60SLT mini-review

[GordonCopestake]

Well, i recieved my new SLT mount today (Thanks Adam!) with a 60mm f/12 refractor. I brought the kit from David Hinds for £179 for the sole purpose of using the mount with a Synta ED80 as a grab and go wide field scope. I've owned a number of telescopes starting with a Tasco starguide 80 which is a very similar setup to this but the SLT has an updated more sturdy mount new software and the much needed dovetail saddle.

The telescope arrived in a single brown box. Dont you just love the post man knocking knowing he has goodies for you!?

The ubiquitious Brown box shot. This is to just show my excitment, I took photographs of a brown box!

Inside the brown box was a nicely printed colour box with lots of marketing on. Im thankful to report that it didn't promise "625x power!!"

Inside the colour box was yet another white box! Tripple bagged for it's protection..... It was just teasing me im sure.

At last i got to the goodies. Everything was well packed and wrapped with packaging to spare. I like the practice of using empty cardboard boxes as packing as it gives me stuff to send my ebay sales in!

These are the extracted goodies. The hand controller, most important. The 2 (kellner) eyepieces a 25mm and a 9mm. A 1.25" star diagonal which was all plastic. The manual and The Sky software. And a screwdriver.... which confused me. The red dot finder, again all plastic.

It took me about 5 mins too setup as i've put one of these scopes together before. The dovetail worked better than i expected, but like Rob has done, i think i'll take the plastic cowl off to reveal the metal clamp itself. The finder confused me, until i realised that the screwdriver was needed to fit it to the scope. It seems it was cheaper to supply a screwdriver than to put finger nuts on the finder bracket?!?!?

The dovetail was the main selling point of this scope for me. It's not a standard vixen/synta design but works fairly well. The slide in method means that the dovetail bar you use must be the same along it's entire length. However this isn't too much of a problem as the clamp can be relaxed quite a lot and most dovetails can probably be waggled into place.

Another of the dovetail

here you can see the profile of the dovetail bracket and the need for the dovetail bar to slide into place.

The SLT mount has a battery compartment for 8 AA's which in theory is an improvement on the old GT mounts that used an external powersource. However i'll probably never use the battery compartment as i have a 12v battery car jump start pack thingy which works better (at least for me). The ability to stick a few AA's in though makes it an added bonus for holidays.

The updated mount also now includes a bubble level. A nice touch which makes the GOTO's more acurate.

I found that the mount was a little wobbly at first, however with a hex driver i tightened all the legs up and most of the wobble has gone. I'll have to reserve judgement until i get a chance to properly startest the bundled scope to see how much flexure in the tripod there actually is. I think if you were willing to forgo the tripod folding up completly (and most larger tripods dont) then you could REALLY tighten the bolts down to an inch of shearing them and the tripod would become rock solid. Gives me confidence in the ED80 being happy on this mount.

Today was so hot outside that i had to move the telescope to under the gazebo as the tube was becoming so hot to the touch it was painful! Telescopes shouldn't be mistreated this way heh. 35*C nearly :|

All in all im quite pleased with this purchase. It's one of my cheaper purchases and the mount is well built and does the job it's designed for. I can see room for improvment but for this price point some plastic components are inevitable. The tripod spreader is all plastic and the tray that clips into place does give some stability. However the addition of a metal leg spreader would probably give better results.

I'll update this little mini-review when i get a chance to star test the 60mm f/12 and again when i test it with the ED80.

Once i have the ED80 in place i can use the 60mm as a bat in a game of baseball on my lawn. I can't think of any other uses?

[GordonCopestake]

I've removed the plastic cowl and fitted the 100mm rings for the ED80. I've found that without the cowl if you slacken off the dovetail clamp enough pretty much any dovetail bar is going to fit without alteration. Plus when slack the SLT dovetail DOES become a drop in saddle rather than a slide in saddle. This gives me lots of confidence to buy the SE version of the mount when the time comes to upgrade perhaps.

A few pics of the 100mm rings in place.

I've mounted my DSLR on the rings but i can't take a picture of that without digging out my old camera (and im far too lazy!) so you'll have to imagine my camera mounted up there hehe.

I'll update when i get first light.

[OXO]

Nice Mini review Gordon felt like i was unpacking one myself looks a cracking setup for the Money.

James

[GordonCopestake]

God i need that ED80 lol, this 60mm is duff! Maybe not quite irredemable but close hehe. Even with a Radian the view of jupiter was poor. And with the supplied kellners..... Something of a comedown from the ED100 lol

Anyone want a 60mm f/12 guide scope?

[GordonCopestake]

hehe, true, but then i never brought it for the OTA. Im sure beginers will be astounded by the views of jupiter etc.

