Telescope Reviews: Best Lightweight Mount for Imaging

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Equipment Discussions >> Mounts

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MooEy
member

Reged: 10/02/07

Re: Best Lightweight Mount for Imaging new

[Re: tjugo]
#5482994 - 10/22/12 01:59 AM

I did a measurement on SP, SXW and SXD long ago. All 3 of them are well below +/- 10.

Not sure where you got your GP from. It's probably in a horrible condition. My advice, don't buy used mounts intended for imaging from a non-imager.

I had the SP with the Synscan. It was pretty gd, goto is decent, guiding is responsive, stars generally comes out round. Anyway, i ended up selling off the combination due to the large amount of exposed parts.

Moving up to SXD made the setup cleaner, but autoguiding was erratic. Starbook is quite horrible when it comes to imaging. Never had a chance to try the NexSXD, but i suspect it might be somewhere decent.

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orlyandico
Carpal Tunnel

Reged: 08/10/09

Loc: Singapore

Re: Best Lightweight Mount for Imaging new

[Re: MooEy]
#5483014 - 10/22/12 02:43 AM

Yup it was in horrible condition

Come to think of it, the periodic error was +/- 40" and incredibly smooth. Maybe it was the non-concentric spur gears (they were a little bit too large for the shafts - kind of funny as they were official Vixen gears).

Indeed the EM10/11 seems to be a dead end - not low-latitude capable, incredibly expensive.. seems am going round back to the Vixens.

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gdd
sage

Reged: 11/23/05

Re: Best Lightweight Mount for Imaging new

[Re: orlyandico]
#5484543 - 10/22/12 11:47 PM

Don't forget the Losmandy gm-8, should have fairly low and smooth PE. Good to zero degrees latitude. Rated for 30 pounds visual.

Gale

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tomcody
professor emeritus

Reged: 07/06/08

Loc: Titusville, Florida

Re: Best Lightweight Mount for Imaging new

[Re: orlyandico]
#5484573 - 10/23/12 12:15 AM

Quote:

Hi Jose, how does the Tak guiding graph look like? I am just curious..

http://www.wlcastleman.com/equip/reviews/em11_tsa102/index.htm

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andysea
professor emeritus

Reged: 09/03/10

Loc: Seattle, WA

Re: Best Lightweight Mount for Imaging new

[Re: tomcody]
#5484701 - 10/23/12 01:37 AM

It's no mystery that Takahashi will provide flawless tracking with super smooth periodic error that can be easily guided out. The polar scope is also worth mentioning. It's the best in the industry.

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orlyandico
Carpal Tunnel

Reged: 08/10/09

Loc: Singapore

Re: Best Lightweight Mount for Imaging new

[Re: andysea]
#5484725 - 10/23/12 02:07 AM

actually I saw that EM11 guiding graph on the wlcastleman site.

frankly for $4325 I am not blown away. I know its not a valid comparison but I am getting better results than that, today. Albeit my mount weighs 35lb.

if that's the best one can get under 20 lbs I feel its not really worth buying the Tak. I suspect an iEQ30 can come close to that while costing less than 1/3 as much.

and the Tak polar scope is irrelevant to me. I can't see Polaris.

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core
scholastic sledgehammer

Reged: 02/23/08

Loc: Mostly in Norman, OK

Re: Best Lightweight Mount for Imaging new

[Re: orlyandico]
#5484750 - 10/23/12 03:06 AM

Getting back to the SXW/SXD with the NexSXD board:

SXW head 15 lb
SXD head 19 lb
Tripod 12 lb
Cwt 4 lb

That's a total of 31 lb for my SXW stock setup. Because of the way it is designed (drive and electronics act as counter weight, I can mount a C6 on it and it will balance with a 4 lb cwt only half way out. It'll even manage a C8 with a single 4 lb cwt right at the end.

You could probably shave off the weight a little by cutting down the tripod columns, and make it fit in a standard luggage to boot - or iirc there's a chap in Hong Kong or Japan (?) that sells a custom plate to mount the head onto Manfrotto bowl heads (also has Tak adapter iirc) - then go for a lighter weight CF tripod.

I'm still dipping my toes into imaging with a Astrotrac Travler setup, and will get a NexSXD board when I'm ready to go up in focal length and duration.

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Patrick
Postmaster

Reged: 05/16/03

Loc: Franklin, Ohio

Re: Best Lightweight Mount for Imaging new

[Re: orlyandico]
#5486070 - 10/23/12 09:23 PM Attachment (10 downloads)

Quote:

+/- 7 is Tak EM11 class. A lot of folks use PHD to measure periodic error and forget to turn off the guiding output. Made this same mistake and thought my GP was +/- 10 which made me really happy until... another mistake I've made is forgetting to account for declination when measuring the PE.

Here's the PE graph. I was not using PHD Guiding...my GP2 does not have guiding capability.

Edit: For the record, I used K3CCDTools to record the data and PEAS to create the chart.

Patrick

Edited by Patrick (10/23/12 11:38 PM)

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andysea
professor emeritus

Reged: 09/03/10

Loc: Seattle, WA

Re: Best Lightweight Mount for Imaging new

[Re: orlyandico]
#5486225 - 10/23/12 11:02 PM

You might have answered your own question. Perhaps the IEQ30 is the mount that you're looking for. I Have a friend who uses the IEQ45 and he is very happy with it. The craftsmanship is not at Tak level but ultimately performance is what counts the most.
I love my Rob Miller tripod but a portable pier might be better suited for your imaging latitude.....Those Vixen mounts look good tho!

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