GoTo mount.

[martin_b]

Hi all,

I plan to buy myself a goto mount for the winter season as I seem to spend longer setting up the scope than looking through it.

I guess i either want a CGEM or a EQ6 pro ? , budget is upto £1500 but i have a couple of questions..

Is it possible to setup either without being able to see the pole star ( neighbors trees) ? also once set up can i leave the mount outside if suitably protected from the elements?

Scope is an 7inch Mak Cas weighs about 20Kg i guess

TIA

Martin

[GazOC]

yes and yes. You could drift align either mount and there are quite a few options for scope/ mount covers.

[gary1968]

The newest version of the Celestron HC firmware includes 'All Star Align' . You can polar align using any star in the database. All you have to do is align the mount north and set the altitude using the scale on the mount. You then run an alignment with 'All Star' and bobs your uncle, polar aligned wthout polaris.

Or as Gaz said, you can drift align, but thats a leengthy process and if your impatient like me that just wont do! lol.

HTH

Gary

BTW, the CGEM is lurvley, seen one at the weekend at Kielder. Unfortuately didnt get to see one running or speak to anyone who has one but it looks the dogs doodahs.

[beetlejuice]

There's a review of the CGEM here Celestron CGEM Review- Part 1|AstroPhotography Tonight

[BlueAstra]

The newest version of the Celestron HC firmware includes 'All Star Align' . You can polar align using any star in the database. All you have to do is align the mount north and set the altitude using the scale on the mount. You then run an alignment with 'All Star' and bobs your uncle, polar aligned wthout polaris.

Or as Gaz said, you can drift align, but thats a leengthy process and if your impatient like me that just wont do! lol.

HTH

Gary

BTW, the CGEM is lurvley, seen one at the weekend at Kielder. Unfortuately didnt get to see one running or speak to anyone who has one but it looks the dogs doodahs.

Does the mount physically move the RA rotation axis to aim at polaris (with offset) after all star alignment? If not, then arn't you just getting a more accurate version of a goto alt-az mount along with some field rotation with tracking?

[johninderby]

The All Star Polar Alignment is very, very accurate and does work as advertised.

Here's a couple of links worth reading.

http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showthreaded.php/Cat/0/Number/2934190/page/0/view/collapsed/sb/5/o/all/vc/1

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=46511

John

[BlueAstra]

OK, I see how it works now. After normal alignment you select polar alignment and a star (any star). The mount then slews to the position that star should be in if it were perfectly polar aligned. You then manually adjust the mount Al/Az to centre the star.

Thats a good idea. Wish I had it on my EQ6 Pro to save my back when squinting up the finderscope!. Perhaps we'll get it some day in a handset upgrade. Does the EQMOD stuff have anything similar?

[gary1968]

Eqmod does do a Polar Align routine now, I think it is in the latest version. I am not sure what it is called but I have heard Craig (Blinky) talking about it, drop him a PM of interested in more info. On the surface, to me anyway, it sounds like it does the same as Celestons 'All Star Align'.

HTH,

Gary