What Mount ?

[Stu1smartcookie]

I need a tracking mount , mainly for my 180 Mak . I only do visual but of course want to tak a few nice images of the Moon and Planets . The question is ... What Mount to get ?

I have a couple of options , ( 3 in fact) 

An AVX , a skywatcher AZ-EQ5 and the Ioptron AZ- Pro . 

Cost suggests the AVX but its a bit noisy ( i have neighbours with small kids ) 

My personal preference is the ioptron but i loathe having to buy the Lite Roc Tripod for £274 to mount it on ( unless anyone can suggest a way i can use my stella lyra wooden tripod )

The az-eq5 looks a good  as it does bothe Eq and alt az and can handle both my 8" newt and the 180 mak . 

 

Any thoughts ?

Stu

 

Edited February 19 by Stu1smartcookie

[Tiny Clanger]

https://oberwerk.com/product/oberwerk-ioptron-az-pro-3-8-tripod-adapter/

seems to be the only commercially available adaptor 😞

[Knighty2112]

Used to have an AVX a few years back, and sold it off because I needed some money quickly at the time. Can’t remember the mount being noisy in any great way. Got a Skywatcher Heq5 Pro now (no Rowan belt kit fitted) and sounds much the same. AVX always worked a treat. Wish I hadn’t sold it on now, although the Heq5 Pro is just as good.

Edited February 19 by Knighty2112

[Tiny Clanger]

Ha, not the only one, there's also this : https://www.ioptron.com/product-p/8032pt.htm

Maybe FLO or another retailer might consider importing and selling them (assuming none do at the moment, I've not checked).

[Elp]

What's the budget?

[Stu1smartcookie]

2 minutes ago, Elp said:

What's the budget?

its really only between those three mounts ... the ioptron with the tripod and the az-eq5 are nuch the same price but the AVX is soooo much cheaper 

[Stu1smartcookie]

Heather thats really helpful , many thanks ... have to wait for it to ship though , mind you its a real saving 

 

[Stu1smartcookie]

17 minutes ago, Knighty2112 said:

Used to have an AVX a few years back, and sold it off because I needed some money quickly at the time. Can’t remember the mount being noisy in any great way. Got a Skywatcher Heq5 Pro now (no Rowan belt kit fitted) and sounds much the same. AVX always worked a treat. Wish I hadn’t sold it on now, although the Heq5 Pro is just as good.

Gus , i like the AVX , its also a really good price and  is very  sturdy 

[Elp]

If you're going to buy new I'd suggest a HD mount, after using them you won't want to go back to using counterweights. The hem15 and am3/5 all mount onto photo 3/8 thread tripods as do most HD mounts which is how I use my hem15.

Edited February 19 by Elp

[Stu1smartcookie]

1 minute ago, Elp said:

If you're going to buy new I'd suggest a HD mount, after using them you won't want to go back to using counterweights. The hem15 and am3/5 all mount onto photo 3/8 thread tripods as do most HD mounts which is how I use my hem15.

I think the Hem 15 ids a good bet ... where did you get yours ? Flo have not got them in stock .

[Elp]

FLO as soon as they had them come in, they only had two of each and they quickly sold.

[Elp]

The Warpdive wd17 and wd20 are also options but the budget goes up, and the issue with whether they'll last as they seem fairly new. 

[Tiny Clanger]

Stu, what does the mak weigh with finder(s) diagonal etc ? It must be a considerable lump of stuff !

[Stu1smartcookie]

i reckon its around 8.0 kgs but i also have a 200mm newt that is around the same ( ish) 

2 minutes ago, Tiny Clanger said:

Stu, what does the mak weigh with finder(s) diagonal etc ? It must be a considerable lump of stuff !

 

[Elp]

I've mounted my SF102 on my hem15 and that's 6.5 kg for the OTA and hardware alone, the guidescope and imaging equipment is on top. Imaged at 570mm fine, the test will be imaging at 1000mm which I'm yet to try with the C6. Ioptrons in my experience track incredibly well, my gem28 does too. When I imaged E3ZTF last year at 300mm FL with the gem, I don't think the comet even moved from centre over the course of an hour, I was just using the mounts sidereal tracking.

