Which mount is best to start astrophotography?

[Yellow dwarf]

When looking to start astrophotography, prices seem huge. The mounts cost a lot, so I was wondering which one is best to start astrophotography, when not looking to spend more than £600 or £700. Astrobiscuit has a good page on his website which explains the minimum for Deep Sky astrophotography, which suggests that a second-hand eq5 is a good choice on a budget. I’d be looking to image with the 130pds, which weighs about 4kg.

Astrobiscuits website page on mounts: https://www.astrobiscuit.com/best-mount

[rnobleeddy]

I've used an 130PDS setup on an EQ5. If you're not careful about the weight of the equipment, it can start to trouble the 5Kg limit. But that wasn't really the issue - my mount didn't guide as well as I hoped and despite weeks of trying to adjust/modify the gearing, it still wouldn't guide well in DEC. So 5 minute subs were a waste of time - but 60s subs were fine (I'd throw perhaps one out of every 4 of them away). 

I'd love to try that EQ5 again with all the knowledge I've gained since, including better polar alignment. But there's a reason everyone suggests the HEQ5 - almost every HEQ5 will work reasonably well out of the box.  Astrobiscuit has a good video on tuned mounts and if you believe the claims made by the mount tuner he talks to, even the lowly EQ3 can be made to work very well in expert hands. However, the tuning service is expensive, and so unless you want the portability of a tuned lighter mount, it's not economical to, for example, buy a new EQ5 and get it tuned, because that would cost more than just buying a HEQ5.

So a second hand HEQ5 would be a good choice and should be within/around your budget. Of all the advice routinely given out on this forum, starting with a HEQ5 for imaging is probably the least contested!

Edited April 11, 2021 by rnobleeddy

[Knight of Clear Skies]

For getting started with imaging, especially on a budget, I'd tend to recommend the Samyang 135mm f2 lens over a scope. Enough focal length to pick up detail on a good number of targets, very fast at f2 and much more forgiving of the mount.

[Yellow dwarf]

12 minutes ago, rnobleeddy said:

I've used an 130PDS setup on an EQ5. If you're not careful about the weight of the equipment, it can start to trouble the 5Kg limit. But that wasn't really the issue - my mount didn't guide as well as I hoped and despite weeks of trying to adjust/modify the gearing, it still wouldn't guide well in DEC. So 5 minute subs were a waste of time - but 60s subs were fine (I'd throw perhaps one out of every 4 of them away). 

I'd love to try that EQ5 again with all the knowledge I've gained since, including better polar alignment. But there's a reason everyone suggests the HEQ5 - almost every HEQ5 will work reasonably well out of the box.  Astrobiscuit has a good video on tuned mounts and if you believe the claims made by the mount tuner he talks to, even the lowly EQ3 can be made to work very well in expert hands. However, the tuning service is expensive, and so unless you want the portability of a tuned lighter mount, it's not economical to, for example, buy a new EQ5 and get it tuned, because that would cost more than just buying a HEQ5.

So a second hand HEQ5 would be a good choice and should be within/around your budget. Of all the advice routinely given out on this forum, starting with a HEQ5 for imagine is probably the least contested!

Thanks for the advice, how much would a second-hand heq5 cost?

[rnobleeddy]

2 minutes ago, Yellow dwarf said:

Thanks for the advice, how much would a second-hand heq5 cost?

Last summer I budgeted £600 for a 2nd hand HEQ5 but ended with an EQ6 instead. It maybe a little more now as there's been a recent price rise, but you may also be able to get one that's been belt modded for that price, which will improve tracking.

The issue is supply/demand. There aren't a lot for sale and most need to be collected.

[Yellow dwarf]

A belt-modded Heq5 for £600 seems like a real bargain, considering that buying one new costs around £1200. Thanks for the advice again, this forum has been a real help when getting into astronomy.

[Neil H]

Shame you can't go to £800 there is a NEQ6 on Astro buy and sale

[rnobleeddy]

3 hours ago, Yellow dwarf said:

A belt-modded Heq5 for £600 seems like a real bargain, considering that buying one new costs around £1200. Thanks for the advice again, this forum has been a real help when getting into astronomy.

I stupidly didn't buy one last year from a local member of this forum at £600. I'd guess £800 might be a more reasonable average price these days.  

[Yellow dwarf]

49 minutes ago, rnobleeddy said:

I stupidly didn't buy one last year from a local member of this forum at £600. I'd guess £800 might be a more reasonable average price these days.  

Ah ok

[ollypenrice]

It is, I know, counter-intuitive to spend more on the mount than on the optics or camera but think what you are asking the mount to do. That's track the apparent rotation of the sky with an average error of less than half an arcsecond. An arcsecond is a sixtieth of an arcminute and an arcminute is a sixtieth of a degree and a degree is one three hundred and sixtieth of a circle. That precision is very, very difficult to achieve...

If you don't buy the right mount you will buy twice. You honestly will.

HEQ5.

Olly

[smashing]

5 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

It is, I know, counter-intuitive to spend more on the mount than on the optics or camera but think what you are asking the mount to do. That's track the apparent rotation of the sky with an average error of less than half an arcsecond. An arcsecond is a sixtieth of an arcminute and an arcminute is a sixtieth of a degree and a degree is one three hundred and sixtieth of a circle. That precision is very, very difficult to achieve...

If you don't buy the right mount you will buy twice. You honestly will.

HEQ5.

Olly

This! 

[barbulo]

5 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

If you don't buy the right mount you will buy twice. You honestly will.

Concur. Happened to me. And bear in mind that it's far better to give explanations (in my case to my wife) once than twice. 😔

[masjstovel]

8 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

If you don't buy the right mount you will buy twice. You honestly will.

HEQ5.

Olly

This is me about a year ago when i sold my EQ5 for (Which i owned for 3 months or so because i didnt listen to the people saying i needed a bigger mount for AP) and bought the EQ6 Pro.
One of my key learning points have been not to buy gear that is "maybe good enough", but use the extra $ instead. This hobby will have you lie to people (= wife) on what you have spent anyway. 

Edited April 11, 2021 by masjstovel

[The Lazy Astronomer]

Concur with all advice given here. Bought a new mount last year, and was originally looking at heq5, but decided to take the "buy once, cry once" stance and got an eq6r pro, which hopefully l will never need to upgrade from...

 

 

...said every astrophotographer ever, right before buying an even more expensive mount!

[JP-S]

My first mount was a skyview pro and had no end of problems with stiction which made it basically unusable for AP even with my very light payload (CF refractor + OAG). I wasted a lot of time as I was so new it took me a while just to work out what the problem even was before realising it was something well beyond my ability to fix anyway.  Eventually I got an EQ6R and everything basically just worked.

To some extent I was probably just unlucky that my particular mount had the problems it did. Most of these mount that roll out of the factory probably would've been fine but the downside can be so huge if you get one of the bad ones that it's not worth the risk I'd say.

[rickwayne]

If you stay within its weight limits and don't overstress the geartrain, I've found an iOptron CEM25P  (now  CEM26)  a very good starter mount, though  it's  certainly at the top  of  your range. I loaded it up with almost 8 kg and was consistently getting sub-second autoguiding with a lot of learning  and tweaking. Eventually  you will  probably want a long scope or heavier load and want to upgrade, but you can  get great  results out of one. I love iPolar (I have  since upgraded to a CEM70), but the polar  scope plus  something  like Sharpcap will get  your  alignment dialed  in very nicely.