What EQ mount to buy?

[Dave47tuc]

Ok here some fun, but is serious also. I’m looking for a new EQ mount and would like your thoughts. The scope I use is a 6” Mak. Not very big but heavy.
It rode on top of an EQ5 no problems.
May upgrade in years to come. C11 at most.

So I need opinions of owners of the different type of EQ mounts. How good are they REALLY!! (Pm me if you don’t want to post publicly)

Knowing I have had a Dob with Argo Navis. Also a LX200 and a Meade LXD55.
Meaning I know how to set a scope up. Most people find that they input the wrong information that’s why they have problems early with there mounts.

Mount needs to be reasonably portable and able to be lifted by one person, just for backyard moving around.
But to be broken down for car travel. Is yours easy to do this?

How good are your “Go To’s”?? How well does it track? Will Jupiter stay in field of view in a 10mm Ep for many hours? My old lx 200 could do this!!
Does the scope crash at any time. Meaning it won’t slew or just won’t work.
Does it set up well one night but not the next?
Do you have Argo on an EQ6? Do you like this set up?

So are you happy with your mount ? If not Pm me I think!!
If you are let us know why?

Thanks your information will help.
Oh a budget $0 to 2.5k. If you think a cheap mount would be good let me know why!

[leon]

Hey Dave if got a couple you can buy....:P

Leon

[[1ponders]]

What....no Losmandy :D + AN ;)

Seriously though :face: I've used LX75, Losmandy G11 with Gemini (regularly), GM8 and G11 with AN, and for portability I love my GM8 and G11 with AN. But if G11 is no go then EQ6 and AN

[beren]

:) Timely post Dave , Im considering an EQ mount so potential disscussion on pros and cons will be good . Im tempted by the celestron ASTcg5 goto mount going for a grand at Andrews {one with flash memory a added 200 bucks}....I saw one last month at a club meet .

[Astroman]

HI Dave,

Although not an owner yet, I hope I am not out of line here...

I have done a fair amount of research into what mount to get myself, which is the EQ6 with Synscan. A few things that pushed me towards this mount these are, the load capacity, although the figures state 40lb weight limits it has been proven to take a little more, in some cases up to 50lb. Although typically these values would only be good enough for visual use, and also the tube length has a great deal of say in it too.

Pointing accuracy is only as good as the polar alignment and the stars you use for aligning with, many opt for just a one star alignment close to the object you want to view and then goto it from there, the accuracy is said to be very good to excellent.

Tracking, well I havent heard many complaints about its ability to track, although that said typical periodic error I am lead to belive is around 11 to 18 arcseconds peak to peak. With some mounts better. Older mounts without the synscan controller do suffer in this field.

Depending on what you wish to use it for the eq6 will handle the Mak OTA no worries at all, as long as you have a suitable dovetail, I didnt like the look of the one that came with the EQ6 so I have organised to have one made up for me later in the year.

All the other mounts that you have mentioned do have their pro's and con's too. I steered away from the sphinx it just didnt look like it could handle the weights (over 30lb for me) The HEQ5 is a very capable mount with its load limits of around 25lb but also limited with weights. As for the others I am unsure, it was suggested to me to get a CG-5, but the limits also put me off.

At around $2300 for the EQ6 with Synscan and a 40+lb load limit you can go wrong. Check out the yahoo group on the eq6 too, loads of info there. http://groups.yahoo.com/groups/eq6

good luck with your choice.

[ballaratdragons]

Maybe even go that one step further and consider the EQ6 Pro!

[Lester]

If an EQ6 is the most stable of the lot I would go for it. Don't skimp on the mount. If you over kill with the mount you will not be sorry and it will last you a life time. Got my G.E.Q. mount in 1980 for $1200.00 = 2" solid SS shaft on both axis and is very stable. Would like to fit an Argo Navis one day to make finding DSO easier.

Nothing more frustrating, and capable of killing off your astro enthusiasm, than a flimsy, wobbley mount.

[Dave47tuc]

Good replies so far:thumbsup:

Yes Stuart I'm glad you thought the thread a good one. I was so close to buying a LXD75 today:rolleyes: But i did not:doh:

Paul the Losmandy mounts are out of my price range. BUT the G8 with no DSC is very close:D

I understand the a scope can not be over mounted so to speak. I hate wobbly mounts big time.:mad2:

Two mounts high on the list is a Orion Atlas EQ-G mount or a HEQ5 Pro (white one) The only reason not to go for the HEQ5 is if I get a 11"sct in the future it may not habdle it:shrug:

I hope this thread does create much discussion, as we seem to wrorry about OTA rather than mounts. And my OTA is just fine.;)

Andrew are you 100% happy with the SkyScan?

