Which mount?

[Percivel]

As can be seen from my previous posts I am now looking to remount my meade 14 inch sct.

My options appear to be an EQ8 or a celestron cgxl. However the opitron 70 keeps springing to my mind.

Googled all to death but stil cannot make my mind up.

The eq8 should be able to take the weight. The other two may be bit of a trade off, but they on paper might be the better option.

confused.com!

[7170]

What is your budget, about £3k? If so I assume you mean and EQ8-R and not a EQ8-Rh (as that is about £5.5k)?

And what is the total weight of your SCT plus camera etc? I think a 14" Meade is about 23kg?

Are you open to second hand options too?

Edited August 1, 2021 by 7170

[Percivel]

11 hours ago, 7170 said:

What is your budget, about £3k? If so I assume you mean and EQ8-R and not a EQ8-Rh (as that is about £5.5k)?

And what is the total weight of your SCT plus camera etc? I think a 14" Meade is about 23kg?

Are you open to second hand options too?

Flexible on budget. Secondhand also quite acceptable. Always buy used when I can.

 

[newbie alert]

Ioptron cem 120 is more equal to the eq8 payload than the 70

[7170]

My thoughts are for the price the EQ8-R is hard to beat payload wise and it has been out a while too so good software support and one would assume manufacturing gremlins (if any) were ironed out long ago.

If it had to be a new one, the next up price wise I would personally consider is a Losmandy G11-GT Titan, but that is more like £4,800, but can take 34kg payload max.

Second hand wise I would again consider a EQ8. And also do some calling around to dealers to see if anyone knows of an used Titans going, or used Paramount MX just to see what the latest is on the used scene (if they know of any at the moment). Maybe way too much but I have seen a used MX from 2015 go for just over £6k recently (barely used).

Sorry I know nothing about the CEM120 or cgxl.

[Percivel]

On 02/08/2021 at 13:01, 7170 said:

My thoughts are for the price the EQ8-R is hard to beat payload wise and it has been out a while too so good software support and one would assume manufacturing gremlins (if any) were ironed out long ago.

If it had to be a new one, the next up price wise I would personally consider is a Losmandy G11-GT Titan, but that is more like £4,800, but can take 34kg payload max.

Second hand wise I would again consider a EQ8. And also do some calling around to dealers to see if anyone knows of an used Titans going, or used Paramount MX just to see what the latest is on the used scene (if they know of any at the moment). Maybe way too much but I have seen a used MX from 2015 go for just over £6k recently (barely used).

Sorry I know nothing about the CEM120 or cgxl.

Seems impossible at the mo to get an EQ8. Found some CGXL in stock and contacted the supplier to ask if it can comfortably take the 14 inch. But they never got back to me.

 

[Cosmic Geoff]

I have seen a 16" Meade SCT on a LX200 - it looked like a suitably massive piece of kit.  Given the cost of replacement mounts, is is feasible to refit the mount with a new, custom drive?

I assume you want to image with the new mount, which makes some constraints.  Celestron offer a !4" SCT on the CGX-L mount.

[Percivel]

4 hours ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

I have seen a 16" Meade SCT on a LX200 - it looked like a suitably massive piece of kit.  Given the cost of replacement mounts, is is feasible to refit the mount with a new, custom drive?

I assume you want to image with the new mount, which makes some constraints.  Celestron offer a !4" SCT on the CGX-L mount.

The meade 14 inch is a bit heavier  (apparently) than the celestron. The  cgxl  may take it  but just cannot get a definitive  answer. Don't want to buy it  and find its not up to it 

[Cosmic Geoff]

15 minutes ago, Percivel said:

The meade 14 inch is a bit heavier  (apparently) than the celestron. The  cgxl  may take it  but just cannot get a definitive  answer. Don't want to buy it  and find its not up to it 

Ultimately you would need to ask someone who has used a SCT with the same all-up weight on the mount in question.  It would make some difference whether the mount is on a tripod in the open, or on a pier in an observatory, and whether you are doing planetary imaging, where a bit of movement is not critical, or deep-space imaging, where rigidity would be essential.  

[Percivel]

Been a while since I posted on this. Now got the scope on a celestron cgxl which holds it perfectly. Scope is fitted to the mount via a custom made cradle fitting from orion optics uk.

The cradle makes it very easy to achieve balance as the scope is already secured via the dovetail and you can slide the quite heave scope backwards and forwards in the cradle fitting.

PS deforking a 14 inch sct from the original fork mounts is not for the faint hearted.