Mount Advice

[Shibby]

Oh ok, it would probably be best I did find one then... The motor(s) - should I be looking for Vixen here too?

Sorry for the endless questions!

[zhgutas]

If you're still thinking about Martin's suggestion, there's one Vixen GP with synscan with EQMOD on AstroBuysell going for £275 ATM.

Marius

[Nostromo]

One day Skywatcher will publish the periodic error data for their mounts...one day

There are a lot of tests out there on the net. I've noticed PE varies between 50-60 arcsec for the Skywatcher EQ6 but it can get down to about 20 arcsec - which is exceptional considering the price. There are folks who've tuned their EQ6 mounts to perform better - in rare cases down to 10 arc seconds, which is quite exceptional, but I image quite involved.

Check out this guide to a cheap way to improve your Skywatcher EQ6 - I'm considering the gearbox solution. I believe Alan at AWR Technology can modify the EQ6 to perform more accurately too by sorting out bearing surfaces tweaking the worm.

N

[Shibby]

Big thanks to everyone, your advice has been invaluable - I'm now the proud owner of a Vixen GP with EQMOD, in fact the one you posted a link for, zhgutas.

It took me quite a while to figure out how to get everything connected, what all the various knobs were for etc etc, but I eventually had my first go with it Friday night (see an image here) and I'm very happy with the mount.

I spent some time drift aligning, which allowed me to take subs up to about 1m30s - I believe I can improve on this with more time spent on the drift align. I could also do with an illuminated reticle eyepiece. I was relying on the camera's crosshairs this time.

Speaking of PE, has anyone tried the EQMOD PEC? It can use a webcam to record the PE and supposedly compensates for it, cunning stuff.