Skywatcher EQ7 - on display at Photokina

[NickH]

I does give RMS tracking and scaled at various durations, plus logged output. It does depend on the night as you say, but some night's it's amazingly low/flat, as Ben says though, it can be down to luck, as with most of the mass produced stuff. You only have to look at the recent threads on the GOTO dobs and the auto track, where James and I both had ones with stunning tracking, and Robin's was all over the place.

Cost doesn't always guarantee performance either, (AX103 anyone...RCX?), but I agree with Ben that the reason AP's always seem to come up in the "drool" discussion is that they pretty much never fail to deliver the goods...if this comes close, at the right price, it will open up a whole new world to many who thought that a premium mount was financially out of the question.

[Ben Ritchie]

if this comes close, at the right price, it will open up a whole new world to many who thought that a premium mount was financially out of the question.

The other bonus is that "high payload capacity" and "premium mount" have previously been largely synonymous, and this looks to change this. So even if it doesn't track any better than a typical EQ6 then I think it's good news for a fair few people (with usual caveats about price etc.) - if it tracks well too then so much the better.

[MartinB]

There's been talk on this thread of the Eq7 possibly being direct drive. I would be very surprised if it is since

a) the technology hasn't been tried and tested in astro mounts to any significant extent yet and I would be surprised if Synta chose a technologically cutting edge design.

does a direct drive mount actually need PEC?

[George]

An interesting thread and bit of kit, I agree that this is not a replacement for the Eq6 and I doubt it will affect Eq6 sales.

Mark

I'd say this mount was squarely aimed at the imagers.....there's not a lot you cant put on a EQ6 for visual

[MartinB]

I'd say this mount was squarely aimed at the imagers.....there's not a lot you cant put on a EQ6 for visual

I agree but given that they rate the EQ6 capacity at 25kg I would still take the 45kg quoted for the EQ7 with a big pinch of salt

[Ben Ritchie]

I'd say this mount was squarely aimed at the imagers.....there's not a lot you cant put on a EQ6 for visual

Dunno, IMO i'm close to maxed out with a 5" refractor and something piggybacked. Something like a C9.25/C11 side-by-side with a 5" refractor (+piggybacked kit) is nice for visual (in an observatory) and that's way out of the EQ6's league.

[George]

The EQ7 looks visually to be double the EQ6 in size, rather like the EQ6-HEQ5 comparisons....I wouldn't be surprised if the 45Kg quoted is very conservative and if its permanently pier mounted you could probably surpass that. Dont forget when its balanced weight is not the problem, slop in any gearing is the big problem so I wouldn't be surprised if this mount turns out direct drive.

At this moment in time its all a guess

[Astroscot2]

As the mount was on show at this Exhibition im sure there must be some additional specs on the mount available? no point keeping us all guessing eh? the cats out of the bag now ;-)

[NickH]

I did email them last week for a full spec sheet, but no reply as yet, but I am guessing they are all now in transit etc..

Have also asked directly for the full tech spec (for Chris) and plate schematics (for pier mounting)

[George]

Looks like it still has worms to me which will rule out direct drive but if I'm right they look mighty big worm wheels.

But this could just be a concept mount to gauge feedback at the show, the final production mount might be entirely different.

[George]

A guy on the Yahoo EQ6 group says a client of his who was at the Photokina fair inquired about the price and was told ₤6/7k......maybe there wont be such a glut of secondhand EQ6's after all

[riklaunim]

If you need more photos: Zobacz temat - Photokina 2010 relacja z targów • www.astromaniak.pl • Forum Astronomii Amatorskiej

[r3i]

A guy on the Yahoo EQ6 group says a client of his who was at the Photokina fair inquired about the price and was told ₤6/7k......maybe there wont be such a glut of secondhand EQ6's after all

Yeah I saw that too. Disappointing but perhaps not too surprising. We can only hope he got his currency conversions wrong!

[George]

Best shot yet....its a monster and I can well believe the 6/7k price tag.

That big refractor sitting on it looks gorgeous.

[MartinB]

I'd be very surprised if that is the final sterling price. Given that Synta's success is based on producing stuff which is 90% as good at 25% of the price of existing high end gear it would be quite a departure. The EQ7 would be up against the likes of the Tak EM400 and AP 900.

Having said that, I've always felt that the Chinese are able to engineer to whatever spec they are given so I'm sure they are capable of delivering the quality. But if the price isn't right...

[NickH]

Bingo Martin

If it's 7K, then it's a non starter, unless it MATCHES or exceeds something like the AP1200 in terms of performance

Thats DDM pricing as far as I am concerned (the ASA is less, but with a 25Kg load capacity)...and puts it higher price wise than the Losmandy HGM Titan

Fingers crossed this is very very wrong...3-4K maximum..

[omneferuss]

£3,000 tops.... or it is a Dodo.

[Ben Ritchie]

Looking at the newest picture, i'd believe the £3k plus pricetag (look at the gearboxes and counterweight bar compared to the EQ6 - it appears to borrow from AP in some respects).

But in that case I think they've missed a trick - the high(er) end is already well provided for, what's really missing is the "EQ6 on steroids", sub-£2k pricetag, same or marginally better performance and higher capacity.

[Astroscot2]

I heard from a source who was at the exhibition that the model on display was only a rough pre production model, when skywatcher were pushed for a price in the UK they mentioned 5K.

[wayne weedon]

[ATTACH]43535[/ATTACH]

Looks like it still has worms to me which will rule out direct drive but if I'm right they look mighty big worm wheels.

But this could just be a concept mount to gauge feedback at the show, the final production mount might be entirely different.

It's definately worm drive, has all the hallmarks (Large wheel casing and Offset wormhousing)

For direct drive some seriously high resolution feedback would be required I imagine. Probably analog resolvers rather than quadrature encoders.

Wayne....

[NickH]

Looking at the newest picture, i'd believe the £3k plus pricetag (look at the gearboxes and counterweight bar compared to the EQ6 - it appears to borrow from AP in some respects).

But in that case I think they've missed a trick - the high(er) end is already well provided for, what's really missing is the "EQ6 on steroids", sub-£2k pricetag, same or marginally better performance and higher capacity.

3K with 45Kg load and PE near to the AP's = winner

[George]

Well the Celestron CGE PRO is just over £5k so logically it would be priced beneath this rather than competing with it, I'd expect £3 to £3.5k.......not that I could afford it

The more I read the specs on the Celestron CGE PRO the more I'm convinced the EQ7 will be a cheaper mongrol of it.

Be interesting to see what that big refractor costs.

[Astro_Baby]

'When near make it appear you are far, when far make it appear you are near'

Sun Tzu

And I bet thats exactly what Synta will do. I know when I was launching product the last thing you'd find out from me was the REAL price until I could start shipping.

[MG1]

pity they still havent addressed the poor cable management...the CGE Pro does that so well!

Michael

[George]

Yes agreed but Im sure they will tidy it up before they produce for retail.