EQ2 to Alt Az GTI

[Ed the Fox]

Hi SGL

Last year I decided to get back into astronomy for the first time in over 30 years but budgets being tight I decided to buy second hand and wanted a reflector. Luckily I stumbled across a Skywatcher 130m on a motor driven EQ2 mount in near perfect condition (although I had to travel 80 miles to get it). This system was OK although the motor kept slipping and being in a light polluted town was struggling to find things.

I was recently gifted a Skywatcher Alt Az GTI mount by my lovely wife as she'd been listening to me going on about things and how a go to mount would be perfect.

So already having the EQ2 tripod with nothing wrong with it I set about converting my set up. 

Having removed the OTA and rings from the EQ2 mount I reattached the rings to a Skywatcher 210mm dovetail and sat the scope back in the rings. I then turned my attention to the extention tube and how to fit that to the mount. I purchased a 100mm M8 bolt and a couple of large M8 washers and slid the bolt through the tube.

I then secured the bolt with a nut on the other side.

This renders the bolt secure in the tube and can then be easily mounted/dismounted by a wing bolt on the underside of the mount with the addition of a large M8 washer.

I now had to tackle the tripod as its a lot on the light side and I always thought it was top heavy when it had the EQ2 mount and scope attached. I decided to fill the legs with kiln dried sand and its free flowing, easy to get hold of and is relatively cheap (a 25kg bag was about £6). The center legs can be filled with no problem but the outer legs need sealing at the bottom. This I did with silicone sealant and let it dry for 24 hours before filling with sand. I now have a sturdy mount for the telescope to sit on.

Speaking of which I found the Alt Az GTI mount an utter joy to have. It takes the 130m with no bother at all although at 4.1Kg it is approaching the mounts maximum weight and I did ask the good people at FLO if the scope needed to be counterbalanced which they said no, but I thought best to be on the safe side and do so anyway. To my delight the counterbalance rod fit the Alt Az mount without any adaptation and upon testing the balance found that the weight needed to be right at the end of the rod to balance out the scope.

I would not put anything bigger than a 130m on the mount as its becoming a bit unwieldy and had to set the phone apps parameters so it does not tilt the scope any higher than 72 degrees thus not catching on the tripod legs. Apart from that I'm very happy with the result.

Hope this'll give others ideas on how to upgrade on a budget.

Thanks for taking the time to read this post.

[PeterStudz]

Interesting, thanks for posting.

I have a Skywatcher Skyhawk 1145p. Obviously smaller than your telescope but apart from the mount (it’s an EQ1) I’ve found it surprisingly good. Although I’ve learnt to live with the wobbly nature of putting it on another mount.

And I have been thinking of doing an upgrade similar to yours using an AZ GTi. How is the tripod now that you’ve modified it? Is it nice and steady?

[Ed the Fox]

3 minutes ago, PeterStudz said:

Interesting, thanks for posting.

I have a Skywatcher Skyhawk 1145p. Obviously smaller than your telescope but apart from the mount (it’s an EQ1) I’ve found it surprisingly good. Although I’ve learnt to live with the wobbly nature of putting it on another mount.

And I have been thinking of doing an upgrade similar to yours using an AZ GTi. How is the tripod now that you’ve modified it? Is it nice and steady?

Hi Peter 

I have found the tripod really steady now it has sand in it. Not only that but removing the eq2 mount and replacing it with the Alt Az has reduced the weight carried by the tripod thus again increasing its sturdiness. 

[Veloman]

Brilliant posting!  I'll start saving up my pennies- I've already saved the cost of the EQ2 deluxe motor drive so I'm about 1/3 of the way there.

ATB

Rob