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Is there a GOTO alt az mount & tripod capable of mounting a Celestron 14" OTA?


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Hi,

 

Background -

 

I currently have a Celestron CPC1100 and I love it but I now want to upgrade to a 14" OTA. I don't want an equatorial mount, I want to stick with alt az. I don't do any long exposure astrophotograpjy, just short exposure with a focal reducer. 

I would love it if Celestron made a CPC1400 (or 1600 ;) - (don't laugh, Meade make them!! But I want to stick with Celestron) but since they don't, I wanted to see if I can create my own alt az 14 inch observing system by purchasing a 14" OTA  and an alt az mount separately.

 

Question - 

Does anyone know of a GOTO alt az mount & tripod out there capable of mounting a Celestron 14" Edge OTA & accessories? The OTA weighs appx 46lbs. There wouldn't be a lot of other equipment on the OTA - just a Star Sense camera, Baader click lock prism, Telrad & a focal reducer - but I feel a mount capacity of at least 50lbs+ would be desirable? 

Does such a thing exist? 

Thanks for any information, thoughts, advice or general comments. 

 

Clear skies and steady seeing!! 

 

Siouxsie 

Edited by StarGazingSiouxsie
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I have a Skywatcher AZ-EQ6, which quite happily handles (for visual) my Skywatcher steel-tube 12" newt plus finders and Paracorr2 plus heavy eyepieces. All told that's getting on for 30kg (66lbs). I believe in the US it's marketed as Orion Atlas.

Cheers, Magnus

DCF3BC09-CB21-49FD-9A58-EF313FC3039D.thumb.jpeg.51e7f3ff576a6692aaa167765729322c.jpeg

Edited by Captain Magenta
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Hi, I'm loving the SCT aperture fever but I have to say the thought of side mounting a C14 makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck! Therefore just to be safe 👌

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/alt-azimuth-astronomy-mounts/planewave-l-350-direct-drive-mount.html

Not cheap I know, but nor is a C14 crashing to the ground or your foot, Eeek! 

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1 minute ago, jjohnson3803 said:

Do you have an observatory to keep your rig in or does it need to be (semi-) portable?

 

For now, I have my CPC1100 mounted on a Scope Buggy, which I cannot rcommend highly enough. Hand made, great personal service and works fantastically. 

So my 14" OTA rig will go on a Scope Buggy, too, until such time that I build my own observatory. 

So to answer your Q it has to be semi portable for now. 

Picture shows Cubble on his Scope Buggy with Celeste beside him

 

 

Cubble and Celeste.jpg

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On 02/05/2021 at 11:23, Captain Magenta said:

I have a Skywatcher AZ-EQ6, which quite happily handles (for visual) my Skywatcher steel-tube 12" newt plus finders and Paracorr2 plus heavy eyepieces. All told that's getting on for 30kg (66lbs). I believe in the US it's marketed as Orion Atlas.

Cheers, Magnus

DCF3BC09-CB21-49FD-9A58-EF313FC3039D.thumb.jpeg.51e7f3ff576a6692aaa167765729322c.jpeg

Hi Magnus & thanks for your reply & photo! 

When I saw your post, I thought yes!!! that's excatly what I need - until I read the weight capacity of the mount....... It's only rated for 44lbs max, my set up would be at least 50lbs plus. Your set up looks to be at least 22lbs over the max rated payload........

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1 hour ago, StarGazingSiouxsie said:

Hi Magnus & thanks for your reply & photo! 

When I saw your post, I thought yes!!! that's excatly what I need - until I read the weight capacity of the mount....... It's only rated for 44lbs max, my set up would be at least 50lbs plus. Your set up looks to be at least 22lbs over the max rated payload........

The FLO website for the mount says "Payload Capacity: 18kg for imaging and 25kg for visual". i.e. 40 pounds and 55 pounds. I believe the Orion Atlas is the same so it seems odd they'd quote different numbers. Anyway, at 66 pounds (for visual) and admittedly with a much sturdier tripod than the supplied one (mine's a Berlebach Planet) my set up has worked perfectly like that for several years.

M

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43 minutes ago, Captain Magenta said:

The FLO website for the mount says "Payload Capacity: 18kg for imaging and 25kg for visual". i.e. 40 pounds and 55 pounds. I believe the Orion Atlas is the same so it seems odd they'd quote different numbers. Anyway, at 66 pounds (for visual) and admittedly with a much sturdier tripod than the supplied one (mine's a Berlebach Planet) my set up has worked perfectly like that for several years.

