11 replies to this topic

[ChrisMoses]

I was in the market for a new mount. I knew about TolgaAstro, but thought he only dealt in Paramount mounts. A friend was in the process of buying a QSI camera from him and mentioned that I was interested in a mount, something less expensive than a MyT, and he said he could help.

 

I contacted him and he spend an hour with me discussing my goals and budget. In the end, I ended up buying a new mount (Explore Scientific G-11), imaging camera (ASI1600), guide camera ,OAG, filter wheel and filters from him.

 

He did a great job of staying in contact with me during the shipping process and alerted me when there was a delay.

 

He has contacted me a number of times since then to make sure all was well.

 

I have to say it has been a very good experience.

 

I would highly recommend him.

 

 

[guyroch]

Woot Woot Tolga! 

 

A+++

[Stelios]

I am also a very satisfied Tolga customer. He encouraged me to make up my mind, made good suggestions that saved me money, and followed up on everything. I have experienced excellent service before in the Astro community (hello, Agena), but with Tolga it's like having a personal friend.

 

I really don't think he cares how much he makes, he just likes to see astronomers happy playing with their new gadgets. 

 

[Hobby Astronomer]

I am also a very satisfied Tolga customer. He encouraged me to make up my mind, made good suggestions that saved me money, and followed up on everything. I have experienced excellent service before in the Astro community (hello, Agena), but with Tolga it's like having a personal friend.

 

I really don't think he cares how much he makes, he just likes to see astronomers happy playing with their new gadgets. 

Did you end up getting a Mach 1 GTO?

[Stelios]

 

I am also a very satisfied Tolga customer. He encouraged me to make up my mind, made good suggestions that saved me money, and followed up on everything. I have experienced excellent service before in the Astro community (hello, Agena), but with Tolga it's like having a personal friend.

 

I really don't think he cares how much he makes, he just likes to see astronomers happy playing with their new gadgets. 

Did you end up getting a Mach 1 GTO?

 

Yes, with an Avalon T-110 tripod. I decided on the Mach1 over the MyT strictly on the basis of weight--28 vs 35 lbs. I got a lightweight (11 lbs) Pelican Storm for the Mach1 which is the absolute top limit I would want to lift. 

 

So far I like it, although I haven't really played with it much other than used it briefly for Planetary imaging. I can see I am going to need to change guiding parameters as using the AVX/CG-5 settings for PhD2 leads to overcorrections. 

[Hobby Astronomer]

 

 

I am also a very satisfied Tolga customer. He encouraged me to make up my mind, made good suggestions that saved me money, and followed up on everything. I have experienced excellent service before in the Astro community (hello, Agena), but with Tolga it's like having a personal friend.

 

I really don't think he cares how much he makes, he just likes to see astronomers happy playing with their new gadgets. 

Did you end up getting a Mach 1 GTO?

 

Yes, with an Avalon T-110 tripod. I decided on the Mach1 over the MyT strictly on the basis of weight--28 vs 35 lbs. I got a lightweight (11 lbs) Pelican Storm for the Mach1 which is the absolute top limit I would want to lift. 

 

So far I like it, although I haven't really played with it much other than used it briefly for Planetary imaging. I can see I am going to need to change guiding parameters as using the AVX/CG-5 settings for PhD2 leads to overcorrections. 

 

Excellent! Do you have any pictures of your mount yet?

 

HA

[Stelios]

I'll post some soon in the Mounts forum. 

[Hobby Astronomer]

Hey did you get a report up on your new mount?

 

Excited to hear how you are doing. Tolga is great and extremely helpful. Nice Guy. Good decision to do business with him. 

 

HA

[Gene3]

 

 

I am also a very satisfied Tolga customer. He encouraged me to make up my mind, made good suggestions that saved me money, and followed up on everything. I have experienced excellent service before in the Astro community (hello, Agena), but with Tolga it's like having a personal friend.

 

I really don't think he cares how much he makes, he just likes to see astronomers happy playing with their new gadgets. 

Did you end up getting a Mach 1 GTO?

 

Yes, with an Avalon T-110 tripod. I decided on the Mach1 over the MyT strictly on the basis of weight--28 vs 35 lbs. I got a lightweight (11 lbs) Pelican Storm for the Mach1 which is the absolute top limit I would want to lift. 

 

So far I like it, although I haven't really played with it much other than used it briefly for Planetary imaging. I can see I am going to need to change guiding parameters as using the AVX/CG-5 settings for PhD2 leads to overcorrections. 

 

This is good feedback as it recently got a CEM60 to replace my CGEM because of the weight. The 27lb CEM60 is very manageable as compared to the 41 lb CGEM.

So do you have any feedback on the unguided performance of the Mach1.  Reason for asking is that if it basically can do a better job with unguided imaging than the CEM60 at essentially the same weight, then TolgaAstro may have new Mach 1 customer soon.

[Stelios]

I will be playing with my Mach1 this weekend and report. So far I've only tried guided, but my plan is, since I'm at home, to just explore various things. I need to get my focusing offsets done first, then I will start playing with PhD2 settings (including turning guiding off completely). 

 

*Plus* I plan to take some more planetary shots with the ASI224. 

 

And yes, I've even taken some DSO pictures with it, and hope to try processing them this weekend as well. That will be my first LRGB image...

 

I'm sure I'll get tracking under control (I have done 0.63 RMS as best so far, the other session was 1.3 but seeing was lousy).

 

The mount has many wonderful "intangibles":

• The ability to balance it *perfectly* (one ounce will swing it)
• Through-mount cabling (I leave them this way and pack the whole thing).
• The ability to rotate the base when polar aligning (smooth as silk).
• The ability to loosen clutches, go wherever, and sync it back,
• Routinely plate-solving to within under 5 pixels in 3 tries.
• Generates its own network for you to connect and control via WiFi (also serial, usb, ethernet are all available).

There's a great hand-control replacement in Luminos (a ~$20 app for iPhone and Android). Love the huge directional keys, can slew, sync(rcal) and park/unpark.

 

I'm sure I'll discover more as I go.

 

Re weight: The mount is 28.1 lbs without CW, but you need to add a dovetail saddle. The DoveLM2 is surprisingly light, but still adds 2 lbs. Still, it's easy even with my bad back, and I can even lift it with its 11 lb Pelican Storm case (purchased separately).

Edited by Stelios, 22 June 2017 - 01:57 AM.

[WesC]

Tolga is the real deal.

[HomeCreek]

Tolga Astro - exceeded my expectations.  Tolga came out to my observatory in central Texas and installed a new Paramount MEII mount and permanent pier, hooked up all the cables, setup and balanced my image train, verified software installation, performed an accurate polar alignment and built a 200 point Super Model.   I was up and running in less than1 day. He was well worth the money.  He was also very prompt in answering any phone questions that I had both before and after the installation.

Thanks Tolga.

Pat Callis