Keep it coming:thumbsup:

[Astroman]

I would love to get something with a bit more carrying power but unfortunately they fall out of my price range so for weight handling V's money, I am 100% happy with my decision.

I am hoping to get the EQ6 Pro (white version)

[Starkler]

Dave since this is all about mounts, can I ask why you sold your eq5 ? Wasnt it up to handling the mak ?

[g__day]

I posted this guide here quite awhile ago, can't find it here, but for a guide to goto mounts read:

http://www.astronomyonline.com.au/Default.aspx?tabid=107&forumid=24&threadid=37&scope=posts

A C11 is 13Kg, so your options are EQ6, Sphinx just, CG5 just - both are right on the limit, so no accessories!

The EQ5 is out, as is the Meade.

The Vixen Sphinx has a Periodic error correction of +/- 11 arc seconds to the EQ6 +/-25!

If you're maxing out on a C9.25 I'd say the Sphinx, unfortunately on the C11 I'd say the EQ6 as there is too much weight with accessories to do astrophotography, which is what the Sphinx is perfectly suited to.

[Dave47tuc]

Yep it did very well. But I want to spice the nights observing up with "Go TO" or DSC.:whistle:


Stuart, what impressed you about the Celestron G5 mount at your club meet?

g_day
a bigger scope is a few years down the track at best. The Mak, will be with me for a long time. I like the Sphinx and it would sit on my wooden tripod just nicely.

[Astroman]

Here is a page on the PE of the EQ6 of course this does vary slightly per mount.

http://www.sfu.ca/~dmunro/petest.html

g_day: not sure where you got your +/-25 from?

[h0ughy]

eq6 bang for bucks, the handcontroller isnt much to go by, but with a new updatable model coming out it may be worth your while. Dont let the fact that I have two sway you at all. but if you are more serious then go to the gm8 or the gm11

[Harpspitfire]

i got the ASGT and could use a little more beef , so i voted HEQ5 pro series, only reason for not the the EQ6 was the weight issue- however im still concerened about PE in ANY of these mounts- i still cant find any indepth reviews for photowork on the HEQ5 pro series- are there any? john

[g__day]

Astroman - PEC test results on EQ6

http://demeautis.christophe.free.fr/ep/eq6.htm

and the rest of popular mounts here http://demeautis.christophe.free.fr/ep/pe.htm

Dave - If the C11 is only a vague future possibility then don't be limited by it in setting your priorities for today. If you have to purchase just for today, I'd classify the choices as

Best Value - Celestron CG5 (Which I use as of 3 weeks ago and can be remote PC controlled)
Best Weight Management + PEC capabilities - EQ6
Best PEC - Vixen Sphinx (can the controller be remote PC controlled for this?)

The rest are compromises between these outliers. The Meade gets a few critical (upset) comments from folk in the USA, however it will interface well with Meade's excellent, but very proprietary imaging and scope control software. I have yet to get an emulator to Link Meade's AutoStar suite to Celestron's CG5 controller successfully.

[acropolite]

Like Stuart, I'm also interested in the CG5 mount, simply as a platform for the ED80 for astrophotography. Does anyone have any feedback on how the CG5 performs, particularly accuracy and guiding capability. At $1K for go-to it is very affordable and payload isn't always the deciding factor. One would imagine that since they're sold with the 9.25 OTA that they would have reasonable carrying capacity and being smaller that the EQ6 would be much easier to lift.

Edit: Part answer to my question can be found in this cloudy nights review (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/www.cloudynights.com/documents/asm.pdf) and quite a bit of discussion in this thread (http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=1,2,3,4,5,8,9,10&Board=article&Number=22161&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1)

[astronut]

Hi Dave, A close friend in my astro club has been through all the different size EQ mounts and size of scope.
With each set up he's always commented on the need for a more stable mount. He's finally settled on a EQ6 ( massive mount) and a 12" GSO.
This mount could hold the Rock of Gibraltor. Extremely stable and about $1600. + another $800 for the goto.
It's definately not a grab n go kit.;)

[EzyStyles]

Hi Dave. I had trouble first deciding what EQ mount to buy but in the end the EQ6 is definitely the way to go. Especially if you decide to upgrade the OTA in the future.

[Starkler]

Does the eq6 qualify as portable ?

[Dave47tuc]

Thanks for the comments so far:thumbsup:

Interesting that the Meade mount no votes:rolleyes: I saw a 10" scope on top of one those mounts on Saturday. It looked a bit funny. Big ota and not that big a mount. Would be hopeless in a slight breeze:whistle:

Not surprising the EQ6 is at 46% of vote as that seems what most say would suit now or later.

