Imaging - GEQ or Alt Az with wedge?

[FLO]

Just curious about who uses what and why?

Thanks

[Jamie]

I use a GEQ and i wouldn't use anything else.

I used to use a fork mount on a wedge (too much bother )

[GordonCopestake]

Fork on a wedge is easy to setup and move as it's light usually. But you can't beat a GEM for acuracy.

[MartinB]

I'm using the NS8 in alt-az. With an F3.3 reducer I can get 45 secs without rotation. Now I've got the fastar I should be able to go up to 60 secs. At F1.95 that will still be quite a lot of light capture. This set up is an absolute cinch to set up and use but rotation does ultimately limit things.

At the moment I am happy to continue using in Alt - Az and learn more about imaging and processing. I have a wedge and it isn't too much trouble to set up with the ns8. From what I have read though, the Celestron wedge isn't really up to the job. apparently decent flex free wedges with good adjustment cost about £500. Even then there is the mechanical problem of fork mounts on wedges - there is much more leverage on the worms than on a GEM. I think tracking will inevitably be less good than a GEM. However, a decent wedge with an AO-7 adaptive optics accessory would get around these problems and work out cheaper than a new C8 on a decent mount.

So in a couple of years time, when I have saved a lot of pennies it could be a choice of C11 on Losmandy G11/celestron CGE or C11 on an Ambermile wedge complete with AO-7 and SBIG ST8 (dream on Martin!)