Telescope mount

[Mike_y]

Hello I have a Tasco 114 Reflector, which I bought in Germany many years ago. I want to uograde, and have seen some telescopes without a mount on the web. It seems that my existing mount is OK, at least fot the moment. So my question is, will I be able to use the new telescooe on the old mount, or to put it another way, are the mount fittings universal? If not, how easy is it to adapt an existing mount for a new scope? Thanks in advance for any advice.

[DaveL59]

hi Mike

What sort of size scope are you thinking you'd like to upgrade to?

it may be possible to get a new OTA and the correct tube rings and fit those to your existing mount, but there are some other considerations you'll need to make too. The weight of the new OTA may be too much for the existing Tasco mount, which is probably going to be an EQ1 or equivalent. These will struggle with a larger OTA and you'd also need to add counterweights to achieve balance.

Likelihood is that you'd be better to consider upgrading the whole unless the mount you have is better than the originally supplied one.

[Cornelius Varley]

Hello and welcome to SGL. What type of type telescope was you considering as an upgrade ? The type of mount supplied with the Tasco 114 is known as an EQ1 and its payload capacity isn't great.

[Jiggy 67]

To be honest most people would upgrade the mount before the scope. An EQ1 limits your upgrade options massively. An EQ3 or even 5 is the bare minimum or have a look at a dob 

[Peter_D]

If the Tasco is a longer 11tr, they have good Japanese mirrors. If it is under-mounted at the moment, you could try and build a dob mount for it and use it on the Moon and planets if you don't plan on upgrading straight away.

If you pick up a cheap short focal length refractor, you could mount that on the eq mount which will handle the shorter tube much better.

This set up will give you a nice combination until you upgrade your main scope. You could use the refractor later as a guide scope on your upgrade if it is a larger Mak, SCT or Newt.

Edited April 23, 2020 by Peter_D

[Mike_y]

18 hours ago, DaveL59 said:

hi Mike

What sort of size scope are you thinking you'd like to upgrade to?

it may be possible to get a new OTA and the correct tube rings and fit those to your existing mount, but there are some other considerations you'll need to make too. The weight of the new OTA may be too much for the existing Tasco mount, which is probably going to be an EQ1 or equivalent. These will struggle with a larger OTA and you'd also need to add counterweights to achieve balance.

Likelihood is that you'd be better to consider upgrading the whole unless the mount you have is better than the originally supplied one.

Hello and thanks for replying. I am hoping to get something with at least a 6 inch aperture,  but in light of the current situation I might just say what the heck and get 8 inches. The original mount is indeed an EQ1 of sorts. I have done some tests and am confident it will take a couple more kilograms. However, I think you are right and it will be better to upgrade everything. I am just trying to save money at the end of the day.

[Mike_y]

18 hours ago, Cornelius Varley said:

Hello and welcome to SGL. What type of type telescope was you considering as an upgrade ? The type of mount supplied with the Tasco 114 is known as an EQ1 and its payload capacity isn't great.

Hello and thank you for replying. I want something with a lot more power, to keep me going through these strange times, so at least 6 iinches of aperture. I have tested my mount, which is indeed an EQ1 of sorts, and think it would stand a few more kilograms. However, it seems that it is not going to as easy as I had hoped to adapt it so have pretty much given up on the idea and am now looking at a Dobsonian.

[Mike_y]

5 hours ago, Jiggy 67 said:

To be honest most people would upgrade the mount before the scope. An EQ1 limits your upgrade options massively. An EQ3 or even 5 is the bare minimum or have a look at a dob 

 

5 hours ago, Jiggy 67 said:

To be honest most people would upgrade the mount before the scope. An EQ1 limits your upgrade options massively. An EQ3 or even 5 is the bare minimum or have a look at a dob 

Thanks for the advice. I will look at a Dobsonian, as you suggest.

[Mike_y]

5 hours ago, Peter_D said:

If the Tasco is a longer 11tr, they have good Japanese mirrors. If it is under-mounted at the moment, you could try and build a dob mount for it and use it on the Moon and planets if you don't plan on upgrading straight away.

If you pick up a cheap short focal length refractor, you could mount that on the eq mount which will handle the shorter tube much better.

This set up will give you a nice combination until you upgrade your main scope. You could use the refractor later as a guide scope on your upgrade if it is a larger Mak, SCT or Newt.

Thanks for the info. #it is not the mount but the tube which i want to upgrade - apart from me wanting more power, the focusing mechanism is pretty much worn out. So I am now looking at a Dobsonian.

[DaveL59]

In terms of what you have, the EQ1 wouldn't manage a 6-8-inch reflector so for sure you'd then be looking along the lines of an EQ5 or better and a big jump in cost.

Sounds like you'd be better to look for (can't believe I'm gonna say this...) a dob like the skywatcher 200 as that'd give you lots of aperture for lowest outlay. That said tho, are you hoping to do astro-photography in which case a dob isn't the best choice and then you're into a lot more cost for a good mount to handle it all. Also you're familiar with an EQ mounted scope, whether you'd get on with a dob I can't say, many here love them and say they're easy to use but to me they aren't intuitive and I prefer a simple single slow-motion control to adjust when on a target.

You could consider the used market as you could save a lot buying a decent scope and maybe even bigger aperture than you'd get for the same cost new.

[Mike_y]

5 hours ago, DaveL59 said:

In terms of what you have, the EQ1 wouldn't manage a 6-8-inch reflector so for sure you'd then be looking along the lines of an EQ5 or better and a big jump in cost.

Sounds like you'd be better to look for (can't believe I'm gonna say this...) a dob like the skywatcher 200 as that'd give you lots of aperture for lowest outlay. That said tho, are you hoping to do astro-photography in which case a dob isn't the best choice and then you're into a lot more cost for a good mount to handle it all. Also you're familiar with an EQ mounted scope, whether you'd get on with a dob I can't say, many here love them and say they're easy to use but to me they aren't intuitive and I prefer a simple single slow-motion control to adjust when on a target.

You could consider the used market as you could save a lot buying a decent scope and maybe even bigger aperture than you'd get for the same cost new.

Thanks. I think a Dob is probably going to be the answer. I will just get used to whatever drawbacks it has.