Looking for a new mount. Need advice.

[RugbyRene]

Hi all,

Well it finally happened. My pain in the ar*e SW AZEQ6GT mount finally died. I will be holding a funeral ceremony while gleefully dancing around it’s burning ashes. You can probably tell from that last sentence that I did not like this mount. It was a constant battle to control the rampant periodic error and huge random, inexplicable spikes in the guide graph.

Anyway, I’m now in the market for a new mount (even Sky Watcher). While I’m happy to spend the money I’m not going to go crazy (so no Planewave mounts). I’m open to any and all suggestions. It will be carrying about 15kg of gear and must have good guiding performance and low periodic error. Portability is not really an issue as I mainly image from my front yard.

I’d be very interested to hear from people who have the following mounts but am open to others.

Avalon (Linear or M-UNO)
SW EQ8RH
Rainbow Astro

Cheers in advance

Rene

[maxchess]

Great question, I am in the same position my trusty heq5pro belt mod doesn’t have the payload capacity I need. After scouring the forums I have come to the conclusion that don’t want to stretch to paramount/Mesu £7k + when fully loaded. EQ8 looks like old ok technology. CEM70 overpriced with toys I don’t need, so CEM120 looks like a good step up with plenty of payload even for dual mount and good performance. Plus great cabling etc with USB3. Looks like several people have these and are very satisfied but a few dogs also. EC encoders not worth the extra.

so very interested in reaction.

[SyedT]

I have a second-hand Avalon M-Uno and cannot fault it. Most nights I'm guiding at an RMS of 0.4 or less, and this is with an FSQ85-EDX/Edge HD 8 + Esatto microfocuser + reducer + filter wheel + camera + MiniPC + Pegasus hub + guidescope. I do have to use counterweights for balance, but less than would usually be needed due to the single-fork design. Another bonus is that you don't need to do meridian flips (but have to ensure that the rear of your imaging train has sufficient clearance; this can easily be achieved with declination counterweights if you need to move your train further forward, see the image below).

Two caveats are that the maximum recommended imaging payload is 20 kg (yours is 15 kg which it will handle easily), and that since the mount is belt-driven it will always require guiding (i.e. unguided imaging isn't a recommended option). Belt drives are also more susceptible to windy conditions, but I'd imagine that would be an issue across the board.

I do have the Synscan version of the M-Uno which was basically plug and play for me as I'm used to EQMOD. I think these have been discontinued and now only the StarGo versions exist; haven't used that so not sure about it. I've previously owned an Avalon Linear which performed very well; I'm still in touch with the new owner and they seem to be enjoying a similar performance.

Edited April 20, 2021 by SyedT

[RugbyRene]

I do like the Avalon M-Uno. It looks really nice and removing the need for a meridian flip is a big draw. I've had so many imaging nights ruined because the flip failed for any number of reasons.. Did you do any tuning to get such a low RMS? Say a PEMPRO session or adjusting the belts etc.

[Deadlake]

10 hours ago, RugbyRene said:

I do like the Avalon M-Uno. It looks really nice and removing the need for a meridian flip is a big draw. I've had so many imaging nights ruined because the flip failed for any number of reasons.. Did you do any tuning to get such a low RMS? Say a PEMPRO session or adjusting the belts etc.

I'd be interested to know how guiding worked for belt and harmonic drive mounts, they have a larger periodic error and so need a different approach, presume thats need to be guided????

Automatic meridian flip is also assume have it on my SXP2 mount as well. 

Edited April 21, 2021 by Deadlake

[fwm891]

@RugbyReneI've owned an Avalon Linear Fast Reverse mount and can say that it's a superb mount. I had warnings from (mainly CN) that the belt drive wasn't up to it - load of b--ls. I now have an iOptron CEM60 (non EC) and that too guides really well especially now PHD2 can guide on multiple field stars.

Good luck with the search.

Edited April 21, 2021 by fwm891
link added

[teoria_del_big_bang]

23 hours ago, SyedT said:

I have a second-hand Avalon M-Uno and cannot fault it. Most nights I'm guiding at an RMS of 0.4 or less, and this is with an FSQ85-EDX/Edge HD 8 + Esatto microfocuser + reducer + filter wheel + camera + MiniPC + Pegasus hub + guidescope. I do have to use counterweights for balance, but less than would usually be needed due to the single-fork design. Another bonus is that you don't need to do meridian flips (but have to ensure that the rear of your imaging train has sufficient clearance; this can easily be achieved with declination counterweights if you need to move your train further forward, see the image below).

Two caveats are that the maximum recommended imaging payload is 20 kg (yours is 15 kg which it will handle easily), and that since the mount is belt-driven it will always require guiding (i.e. unguided imaging isn't a recommended option). Belt drives are also more susceptible to windy conditions, but I'd imagine that would be an issue across the board.

I do have the Synscan version of the M-Uno which was basically plug and play for me as I'm used to EQMOD. I think these have been discontinued and now only the StarGo versions exist; haven't used that so not sure about it. I've previously owned an Avalon Linear which performed very well; I'm still in touch with the new owner and they seem to be enjoying a similar performance.

That is an awesome looking rig and a guide log to go with it. 🙂 

Steve

[SyedT]

19 hours ago, RugbyRene said:

I do like the Avalon M-Uno. It looks really nice and removing the need for a meridian flip is a big draw. I've had so many imaging nights ruined because the flip failed for any number of reasons.. Did you do any tuning to get such a low RMS? Say a PEMPRO session or adjusting the belts etc.

No fine tuning at all. The whole marketing behind the Avalon mounts is that as they're belt driven they're pretty much maintenance free and I can attest to that having owned it for an year and a half (and the previous owner had the same experience). The important thing is to get it as balanced as possible. Although to be honest, currently my scope is a bit front heavy so declination balance is a bit off, but I'm still getting an RMS of 0.5. Lack of meridian flip makes a huge difference to my sessions, as I know I can just let it work away in the background.

9 hours ago, Deadlake said:

I'd be interested to know how guiding worked for belt and harmonic drive mounts, they have a larger periodic error and so need a different approach, presume thats need to be guided????

Automatic meridian flip is also assume have it on my SXP2 mount as well. 

That's one of the caveats I mentioned, that these mounts will not work well without guiding. Due to the single fork arm design, the mount can rotate 360 degrees in RA without the need for a meridian flip as long as the imaging train is far forward enough in declination.

8 hours ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

That is an awesome looking rig and a guide log to go with it. 🙂 

Steve

Cheers Steve!

[SyedT]

9 hours ago, fwm891 said:

@RugbyReneI've owned an Avalon Linear Fast Reverse mount and can say that it's a superb mount. I had warnings from (mainly CN) that the belt drive wasn't up to it - load of b--ls. I now have an iOptron CEM60 (non EC) and that too guides really well especially now PHD2 can guide on multiple field stars.

Good luck with the search.

I can confirm that multi-star guiding has definitely made a difference to PHD2 performance!

[schmeah]

I second the vote for the Avalon M Uno. I image with both a 9.25” Edge and an FSQ85. I have had mine for over five years and it never lets me down. I have taken two hour long subs at a FL 2350 with tight round stars. A joy to own.

 

Derek

[sloz1664]

I've owned an Avalon Linear Reverse for over 4 years and it has never let me down, although I have let it down on numerous occasions. It guides superbly and needs no periodic software whatsoever. I have attached an old PHD2 graph but I now have better guiding statistics now I use PHD2 multiple guiding.

 

Steve