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Your Most Trusted Mount


Sunshine

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In your years of gathering mounts which many times come and go depending on needs, is there one mount no matter how old it is, that has always been there and done it’s job? for me it would be my Vixen GP. Even though I’ve only had it a few years it just seems so well built, finished, and is so smooth and stable that I can never see myself letting it go, it will always have a place in my home.

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Edited by Sunshine
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My EQ5 was very reliable, dragged in and out of the car 100s of times for Solar imaging sessions. Mostly at work or in the winter from mobile spots where i could still see the Sun. It has been replaced by a lighter, hopefully equally reliable EQ3-2 for the same purpose

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The easiest astronomy question I've ever been asked. Mesu 200. In around ten years it has still to cost me a single lost sub. (I've dropped a few due to middle-of-the-night brain fade but the mount never has.) That's not a 'good' record, it's a 'perfect' record. Maintenance during these years? None.

Olly

Edited by ollypenrice
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For overall quality and telescope holding ability, my Tak 90S has been is 100% reliable. Every time I think about selling it, a little voice says 'don't do it'! For when I don't feel like lugging the Tak out in three stages, my Vixen Polaris is my preferred option. And when I travel abroad, my Altair Mini AZ does a great job. Over the last year though, I've got really into Ha solar observing and my Solarquest mount has been perfect for that. You just turn it on and it works every time. 

I think that covers everything!

Edited by Roy Challen
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For me it's my trusty pier mounted Vixen GP which has proved itself time and again by carrying everything solidly, even my long and heavy 6" F10 Edmund's Scientific refractor without issue.

Below with the Genesis SDF.

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Edited by mikeDnight
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Two mounts for me. First my current mount an iOptron CEM 60 standard non EC version then an Avalon linear fast reverse EQ mount. Both mounts work(ed) very smoothly. Didn't like my NEQ6 Pro.

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1 hour ago, mikeDnight said:

For me it's my trusty pier mounted Vixen GP which has proved itself time and again by carrying everything solidly, even my long and heavy 6" F10 Edmund's Scientific refractor without issue.

Below with the Genesis SDF.

IMG_20220111_155741.thumb.jpg.afb6a386a29c074b9e75a0ff90ab379c.jpg

Whoa! you put a 6” refractor on your Vixen pictured here? this is a bit of a relief as there surely is a larger refractor in my near future, something along the lines of a 120-125, I guess I shouldn’t be concerned about the GP handling it as long as it is balanced properly.

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22 minutes ago, Sunshine said:

Whoa! you put a 6” refractor on your Vixen pictured here? this is a bit of a relief as there surely is a larger refractor in my near future, something along the lines of a 120-125, I guess I shouldn’t be concerned about the GP handling it as long as it is balanced properly.

Many years ago I loaned a white Vixen GP to a friend so he could mount his Meade 127mm Triplet. It was heavy scope, but the GP was mounted on top of a steel pier similar to mine. The damping time was less than 3 seconds. And below is my 6" F10 mounted on my GP. It could perhaps do with a Hargreaves strut, but otherwise the mount has no issue carrying the long heavy tube. When a GP is attached to a solid base it is a phenomenal mount. Any weakness tends to be in the choice of tripod.

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25 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

Many years ago I loaned a white Vixen GP to a friend so he could mount his Meade 127mm Triplet. It was heavy scope, but the GP was mounted on top of a steel pier similar to mine. The damping time was less than 3 seconds. And below is my 6" F10 mounted on my GP. It could perhaps do with a Hargreaves strut, but otherwise the mount has no issue carrying the long heavy tube. When a GP is attached to a solid base it is a phenomenal mount. Any weakness tends to be in the choice of tripod.

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This is impressive, I wouldn’t have thought.

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That’s a really tricky one, so you will get a fudged answer from me!

Probably the mount I had longest and used most often was a Giro Ercole which I used for both solar and Astro observing. I often mount an Ha scope side by side with a white light scope, or high power/larger aperture with a widefield scope. Very easy to setup and use. I sold mine not that long again to find my AZ100, and will likely get an AZ75 when they release as it is much lighter than the 100 but better engineered than the Ercole.

