Skywatcher AllView Mount

[Wavytone]

Originally bought it with the eclipse in mind but as we're not going (thanks, Trump) decided to sell mine as I have also bought a Losmandy AZ8 which is a better match for my scopes which are too large for this. Space is limited at home (apartment) so it has to go.

This is as simple as it gets for a GOTO mount. Carefully levelled, a quick one-star fix is good enough with a small refractor to put most objects in the field of view and track fine. This includes the sun, for those thinking of the upcoming eclipse. Portamounts and other small ones are tinker-toys in comparison to this baby.

It's a really neat compact altaz GOTO mount, ideal for a small grab & go setup, and works perfectly, suitable for refractors to 80mm, or a C5 SCT. Tracks quite smoothly at 1000mm focal length, fine for modest short duration imaging of sun/moon/planets.

Some noteworthy aspects:

- Full Skywatcher handset with alignment, GOTO functions and object catalogue;

- it has proper encoders so you can unclamp the axes, manually slew wherever and it will continue to track, like the AZ-EQ6;

- it can run on AA batteries (inside) or 12VDC; wall-wart is included;

- also does panoramas if you're that way inclined.

See http://www.skynews.ca/review-allview-mount/

Asking $400.


Pickup is preferred as this does include a TRIPOD which is not practical to ship. Shipping elsewhere at your cost.

[DannyR]

Hi

Two Questions

Can I achieve alignment with seeing the South Celestial Pole.
and
Does the focus knob on a refractor touch the body of the mount at Zenith?

DannyR

[DannyR]

Sorry, I meant 'without' seeing South Celestial Pole

[Wavytone]

Hi Danny yes you can perform an alignment without seeing the south celestial pole. The alignment process consists of:

1. Level the tripod accurately by adjusting the legs,
2. Switch it on and select the astronomical mode,
3. Set the location, date and time (it sort-of remembers these)
4. Choose 1 to 3 of the brightest stars or planets - or sun or moon -in the north, west, south or east. The handset prompts with these. After the first one is selected and aligned it will slew to the approximate location of the next one, you then use the up/brown/left/right commands to move the telescope to the target.

Even if you use just one object it will track that well enough (eg the sun, during the day). GOTO is obviously better if you calibrate with 3 objects well spaced apart.

You can for example calibrate using just one star near a hard-to-find object like Uranus or Neptune, then use GOTO to find the faint object.

After that you can point it at anything either by GOTO or by unclamping and skewing manually and it will track when reclamped.

If you can recognise just a few bright stars and the bright planets you will be fine.

[rrenew]

Hi Wavytone
some questions:
1. does it include the adjustable camera brackets shown in the manual?
2. is it still under warranty?
Regards
Rob