The two I'm tossing with at the moment is the Orion Atlas EQ-G (same as EQ6) or the HEQ 5 Pro (white mount) :shrug:

But the better half ;) is asking I get the AST G5 and leave some money for a rainy day:P The day after my mount arrives.:D

[JohnH]

I can confirm the Sphinx has low PEC - I measured mine at about 12" peak to peak - massively better than the Chinese mounts. I was on the EQ6 track but decided to trade a little carrying capacity for better accuracy - those having success imaging with the EQ6 all seem to have had to strip/adjust and re-grease. Then there was the goto system - not upgradable....

So I am happy with the Sphinx it is portable and has smooth PEC which can be guided out, there are some issues though, I had big backlash in DEC and had a fight with the vendor to get it adjusted, the mounts also tend to come from the factory so tight it is impossible to balance accurately, simple to adjust of course. The mechanics are good so you can go all the way to the load limit without fear. I would not go beyond 10" though....

The starbook is almost good enough to mean you do not need a laptop out there - especially if you use the autoguider port and have a compatible camera, if not you will need Peter Enzerink's driver:

http://www.enzerink.net/peter/astronomy/pages/sphinx.htm

I think there is also native support for the Starbook in the Sky these days...a very nice feature is the TCPIP connect to the Stabook this gives you an ability to network the starbook and drive from a remote PC with ease and simplifies connectivity (no serial port conflicts!).

Overall I rate this mount highly, it is well made, quiet and easy to use and easy on the eye; but I do not rate the dealer who supplied it to me, if the (simple as it turns out) adjustments had been made prior to deilvery I would have been saved huge frustration and many wasted hours and trips back to the shop.

[g__day]

I'm pretty happy with mine once you learn its quirks. If you do a six star set-up, using stars widely spaced on both sides of the meridan, and centre them well always slewing Up and right to get on target, at high magnification, then the pointing accuracy pleases me. Whenever I choose an object its slews almost exactly to it. The target may be 20% away from the centre of the eyepiece at worst.

Once you centre the object it tends to stay centred for a few hours. E.g. pick Jupiter, centre it at 4pm, by 9pm its at most only 20% out of centre of the eye piece. This without doing a drift alignment!

With any set-up the more you're off polar alignment the more the Goto computer has to compensate to track objects. As you improve polar alignment I have seen the tracking vastly improves. I expect with a proper drift alignment tracking would be excellent, as only the RA must run to track objects.

As to its weight handling capabilities I expect from all my reading its exactly up to spec. Anything up to a C9.25 with imaging accessories would be fine. An ED80 would be a walk in the park.

* * * * *

Dave,

I think the voting so far may not reflect your weighted selection criteria, as you only clarified your requirements and prefered trade-offs after alot of the votes where in. If most people have said an EQ6 - which for their cost and primary design criteria (affordable stability under alot of carrying capacity) are excellent. But are these factors your primary needs - not as you've described them. You seem to want an all-rounder with the choices you are now favouring.

With your situation I'd choose otherwise. If I just wanted the scopes you suggested I'd go the CG5 for value - totally suited to your needs, or if I later got really serious on astrophotography in your specified weight range then the Vixen is unbeatable.

All mounts listed will perform, but they are each designed with clearly distinguishable characteristics. When you are crystal clear on where your priorities lie the answer will drop out, and the better you explain you desires and hopes (they're still a bit unclear to me) the more the knowlegable folk here will be able to help you.

[Dave47tuc]

g_day
I thought I did explain things fairly well. But I will point out I’m not into astrophotography. When I had the LXD55 it was a pain in the you know what.
The thing would not work one day then work the next. But after sometime and improvements its was pretty good, but not as good as one would like.

I don’t won’t a mount that will play up so to speak. When all the information is correct I expect it to work and well. The Vixen is a real possibility. Biggest problem is price.
It will hold my scope very well. Also easier to carry than the bigger EQ6.

An all round scope like the HEQ5 is a good idea as that mount will hold a 10”sct.
I may not move up to such scope but maybe one day.
I also like the look of the mount and Steve Massey rated it well in his article in AS&T
September 2005.

The choice is a bit difficult. As money will not allow the Losmandy mounts which I would get before the others. So one of the others I will get.
Maybe the EQ6 is a bit big and heavy. But you can not under mount your scope.
The Mak, is not big and would ride on any of the mounts just fine.

