the niche that you mentioned last year is still there and still needs to be filled for about the £400-£500 mark.

Don't get me wrong, the AZ100 is a stunning piece of engineering and really well thought out, but as you say it is still pushing £1,000 by the time a clamp and weights are added.

I've since re-thought my situation and have now gone with a semi-permanent EQ setup on a pillar mount.  Whilst I still like how intuitive using an Alt AZ mount is, I've come to realise how nice it is to only need to move one axis. 

59 minutes ago, johninderby said:

Bring on the AZ50 or AZ75. 👍🏻

Lets hope so John 🙂 

[Alan White]

1 hour ago, John said:

Back in August last year I posted this in a thread on heavy duty alt-azimuth mounts:

Shortly after that the AZ100 was announced and, after some beta testing, shipped to very happy customers.

The AZ100 is a wonderful mount and, having sampled a couple of units, I can see why it is priced as it is.

However, even in it's basic form, once you have a DT clamp, a counterweight bar and a weight, it is a £1000+ mount.

Having reminded myself of the post I made back in August, I still feel the niche that I mentioned is still there. We need a heavy duty alt -azimuth mount that sits between the Skytee II / Giro Ercole and the high end £1K glories that the AZ100, APM Maxload etc. Something priced around £400-£500 ready to use.

My one regret about the AZ100, as soon as I saw the pricing, was that whatever it's qualities (and it has lots), it has missed this niche 

 

John, I see what you are suggesting, but the AZ100 is not a Giro etc with extras, it’s a far more substantial mount, more akin to the AYO Master size, but with slow motion, it has filled a niche well, just not the niche you thought it would.

I do hope that Rowan make a smaller version, but the engineering required would still come at a cost.

Decent engineering and materials don’t come cheap.

 

[johninderby]

The “problem” is the AZ100 is built to a standard not down to a price point so never going to be cheap. 

[John]

1 minute ago, Alan White said:

John, I see what you are suggesting, but the AZ100 is not a Giro etc with extras, it’s a far more substantial mount, more akin to the AYO Master size, but with slow motion, it has filled a niche well, just not the niche you thought it would.

I do hope that Rowan make a smaller version, but the engineering required would still come at a cost.

Decent engineering and materials don’t come cheap.

 

I know quite a bit about the AZ100 Alan - I had two of the early ones to beta test and I performed some tweaking to them under the guidance of Rowan Astronomy.

I'm in no way knocking the AZ100. I realize why it costs what it does but that does put it out of reach for many.

When the AZ100 was first mentioned (by FLO I think) early thoughts were that it might fall into the sort of price range that I was hoping for but it was not to be and I can see why.

So the niche is still there - perhaps Rowan can fill it as @johninderby suggests

 

 

 

[John]

1 minute ago, johninderby said:

The “problem” is the AZ100 is built to a standard not down to a price point so never going to be cheap. 

Initially I seem to recall that it was thought that it might be priced somewhere in the range that I mentioned John.

[omo]

As Alan says if you shrink the AZ100, its not going to be that much cheaper. Its just too labour intensive a design, and that labour is not at Chinese wages level. Then there is the lower volumes than the mass produced units to return the investment.

I think we all hoped it would be less pricey, my wallet still winces when i think about how much it all cost, more importantly i still smile every time i look at it or use it