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cuir
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 03/03/07
Posts: 834
Loc: 45° 1'12. N, 73°56'12. W (Qc)
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For over a year and a half, I've been living on what is known as the Covey Hill. It is the hillside at the northern base of the Adirondacks, and have light-pollution-free southern views from my front porch. I have a few town lights around to annoy me, but, I can, on clear nights, see the Milkyway's trace in the sky when I'm carefull about avoiding the glare of the street lights. Such a setup pushes one to do a lot of front-porch peaking. Since I've been here, my trusty 80ED on a photo tripod was the weapon of choice, because the porch is too narrow to use an equatorial mount in a comfortable fashion.
Now, in comes the Skyview.
I took it out of the car, set it up, setup my 6" Mak, my 9x50, my diagonal and slipped in my favorite eyepiece, the 24mm Panoptic. I balanced the setup, and in less than 2 minutes, a step away from my kitchen door, I was set! So, here the usability low-down, from a two hour stint, with only one scope mounted, weighing in at around 13½ pounds total.
Pros:
Sturdy stainless legs.
Eazy to setup
Eazy to use.
Works well for no fuss sit-down observation.
Dampening time was impeccable at about one second. (see notes.)
Cons.
Stiction. Movement is not super-fluid, so nitpickers will have a field day whinning on this point.
No slow-mo controls. Not that it matters much to me, but it seems to be a recuring "want" on Alt-Az setups.
Tripod does not extend very high, so refractor users, beware. A 80ED is no problem, but meter-long refractors could be problematic without an extension pier of some sort.
Notes.
- I only had one scope mounted, dampening times will certainly vary when I add my 80ED to the setup.
- I was, as I mentioned, on a front porch, so for real, high powered view stability, and dampening times, I Will have to make some field tests before making a definitive comment on this point.
- This is a first impression, not an in depth review, and I'm writing this at a time long past my bedtime, so I'm not going to go any further on the subject.
My ratings: 8.3/10
Bang-for-the-buck: 9/10
Usability: 9/10
Fit and finish:7/10
Happy Happy Joy Joy! 
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Seb
Latest eyepiece spreadsheet
Choosing the right eyepiece
Main scope: 150mm Skywatcher Maksutov
Favorite ep: 24 Panoptic
Pref'ed filters: Lumicon 0III and UHC
Mounts: EQ6-Pro and Skyview AZ
Just in: C8-S-XLT
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Luigi
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 07/03/07
Posts: 1950
Loc: Massachusetts
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Whine, the sticktion is bad...whine, whine. It makes it very difficult to aim or track at higher powers, whine.  Slo-mo would help with the sticktion. When I get some time I'll take it apart and see if I can do anything to reduce the schticktion. Other than that, I agree it's very stable with a 15 lb load and I'm going to try it with 15 lb on each side. I expect it will do well with that too.
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17.5" f/5 Discovery Truss
IM715 7" f/15 MCT, Eon-120ED refractor
CG5A coffee grinder, Orion Skyview Alt-AZ
35,19,15 Pans.9 Nag. Meade 24.5 4kSWA, 4.7 5kUWA.
BO-TMB 7mm planetary.
Zeiss Diascope 85
Zeiss, Leica, Canon IS, Fujinon, Nikon binos
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chboss
member
Reged: 03/24/08
Posts: 34
Loc: Switzerland
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There seems to be a clear difference between the "original" Alt-Az mount from AOK Swiss and the Chinese copy that is sold by Orion. Sticktion is a non issue on my swiss made AOK Ayo Alt-Az. That is also the reason that a slow-mo is not necessary even for high magnification viewing.
The problem on the Orion made Alt-Az reminds me a bit of the comparison between a Japanese made Vixen GP with the Synta line of GEM's. The Synta mounts are not bad but many people had problems with the grease used which was sticky...
I would certainly have a look inside to see what is causing the sticktion on your mounts, maybe it can be corrected.
Cheers
Chris
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jason_milani
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 09/03/04
Posts: 1442
Loc: Northeast Ohio
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My original EZTouch has no sticktion problems. In fact, i sold my asstrotech Voyager (nice mount but not able to carry the load i wanted to put on it)and kept the EZtouch.