The Vixen I like and I’m looking into it. Through people that got one and have used it for a while. The Sphinx is a mystery to me and I would want to know more before putting my hard earned on it. :whistle:

But as you said I’m in the all rounder type mount at the moment and that’s ok as there good at most things. And of what I have read the HEQ5 Pro is a very good mount.
I just need and owner to talk too!!:D

Many thanks for your input and others also.:thumbsup:

[Harpspitfire]

the 9.25 works well on the ASGT- with a 80mm guidescope and all the camera equipment youll get longer dampening times- but still 100% better then the lxd75, anyway- i make sure all the tripods bolts are tight and lower the heigth- i use the stock dovetail but added a steel bracing U-channel to it, i found using a 'dampening' strap over the 9.25 and guidescope also helps- what i mean is if you rap the OTA and watch the vibrations, then hold your hand on it and rap- youll see the difference, so my strap was 1" stretch elastic wrapped around the OTA and guidescope with velcro sewn on both ends- it worked- i got the older ASGT but from my understanding the newer ASGT is much better with the software upgrades-however i dont use this anymore- my new set-up is WO66 guidescope attached with a vixen slo-motion control- i think if the ASGT had better 'machined' tracking RA and DEC motor gears, it would be a 100% improvement- but all these synta mounts including meades have this drawback

[g__day]

Dave,

Your needs become clearer still when you say don't really need astro-photography. On that basis alone I'd rule out the Sphinx which is designed for that purpose and is excellent in its weight class. If you had stipulated astrophotography, but with the lighter mount than I would have also considered a Takahashi EM-10 vs the Sphinx.

I would question the EQ6 if portability is a large concern and you don't need that much carrying power. What does a 6" MAK weight - I suspect its less than 10 Kg.

The Meade simply gets no stellar reviews and its fair share of gripes, so you are left with EQ variants or the CG5. The HEQ5 costs about $800 more than the CG5 and it has 10 vs 13 Kgs carrying capacity - so less carrying capacity over the cheaper mount. The CG-5 also has 40,000 objects in its database.

If you don't need to upgrade your hand controller than you can get a great Goto mount for under $1,000 from Andrews in the CG-5. The EQ-Atlas with Goto SynScan (13,000 objects) at Bintel is $2,299, whilst the EQ-Sirus is $1,749 + Goto (same number of objects in its database too).

The data says these scopes will hold respectively 18 Kg vs 14 Kgs (14 KGs is teh same rating as the CG5). Whereas the EQ6 sells for around $2,300 with Goto at Andrews and will hold $25 Kg.

There comes a point where choice is purely personal, so there is a good bevy of information out there to help guide such decisions - good luck!

[shredder]

Hi Dave,

I think regardless of which you decide, like anything you buy, afterwards there will always be another option that you didnt think about. For my money its which ever you like best that makes it easier to get out and view with, so important is ...

Gut Feel - Nothing worse than going against your gut feel and then finding out the new choice is not perfect (as it rarely ever is).

Weight - Personally while heavier is better for the mount, it has to be practical, you have to be able to lift it easily and move it. A lot of the mounts are made for much bigger scopes than a 6" Mak and will just be a dead weight to lugg around.

Look - yes it is somewhat secondary, but a lot of people place a lot in the "look" of their setup.

The other half - you mentioned it above, nothing worse than buying something the wife disagrees with, the nagging will take away whatever pleaseure the product brings.

And Cost - lets face it unless we win lotto cost is always a concern.

To me they all sound good, and while I do have one of the options I arent going to give it the thumbs up (or down). For my money if you arent 100% sold on imaging, then go with the Cheapest, and lightest that you like the look of. And dont forget you can also always get the mount now and GOTO seperately later....

Cheers

M

[Dave47tuc]

Thanks very much for all the replies.:thumbsup:

Getting to a point at just biting the bullet and odering one.
Most mounts have a 2 to 4 week order.
Not sure of the Mak weight but its under 10kg just.
So all the mounts will hold the scope well. EQ6 ok hold on HEQ5 yeh hold on no missus says G5. No I say ????????:rolleyes: I will let you know.:whistle:

[DaveO]

Dave

I just took delivery of a Skywatcher 10" newt on the EQ6 Pro SkyScan (the white one). The mount is HEAVY, but certainly luggable. I am certainly not muscle-bound, so that was important to me.

Am still getting to know the goto functionality, but really easy to get started and I am quite happy with it.

The tripod is rock solid - very sturdy. And that's with the 10" on top. However I had to get extra weights to balance - the mount only came with 2 x 5.1kg.

For protection and moving the mount around, I just purchased a golf travel bad - it is fairly sturdy to protect it while it is in the boot of the car, and has handles and wheels to make general movement easier.

[Dave47tuc]

Again many thanks for the replies.:thumbsup:

Bullet bit and got this one, http://www.telescope.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=198749&itemType=PRODUCT&iMainCat=6&iSubCat=24&iProductID=198749

I hope it all works out.:D

[ballaratdragons]

Well done Dave.

Did you get the GoTo or the Dual-axis?

[shredder]

Looks good, I am sure you will be happy with it.

[Dave47tuc]

With "Go To" Ken:thumbsup:

Can't wait :D

[netwolf]

Hi Dave,

Are you importin it? or did you get it localy? Are these worth importing do you save much.
Regards
Netwolf

[Dave47tuc]

Brought the mount through Bintel :D