Alt-Az choice?

[vineyard]

Hello,

Hope this finds everyone safe & well.

I'm in the process of consolidating mounts - need to create space & also have a cooled OSC to shoot for

Just sold the belt-modded go-to Vixen GP2 (sniff sniff, but it seems to be going to a good home) as I have a beefier  HEQ5Pro as the main imaging mount (...for the time being, just out of curiosity what is the Vixen comparable step up from GP2 that would rival or beat the HEQ5Pro? 😜)

And so now need to (perhaps) make a choice on the alt-az side.  I was using an old WO EZTouch (the original version made by Beat Kohler from AOK - he apparently only made 300, its co-branded WO & AOK, and looks and works strangely v much like an Ayo II).  I've put a Baader EQ Clamp on the other side, so that it becomes a dual mountable alt-az mount (OK not as nice as Rowan AZ100 but it'll do for me!).

So far so good.  Then my father gave me his old Vixen SP mount.  Its solid & smooth.  I've put on some old Vixen brass dual-axis motors on both axes - they are so quiet its ridiculous, and have manual clutches so I can disengage them to use the manual control knobs if I want (although in practice using the motor control pad is far easier, more precise and doesn't involve touching the rig).  I've got it set in alt-az configuration, and it works a treat (I can of course always turn it back into EQ).

So now I'm wondering - if I were to consolidate alt-az mounts, which one to keep?

EZTouch: pros are its physically smaller & lighter, and can handle two scopes (although how often would I actually do that - only thing I can think of is solar Ha & WL).  Cons are no slow motion controls, so you have to move the scope by hand as you view a target; for objects at the zenith you can have to tighten the knobs even for a balanced scope due to unbalanced moment-forces (unless the balancing is done perfectly) & so there can be a slight backlash then (although in fairness this can be user-calibrated so it is v much user-choice).

SP in alt-az: pros are solid & stable, no need to touch the set and more precise movement possible, objects at the zenith are fine & stay dead-centred b/c the motor cogs (or manual control knobs) stop any slight over-shooting due to unbalanced moment-forces.  Cons are its bulkier, the counterweight arm sticks out (but equally can be used to help balance if I ever put heavier scope on); and no dual-scoping (although in fairness I could just mount a little Lunt 50 on top of the tube rings of the normal scope and the counterweighted arm would still maintain everything in shape).

Figured I'd ask the far more experienced SGLers: if you were only going to keep one, which one would it be?

Thank you & stay safe,

Vin