Edited February 19 by Elp

[Stu1smartcookie]

2 minutes ago, Elp said:

I've mounted my SF102 on my hem15 and that's 6.5 kg for the OTA and hardware alone, the guidescope and imaging equipment is on top. Imaged at 570mm fine, the test will be imaging at 1000mm which I'm yet to try with the C6. Ioptrons in my experience track incredibly well, my gem28 does too. When I imaged E3ZTF last year at 300mm FL with the gem, I don't think the comet even moved from centre over the course of an hour, I was just using the mounts sidereal tracking.

i reckon my scopes are a little heavy for it and in the case of the Newt a little "clumsy" . I really do like the Ioptron , everything tells me to buy it but i still keep coming back to the AVX 

I honestly hate choice 🤣

[Elp]

The question of course I how well they track at long FL. I know when I did Jupiter at 1500mm the gem was decent.

Up to you, if I could justify the spend I'd go am5 but just check other users are imaging/viewing and tracking at long FL which is apparently a bugbear with HD mounts but I think that has more to do with autoguiding performance rather than just sidereal tracking.

[Stu1smartcookie]

well , thanks to the three of you for your input here ... all valuable advice . 

From my perspective 

Cost = AVX 

EQ + AZ = Az-EQ5

Simple alignment and practicality including inbuilt power = Ioptron 

Eq doesnt really bother me , i like visual astronomy but i cant get over the fact that the avx is 400 pounds cheaper than the skywatcher . 

The "silent " running on the ioptron is a real plus point , the last avx i tried briefly was a bit noisy ( but that may have been down to other factors ) . 

WATCH THIS SPACE guys . 

 

Many thanks 

Stu 

 

 

[Shimrod]

18 hours ago, Stu1smartcookie said:

 

The "silent " running on the ioptron is a real plus point , the last avx i tried briefly was a bit noisy ( but that may have been down to other factors ) . 

 

You can set the maximum slew speed of the AVX to limit the noise. In normal tracking operation you won't hear a thing, but it is noisier (although I don't think noisy) when slewing between targets. Setting maximum slew speed one down from maximum eliminates the noise issue for me. It takes a few seconds longer to move between targets at opposite sides of the sky, but if moving between targets in the same area of sky you probably won't even notice the difference.

[Stu1smartcookie]

13 minutes ago, Shimrod said:

You can set the maximum slew speed of the AVX to limit the noise. In normal tracking operation you won't hear a thing, but it is noisier (although I don't think noisy) when slewing between targets. Setting maximum slew speed one down from maximum eliminates the noise issue for me. It takes a few seconds longer to move between targets at opposite sides of the sky, but if moving between targets in the same area of sky you probably won't even notice the difference.

Thats a great shout ( or whisper if we are talking about reducing noise ) , Many thanks for that .

[John]

I had an AVX for a while but it didn't seem noisy to me. I didn't use the GOTO facility though so I was not doing big slews with it, just using the drive system to track the scope.

I'm no expert on EQ mounts but the AVX seemed a decent mount to me. Quite a high capacity for it's weight. It did a decent job with my 130mm F/9.2 triplet refractor on board.

 

 

Edited February 20 by John

[bosun21]

The HEQ5 with the Rowan upgrade is extremely quiet with nothing more than a quiet hum. I was surprised how quiet it actually was while slewing.

[apaulo]

I have been using the avx about 1 year now, no one has ever called it noisy, a friend of mine has a meade, everytime it slews i dive for cover lol.

[Stu1smartcookie]

It seems the AVX gets a lot of love... Payload is good , price is good , and the ability to limit the slew speed . 

 

[M40]

Fully loaded the 180 is 11.00kgs. This includes a losmandy bar. The skymax sits nicely on an heq5.