goto vs. manual

[Paul63]

Hi thanks for the replys

At the moment I may well go for the AZgti from flo optics,I see on there site its a 1-2 day delivery for the mount and basic tripod and up to 60 day wait for the Sky-Watcher 3/8" Stainless Steel Tripod. So before i order the mount and tripod and  waiting time for delivery will the mount fit on my EQ2 mount tripod while I wait for the Sky-Watcher 3/8" Stainless Steel Tripod.

Many thanks

P.S have been looking also at the  DSV-1 where could this be purchased from in the U.K 

[Zermelo]

The potential upgrade to the 200P would be the deal breaker, as that would rule out the AZ GTi and similar specs, but then your budget would be stretched too.

On the other hand if you're going to concentrate on the 130P, then with my limited experience so far I would agree with those saying that the AZ GTi's dual encoding for the axes ("Freedom Find" in SW jargon) is a great feature allowing you to mix and match star hopping and goto, even in the same session. I didn't actually go with the AZ GTi, I bought the Star Discovery mount as part of a package with the 150i, it has the same wifi and dual encoding but is a bit chunkier and came with the steel tripod rather than the pressed aluminium model. It took me a while to learn the app, but now it's simple to do a 2-star alignment. As I'm usually out in the early hours at the moment, and concious about noise, I'll often either find targets manually if I can, or else slip the clutches and use the scope in "semi push-to" mode to position roughly and then use goto for the final part. So far, I've never had the mount give me any issue with pointing accuracy (i.e. targets have always been within the field of a 21mm EP, however much manual slewing I've been doing). I've replaced the small red dot finder with a 6x30 finder and strapped a Telrad at the other end, so that it's still balanced. The Star Discovery has a 5kg limit which should be OK for the 130P, but certainly not for the 200P.

[Louis D]

On 21/07/2020 at 14:21, Paul63 said:

P.S have been looking also at the  DSV-1 where could this be purchased from in the U.K 

As far as I know, Raul at DSA only does direct sales.  I have both the DSV-1 and DSV-2B mounts, both bought second hand.  His wait time for mounts can be weeks to months, if he responds to your emails at all.  He seems to be concentrating on making and selling the DSV-3 mounts right now.  I highly recommend the DSV-2B over the DSV-1 mostly for the axis locks.  I use heavy eyepieces like the ES-92s and don't like the wild swings in altitude when swapping eyepieces on the DSV-1.