M

i think FLO have it wrong. I reseached a lot of older posts about this issue and the consensus is that FLO do have it wrong. 

Skywatcher say in their specs for this mount that the payload capacity is 44lbs / 20kg https://www.skywatcherusa.com/products/az-eq6-mount

The Orion Atlas mount that you mentioned is a completely fifferent mount and an EQ one.  

 

Late edit - Although - because the mount in every other way fits my needs, I'm going to contact Skywatcher directly and ask them about this discrepancy and see what they say. Thanks for your initial pointer, Magnus

Edited by StarGazingSiouxsie
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51 minutes ago, Captain Magenta said:

The FLO website for the mount says "Payload Capacity: 18kg for imaging and 25kg for visual". i.e. 40 pounds and 55 pounds. I believe the Orion Atlas is the same so it seems odd they'd quote different numbers. Anyway, at 66 pounds (for visual) and admittedly with a much sturdier tripod than the supplied one (mine's a Berlebach Planet) my set up has worked perfectly like that for several years.

M

The capacity for the Orion Atlas is also listed as 44lbs 

https://optcorp.com/products/orion-atlas-pro-az-eq-g-computerized-goto-telescope-mount-10010?gclid=Cj0KCQjw4cOEBhDMARIsAA3XDRgiMTDJJtCzPMfy1JhPCK8U3I-HCQc50F3hLYzX5WrO7LEeYbkFG7kaAlCiEALw_wcB

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You're getting them mixed up, that is the eq mount, this is the Alt-Az:

https://www.telescope.com/All-Telescopes/Mounts-Tripods/GoTo-Mounts-Tripods/Orion-Atlas-Pro-AZEQ-G-Computerized-GoTo-Telescope-Mount/pc/2162/c/2131/sc/2001/p/102340.uts?refineByCategoryId=2001

 

Edit, you posted again, you found the AZ-EQ...

Edited by scotty38
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2 minutes ago, scotty38 said:

No, I wasn't - it was listed an EQ mount, as per my earlier link. 

Anyway, it's a moot point bcus, alas, the capaicity is still only 44lbs. In every other way its perfect 

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It's a real shame they don't make an AZ version of the Skywatcher EQ8 as that might have been a good compromise.

It's painful financially I know, but if I was thinking of buying a scope that currently retails for around 8k new, I would go all out on the mount to make sure the OTA was safe. 

Great if the AZ-EQ6 is up to the job, but I've owned a couple of EQ6 class mounts in the past, and from that experience I would have thought something like a C11 would be the max in real world terms?   

 

 

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2 minutes ago, Chris said:

It's a real shame they don't make an AZ version of the Skywatcher EQ8 as that might have been a good compromise.

It's painful financially I know, but if I was thinking of buying a scope that currently retails for around 8k new, I would go all out on the mount to make sure the OTA was safe. 

Great if the AZ-EQ6 is up to the job, but I've owned a couple of EQ6 class mounts in the past, and from that experience I would have thought something like a C11 would be the max in real world terms?   

 

 

I agree, Chris. The consensus from the CN post I linked to above seems to agree with you, an 11" OTA is really the max for the Orion Atlas 

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13 minutes ago, StarGazingSiouxsie said:

I agree, Chris. The consensus from the CN post I linked to above seems to agree with you, an 11" OTA is really the max for the Orion Atlas 

I know the mount I linked previously was crazy expensive, but I've used Meade LX200 14" SCT's back in my Uni days, so I've seen them with my own eyes. They're impressively massive! lol The ones we used at Uni (not sure if Hert's Uni still have them or not?) were mounted on massive fork mounts aboard massive industrial welded wedges.

Just Googled it and this is the one I used for a few years, the pic doesn't give the scale of the thing justice...fond memories :) 

6829755238_9d458768f4_b.jpg

Edited by Chris
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16 minutes ago, The Admiral said:

As Peter Drew suggested, the TTS-160. Not far off your weight requirement. But it isn't cheap 😉.  https://trackthestars.com/tts-160-panther-telescope-mount/

Ian

Thanks Ian.

Niels Haagh from TTS contacted me and said the TTS-160 was not able to handle a C14 - but that a TTS 300 Mammoth mount (for a mammoth price ;) ) could 

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