[Jamie]

I liked the review Gordon right up until you labeled the 60mm scope "duff".

A little harsh considering you knew before you bought it that the scope was not anywhere near

what you were looking for nor expected.

BTW nice recovery though.

hehe, true, but then i never brought it for the OTA. Im sure beginers will be astounded by the views of jupiter etc.

[GordonCopestake]

TBH i shouldn't have taken the OTA out, as i knew what to expect. For the price it's not a bad scope. Better than some i've looked through! But it's hard to have a new toy and not play with it. Then when the views are not what im used to it's too easy to label the scope as "duff". That said, for the price im sure it's excellent. Compared to other scopes of the same price range it probably stands out. I'm just glad im able to change it though. Anyone considering buying one though should perhaps consider a larger aperture...

[John]

Of the objects in the GOTO systems database, how many is the 60mm actually able to see ?.

I would imagine that it might be a source of some frustration for a newcomer to the hobby to find that the mount will point to an object that the scope is not able to actually view due to the limited apeture. Perhaps the software should have an option to limit the objects available depending on the scope - or perhaps it already has this ?.

John,

North Somerset

[GordonCopestake]

Not that im aware of, as you can mount up to a 130mm reflector on the same arm. Perhaps it's possible to put a limiting magnitude on the hand controller but i've not seen an option for it.

[GordonCopestake]

OK, i take it back the OTA isn't that bad. Just been out to try and do a star test and see how good the GOTO is. Took a while to go dark!

I love the new sky align. Very easy to use, worked every time. Hit m13, m27, m51 all within my vixen 8-24 zoom at 24mm. Star tested on arcturus and got good results. m13 was just a smudge with me not being able to resolve any stars at all at 8mm. Didn't get the televue eyepieces out as this was just a quick peek.

Had a problem with the external power cable being a little loose. The power would go off in mid slew, but a wiggle on the connector brought it back to life. Hope it's the cable and not the mount's power connector or it might have to go back to David Hinds...... :| further investigation needed.

Overall was quite pleased with the way the mount performed, and the OTA wasn't as bad as i thought it was when i tested it on jupiter during the day (which was an unfair test i'll grant). Although it suffers from aperture deficency it's actually well corrected being f/12. Some false colour on vega but not huge amounts.

The best thing about this quick test was just that, it took me less than 5 mins to setup and align, and when i was done it took me about 2 mins to put everything away again. Perfect! Just what im after. I've tightened everything up and even the long 60mm tube has only 2 seconds vibration when knocked. Looking forward to seeing how the ED80 performs.

[GordonCopestake]

Thanks for the tip Adam, both David Hinds and Mike Swanson said the same thing. I've widened the central pin a little and that does help, but it's still not as snug as i'de like. A little bit of tape will help, but thats not ideal. Hey ho, i can live with that for 12months until my warranty expires then i'll crack it open and re-solder it.

[geppetto]

Interesting thread Gordon, that mount looks very usefull.

Its strange how scope manufacturers seem to have a blind spot when

it comes to power connectors :x

Those nasty little plugs and sockets really are a very bad choice for

what they have to perform.

They need to use a non reversible plug with captive ring similar to

the three pin microphone plugs.

Not likely to happen as it would add 50p to the manfacturing cost :?

[GordonCopestake]

50p over a million scopes made soon adds up im sure. Although i wouldn't mind paying a few £'s more for a better power connector and a metal leg spreader.

[Rob]

Gordon, the centre pin in the power socket is a split pin type. if the fit is a little loose just use a very small screwdriver/blade to split the two halfs a little and the power adaptor plug should fit a little more snugly. you may need to do this from time to time. hope this helps.

I had to do this!. I'm also looking to swap out the tripod at a later stage, the leg spread is not quite enough for high power.

Rob

[GordonCopestake]

Great minds Rob! Keep an eye on this.

[Rob]

Very good Gordon!. I like that matey . The SLT is a cracking mount... just the shame the legs don't spread out a little better, it would stop the judder.

Rob

[GordonCopestake]

As i mentioned in the mini-review, if you were willing to forgoe the tripod closing you could really tighten the leg nuts and i think it would be very stable. Also did you see the post on CN about the central bolt? I found that under the SLT mount head there are 2 small screws that attach the interface socket thread thingy. I've tightened these up to and it helps. I've not cracked the mount open yet to tighten the central bolt, but thats my next plan if i can't find a replacement tripod. Although saying that i was supprised how stable the tripod can be if you dont fully extend the legs and tighten it all down. The central tray doesn't make too much difference but it does stop twist in the tripod.