Advice for a new mount

[r-mo]

I have a SkyMax 127 currently on the skywatcher supatrak alt-az mount. It's been great for learning my way around the sky and visual observing but when I try any longer exposures with my camera the tracking is not even close (and the weight of my EOS 5D is too much for it too.

So I'm looking to upgrade to an equatorial mount which will be sturdy enough for the weight and have decent enough tracking for the longer exposure shots. and I'd quite like goto just to speed up the search I've had a look around and am thinking of these:

Skywatcher EQ3 PRO Synscan GOTO £379

Skywatcher EQ5 PRO Synscan GOTO £440

Celestron CG-5 GT GOTO £449

Budget I was thinking of £350 but can just about stretch to £450

Anything else to consider? Is the EQ5 / CG-5 overkill for the skymax127? Do the non-goto mounts have motors for tracking?

[Staffy]

You might be having difficulty with the tracking motors if the scope is not well balanced on the mount. You may need to move the position of the scope as the weight distribution will be different with a DSLR attached to the end of your scope.

For longer exposures though I would think an equatorial mount would be better anyway as your Alt/Az mount won't take into account the rotation of the Earth.

[rowan46]

I would go for the cg5 I know some people think they are louder but its sturdier if you're going to do astrophotography its better that the mount is too big than too small. and for £9 I would choose the cg5 over the eq5

[Uranium235]

The CG5 should handle your ota no problem, just remember that your payload limit for astrophotography with that mount will be about 7.5kg (50% of maximum), so youre ok up to a 6" + guidescope. Anything bigger and youre looking at an HEQ5 or EQ6.

Ive found that as far as mounts go, there is no such thing as "overkill"... only "better"

[Bizibilder]

I would spend a while considering exactly what it is that you want to do before you buy a mount. You appear to want to get further into astro imaging which can easily become a money-pit if you are not careful! The EQ5 size of mount will be fine for your current OTA but will it be future proof? If there is any thought in your mind about imaging you may well be better off saving a few extra pennies and going for a syntrek HEQ5 or EQ6 mount - (either new or second hand). Don't bother with the "basic" versions (wrong motors and controllers!). These will cope with more or less anything you can (reasonably) throw at them - (including upgrading to such luxuries as goto and guiding etc either by buying the uprated hand controller or using a lappy and EQMOD(free!!) type software etc).

The HEQ5 Syntrek is currently £580 from FLO - not hugely more than your budget and possibly well worth saving for.

As I said at the beginning you really do need to think this purchase through as it can get very expensive upgrading your mount twice!

Hope this helps.

[r-mo]

Thanks for all the replies very useful food for thought.

@Staffy Unfortunately I all to familiar with balancing The camera I have weighs in at only just under a kilo so as soon as you attach it to the scope balanced for visual the mount can't support the weight and points straight up you rebalance and it points down once you take it off. Makes it impossible to switch between the 2 on a night out as you need to realign each time.

@rowan46 and U235 Thanks, looks like the EQ3 is out (I suspected this anyway, think I was dreaming on budget ) and sounds like the CG5 is the better of these 2

@bizibilder hmm, it is very much in my mind that a scope upgrade may well come before I would really want it to. I really love this scope its a good compromise for me between quality and portability (which is pretty important for me) but it's certainly showing it's limitations now I'm starting to look more towards the deep sky. So the HEQ5 would certainly make sense in that respect. The main problem I have with the SynTrek is it's the same handset I'm using at the moment and I've found it to be annoyingly unresponsive at times, and tracking has not been good (I don't know whether this is controlled at handset or mount). What's the 2nd hand market like? Either to buy bigger for cheaper in a while or think about selling something for my OTA later. I've not really seen anything on ebay, are there other sites more people use for astro equipment? (I thought there used to be a trading forum on here...)

[rowan46]

once you have 50 posts the for sale forum will unlock

[Sam]

It's good advice to get the biggest and sturdiest mount you can afford. It's worth remembering that the Syntrek versions of the HEQ5 are basically the same as the HEQ5 Pro less the handset which is no problem as you can control the whole thing from your laptop with EQMOD - you can even get a XBOX controller to control it width.

[brantuk]

Yep - I second getting a good beefy eq mount to start with. It may cost a litte more but it will be a sound investment. You'll find that you swop many different scopes in and out of the mount over the years depending on what your current photographic interest is.

[glowjet]

For Astrophotography a GEM is a must, you have already mentioned the Celestron CG5-GT GOTO which is on offer at FLO, it has a guide port and will take upwards of 12.5 Kilos, and, as I understand, better bearings and motors, this should comfortably take the 127 and a small guide scope, remember the 4th Jan VAT is on the rise, so go on, you know you want it, go ahead and make your day.

John.

[ollypenrice]

You do need something like an HEQ5 Synscan or EQmodded version but be aware of a few things. All mounts need autoguiding for long exposures. None of them will track accurately enough for long deep sky exposures. How long depends on polar alignment, balance and, above all, the focal length of your optics. Long focal lengths are very intolerant. And slow focal ratios need long exposures. So using a slow, long focal length Mak is going to be a problem for any mount because everything is working against you.

I am not trying to be a prophet of doom but just warning you that a complete rethink for photography might be worth engaging in. For photography the general wisdom is to start with a small, short focal length fast focal ratio refractor on a GEM. (ie no slower than f7.5 and no longer than about 700mm)

Olly

[r-mo]

It's certainly looking more like the HEQ5 is the way to go for a mount. I'll have to see if I can scrape enough together before the VAT increase. I do know that I'll need a better scope for DSOs always did even when I got this mak, but it was certainly right for me at the time.

It's interesting that you say it's worth looking at refractors as I'd noticed a lot of the impressive images I've seen are from refractors rather than reflectors. I'd thought until recently I'd need a large aperture reflector to get as much light gathering as possible. So a lot of homework will be required before I take the plunge with a new OTA. I really need to do this in stages though, I just don't have the funds for a complete overhaul of my equipment in one fell swoop and if I start with the mount I can start to get some practice in even if they're not going to be the greatest images ever. Even the blurry pics of M42 I've been taking recently have been very satisfying just to see some of the colours rather than the green smudge in the eyepiece is incredible.

[Bizibilder]

Simplistically: Your eyes work in "real time" and need the largest aparture possible to see dim objects. A camera can "build up" an image over time by using a long exposure. Hence the use of smaller, more managable, refractors for imaging.