Home / Orion Sirius Goto Mount
by John Smith 12/17/09 | Email Author Voice your opinion about this topic in the forums
I am an amateur astronomer living in Central Kentucky. I have been active
for about ten years. My interests include imaging deep sky objects and
doing Solar observing and imaging. I have used several different types of
telescope mounts including the Meade 8"LX200GPS, and the Losmandy G11 with
setting circles. I have used the Celestron C8 and C9.25 optical tubes and
an Orion ED 80 refractor. For imaging I use the StarlightXpress SXVF H9 CCD
camera with a TruTech Filter wheel. I use a Borg 50mm scope as a guide
scope. I have attached some images that I did this past October.
For Solar work I have used a Coronado PST Solar scope and now I have a Lunt
LS60T Ha Solar scope.
I purchased Orion Sirius Goto Mount to replace my G11 because I could no
longer handle the weight of the G11.
I purchased it because it has the following capabilities:
- It is computerized with a goto capability.
- It is fairly light and easy to carry around and set up without
breaking my back.
- It is has an autoguider port .
- It tracks very well for astrophotography.
- It has very little backlash in either axis.
- It is not very expensive. Only about $1200.
- It has a nice polar alignment scope and is easy to align.
- It has an add-on GPS accessory.
I have not used it very many times this year because of inclement weather
but the times I had it out I found it easy to set up and align.
When using it for imaging I discovered , to my delight, that it tracks
very well and corrects even better than my G11 did. The two images that
I included show how well this mount works.
I would recommend this mount for anyone who plans to use optical tubes
like an 8" SCT or smaller. I did not use it with any larger scopes but it
probably would also work with a C9.25 SCT, or an 8" Newtonian Optical tube.
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