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Old 17-06-2009, 12:52 PM
dpastern (Dave Pastern)
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dpastern is offline
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Brisbane
Posts: 2,874
I'd go with the EQ6PRO (white). To be honest, get it from Bintel - they are an official reseller and get warranty direct from Tasco Australia (the official distributor). Andrews is $100 cheaper, but I'm wary on their warranty support to be honest, I've heard some horror stories. The extra $100 is a good investment. I got my EQ6PRO from Andrews, but back then, Bintel was like $700 dearer. I wish I'd waited 3 more months, because Bintel dropped their price to very close to Andrews. I also thought that Andrews was an official reseller at the time of purchase and didn't realise until afterwards that it wasn't. I have nothing against Andrews btw, I've had excellent support from Lee & Luke and their prices are very competitive.

I'd go the EQ6PRO version as well - the addition of a guiding port is important imho, as well as having GOTO. There are 2 axis on German Equatorial mounts - RA & DEC. The standard EQ6 only has a motor for RA axis I believe, nothing for DEC. Having motors in both axis is better imho for making tracking adjustments etc. GOTO is great - once your mount is accurately polar aligned, you can train it to improve pointing accuracy and it's nice to know a faint item is centered in your frame when you're about to take an image.

Yes, you could get the standard EQ6 and upgrade the motors etc, and it'll be a bit cheaper than the full on EQ6PRO version, but why bother? Why make life harder for yourself? I'd rather pay a few extra $ and get the full on version straight out to be honest. It saves time, figuring out how to do it all, etc. And the white version of this mount is far sexier than the black one imho.

Dave

PS this is not the biggest baddest meanest mount around. It's an entry level mount. Try checking out some of Takahashi's mounts, or Astro-Physiks awesome mounts (AP900, AP1200, AP3600), or even a Paramount ME. Far more larger, bigger loads and far more costlier, not to mention far more accurate in both pointing and tracking.
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