1st Light EVO mount + C6

[Zuts]

I have a AZEQ 6 and a C11. This is a reasonable amount to lug around and setup so I decided to get a grab and go setup.

I managed to find an Evolution mount for $600 on Gumtree and also purchased a C6 on clearance from OPT for $399.

1st light was tonight and I was rather impressed. The mount/tripod and scope is light enough to put in the back of the car fully assembled, so zero setup time.

The mount has an inbuilt 10 hour battery so no need to carry a battery.

The mounts skyalign function lets you select Sydney, date, time and then any 3 bright stars you can see in the sky so roughly under 5 minutes and I was fully aligned. This was fortunate as in Glebe tonight under a near full moon I could literally only see 2 bright stars, one dim star and mars!

The C6 gave nice crisp views of the moon and mars and I am sure would perform well under dark skies.

The mount is strong enough to take my Edge 9.25, and I plan on using it for quick setup solar viewing with my Quark and an Apo. I think the C6 with a reducer would be fine for EAA with my Atik infinity.

Packing up from the site took only a few minutes and unloading the car was easy.

All in all I am very happy with this setup and though I have only used it once can recommend the Evolution mount, though it is a bit noisy.

Cheers

[Hol_dan]

Nice review thanks, been thinking about one of these mounts too. How loud are the motors when slewing?

How did you get OPT to sell you a Celestron OTA. The last time I tried they told me they were not allowed to sell Celestron overseas!

[Stardrifter_WA]

I use OPT for nearly all my astro gear these days and I have had the same issue with Celestron gear. I have gone away from Celestron because they dictate where I have to buy their products. If I cannot buy it from my preferred supplier, I am not buying it at all.

[Zuts]

The noise in bearable. I guess I am just used to my AZ-EQ6 which is very quiet in comparison.

Opt can always sell secondhand items overseas. The OTA i bought was on clearance. Recently Opt has changed owners. According to them they can now ship any Celestron item, new or old to Australia. However you have to forgo any warranty on the item. They will send you an email allowing you to acknowledge this. If anything goes wrong you have to ship the item back to OPT as Celestron Australia or US will not repair it under warranty. I agreed to this as a C6 OTA is rather simple and as long as the item is insured should arrive OK.

It did and I am happy I got it. The mount I got secondhand on Gumtree although I was going to get an SE mount from Opt and they would have happily shipped it but the second-hand Evolution mount came up so I got that instead.

[Zuts]

The evolution mount is good for Solar viewing/imaging.

It has no problems with my TV85 and also has a Solar tracking mode. Select Solar System tracking, Select Sun, align sun in eyepiece press enter and align and you are done.

[Hol_dan]

TV 85 looks awesome on that mount, would there be much difference between the TV85 and C6 as far as resolution is concerned?

[ChrisV]

C6 on evo mount with infinity and a bit of focal reduction sounds like an awesome portable eaa setup!

[Zuts]

I have a quark original which is made for refractors upto around 120mm and F7. Daystar also produce a quark combo which can go on any size SCT but you need a front ERF. With the TV85 you can use a UV/IR block filter in the diagonal.

The quark original has an inbuilt 4.3 barlow while with the combo you supply your own.

Still the C6 has a bigger aperture and so better resolution so I am thinking of trying the C6 with some focal focal reduction to see how it goes, but weather is not co-operating at the moment.

[Zuts]

I havn't managed to try it yet but that is what I am hoping for. Theoretically I can also try stacking two .63 reducers which should make the setup much faster. It may vignette but for EAA I dont really care.

I did try the TV85 with an ASI290mc on the sun for viewing not for capturing and that worked out quite well.