The other answer I’ll give is the same as you, a Vixen GP (with simple dual axis motors). I find these ideal for planetary, lunar and solar observing with a single scope. Plonk it down level and facing North and it will track accurately enough for ages. I currently have a GP-DX with Skysensor 2000PC controller which is very nice too 👍👍.

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The Vixen certainly seems to be popular - I’m still not fully set up but purchased a GP and a GPDX recently - after many many hours of reading and taking advice. If mounted properly and well looked after they’re hard to beat for the outlay.

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13 hours ago, Paz said:

I would say my Skytee 2. It is completely standard, it does everything it should very well.

Paz, did you replace the tube clamps on each side?  I had a Skytee many years ago and found the tube clamps were an accident waiting to happen. If opened too far they would literally spring apart and drop the telescope!  

Perhaps the Skytee 2 has better clamps than mine had?

  

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2 hours ago, paulastro said:

Paz, did you replace the tube clamps on each side?  I had a Skytee many years ago and found the tube clamps were an accident waiting to happen. If opened too far they would literally spring apart and drop the telescope!  

Perhaps the Skytee 2 has better clamps than mine had?

  

Mine has standard clamps. I had heard about some owners modifying them before I got it and I kept that option in mind but I've found it to be good, the clamps open plenty for the dovetails I use and they grip fine.

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41 minutes ago, Paz said:

Mine has standard clamps. I had heard about some owners modifying them before I got it and I kept that option in mind but I've found it to be good, the clamps open plenty for the dovetails I use and they grip fine.

That's fine if you're happy with it Paz.  I just wanted to be sure you were aware of a potential problem.

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48 minutes ago, Peter_D said:

Has anyone that has owned a GP mount used a Sky-watcher extension pillar with it? 

Yep, works fine with the EQ5 version. I think I ‘mixed and matched’ the top plate between a 16” and 8” here to allow the GP to fit.

EDIT to be clear, it’s the 16” one which fits the EQ5 and Vixen GP/GP-DX, the 8” one fits the EQ6

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-watcher-mount-accessories/skywatcher-eq5heq5-extension-tube.html

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5 minutes ago, Stu said:

Yep, works fine with the EQ5 version. I think I ‘mixed and matched’ the top plate between a 16” and 8” here to allow the GP to fit.

This is great, and an option for me as well, thanks!

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I have had a Heq5, AZ EQ6GT, Avalon Linear and currently a Mesu 200.

The Mesu 200 wipes the floor with all the others although the Avalon was very good and much lighter.

I often refer to the Mesu as the most boring thing about astroimaging - turn it on tell it what to do and it does it - again and again and again. Nothing to fiddle with, clean, adjust, swear at.

 

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1 hour ago, Skipper Billy said:

I have had a Heq5, AZ EQ6GT, Avalon Linear and currently a Mesu 200.

The Mesu 200 wipes the floor with all the others although the Avalon was very good and much lighter.

I often refer to the Mesu as the most boring thing about astroimaging - turn it on tell it what to do and it does it - again and again and again. Nothing to fiddle with, clean, adjust, swear at.

 

20210809_131659.jpg

That is one serious as a heart attack imaging rig you have there, wow.

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I can't disagree with the votes for the GP, it's a wonderful mount, as is the GPDX version.

But I'm going to choose my Takahashi EM2 and Vixen SP mounts, the two I have now.

The EM2 came with my FS128 which I've now had for nearly five years. The mount dates from 1998 and has a single RA drive, polar scope and twin slo-mo drives too. It's very similar in capacity to the GPDX and takes the FS128 (which is a big tube, but quite light at just 7.5kg) beautifully. On a sturdy wooden tripod it is rock solid.

With a quick visual polar scope alignment it will hold the target in the centre of the fov for c. an hour. Even the polar scope cover is metal, no plastic here!

My other mount which deserves a mention is my Vixen SP (Super Polaris). This was replaced by the GP, but the SP can operate in altaz mode as well as eq mode, something the GP can't do.

I use it with my old Vixen SP102 F10 achromat and they make a perfect combination, with simple, but very smooth slow motion controls. It's shown here also, with my son in laws' Evostar 120mm F8.3, which I've been cleaning for him.

Dave

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Edited by F15Rules
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