Geoff45
25-02-2008, 12:54 PM
Here is a good quote to stir the pot a little:
The Losmandy G-11 has been the entry level mount of choice for imagers on a budget for a number of years. The GM-8 is not stiff enough to be a good imaging mount.
Ron Wodaski: The New CCD Astronomy, p133.
He goes on to say that unguided exposures with the G-11 are often problematic due to tracking errors, and recommends using an autoguider.
Another quote:
The G-11 is a good choice if you are on a tight budget, but expect to put in some time tuning the mount and learning about its behaviour under load.
Personally, I have taken many images with my GM-8, often in quite windy conditions, and whatever faults these images may have, tracking has never been a problem, both with manual guiding and autoguiding, although I have never tried unguided track and stack.
Geoff
The Losmandy G-11 has been the entry level mount of choice for imagers on a budget for a number of years. The GM-8 is not stiff enough to be a good imaging mount.
Ron Wodaski: The New CCD Astronomy, p133.
He goes on to say that unguided exposures with the G-11 are often problematic due to tracking errors, and recommends using an autoguider.
Another quote:
The G-11 is a good choice if you are on a tight budget, but expect to put in some time tuning the mount and learning about its behaviour under load.
Personally, I have taken many images with my GM-8, often in quite windy conditions, and whatever faults these images may have, tracking has never been a problem, both with manual guiding and autoguiding, although I have never tried unguided track and stack.
Geoff