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alt-az or equatorial?

Wattsy

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Wattsy

Wattsy

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i'm thinking about upgrading my telescope to something around 5 or 6 inches but i'm having a bit of a mare deciding which sort of mount to go for. storage space in the house is limited so an equatorial would be good on the front but then apparently they're more complicated to use for beginners? what would you recommend?

cheers

matt

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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EQs are more complicated and need counterweights and polar aligning - but none of that is terribly onerous. For visual use Alt Az is easier but the tracking needs a built in computer whereas an EQ can run on a simple unmanaged drive motor.

For grab and go I like manual alt-az and for visual GoTo my preference would be for a computerized alt-az mount. Only for imaging does an EQ become essential.

Can you see Polaris from your sites?

Olly

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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I agree that nothing is as handy as a Dob and it certainly does have a small footprint. Don't let people stand umbrellas in it though or chuck their beer cans in it...

The Dob mount is also usually very stable and vibration free, which is great.

The azimuth bearing is very near the base so to see over things (neighbours, trees...) it needs to be raised a bit on some kind of block, otherwise you lose your low horizon.

No need for Polaris if not aligning an EQ.

Olly

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