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Antares 1529 6" Refractor
Celestron 100ED refractor w/2 speed crayford
Orion EON 72mm Refractor
Lunt 60mm THA/B1200 H-Alpha solar scope
Orion Atlas mount with EQ MOD
William Optics EZtouch mount
Mallincam Hyper Color Plus
Celestron Neximage
Canon 350D
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Astrolabe
member
Reged: 07/08/07
Posts: 81
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Quote:
Whine, the sticktion is bad...whine, whine. It makes it very difficult to aim or track at higher powers, whine. Slo-mo would help with the sticktion. When I get some time I'll take it apart and see if I can do anything to reduce the schticktion. Other than that, I agree it's very stable with a 15 lb load and I'm going to try it with 15 lb on each side. I expect it will do well with that too.
Hello Luigi
I bought the Skywatcher "SkyTee" mount which I suspect is the same as the one sold by Orion. Excellent and very stable mount for the money. Here in Sydney it costs one half of the WO equivalent. I have mounted a 6"-F5 Newtonian and/or a WO ZS105 refractor on it, several times and the mount performed very well especially in terms of vibration both when moving the tubes or when focusing at any magnification. However, I would have liked that the "stiction" to be less. I have another small problem with it and I am in the process of trying to resolve it with the retailer. I noticed that the left handside dovertail housing slips a bit in relation to the right handside one. The slip is similsr to that I experienced with a Vixen Portamount.
Have you or anyone else noticed a similar slip? If so how was it fixed?
Thanks and regards
George (astrolabe)
Sydney Australia
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cuir
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 03/03/07
Posts: 834
Loc: 45° 1'12. N, 73°56'12. W (Qc)
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Well, tonight, I had not much of a sky, but time on my hands to wait it out between clouds. Luna is out, but so is Jupiter, gloriously glowing on my almost dark southern skyline.
Tonight, I loaded it up. I also got myself loaded in the process, but that's another matter. So, like I said, I had time on my hands, and used it to test the Skyview AZ fully loaded. the skywatcher 80ED is a small aperture scope, yet, it is still a load to be reckoned by mounts, as this scope is built using the same tube diameter as the 100mm scope. It is HEAVY, for an 80mm scope. On the other side, a real heavyweight from the cat alley, the 6" Maksutov, with it's 9x50 finder. With eyepieces and diagonals, I'm loaded at exactly 21.4 pounds in these pictures. This mount can take the load with eaze, and works well to dampen vibrations, even on my shaky wooden porch.
 <-- Orange juice? Nah... Screwdriver. Happy, happy, joy, joy! 
Edit: edited weight of setup from approximately 21 pounds to an exact measurement of 21.4 pounds, according to a premium digital scale.
Edited by cuir (07/20/08 01:03 AM)
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BlueMoon
super member
Reged: 06/14/07
Posts: 171
Loc: Idaho, USA
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I wish Orion would sell just the head assembly. My tripod is identical to the one in your pic...
[EDIT] I sent Orion an email in regards to just purchasing the head. See what response I get...
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Jeff
Antares 1529 152mm f/6.5 Achromat Refractor
EQ5/ST-2 mount
1984 Tasco 19ER 20X-60X50 Refractor
Oberwerks 15x70 Binoculars
Herrett Observatory, Twin Falls, Idaho.
Edited by BlueMoon (07/20/08 10:13 AM)
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drshr
sage
Reged: 06/09/08
Posts: 204
Loc: Australia
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I have just ordered this mount after reading the above. Hoping to mount a 6" refractor one side and an 80mm the other. The fact that it is handling the above loads with ease is encouraging. Hope you are right
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Doc
14" F5 DOB.
6" f5 Achro.
TMB/APM 105mm F6.2 CF APO.
"In order to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe"
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kaaikop
sage
Reged: 07/13/08
Posts: 459
Loc: Ste-Therese, Canada
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Looks like a very nice, solid mount!
Congratulations & clear skies.
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Benoit, RASC Montreal
-C 9.25XLT on EQ6 Pro / ED80SF on Portamount
-Plossls, Radians, Naglers, LVW's & Orthos.
-a pair of 7x50's
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nighthawk
member
Reged: 04/20/07
Posts: 25
Loc: georgia,usa
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You can fix it by backing off the set screws and removing The dovetail saddle, under that is another set of three screws, if you tighten those up it may fix it. At least that worked for me.
Good luck
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Stuff
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