Quote:
Originally Posted by DJT
I have an AP900 and an AP Mach1 from a really early run. It’s possible to upgrade the Mach 1 to a certain extent to the after runs but can’t retrofit absolute Encoders. Having said that I haven’t really felt the need to have them. It’s not often either mount loses its way.
Both were bought pre-loved fortunately which is part of the deal as far as this hobby goes, or so says the CFO, and they don’t miss a beat. The 900 is in an observatory and the Mach1 is used at a dark site and is largely left out in the field.
I get excellent service from AP. Plenty of technical support and documentation that is actually useful.
The mechanics are solid, there’s not much to do in terms of service apart from greasing bearings every so often.
The battery in the handset has died once in 8 years but it’s straight forward to deal with if you are able to follow clear instructions. There’s not much that can go wrong to be honest.I also upgrade the chip on the Controllers for both mounts take advantage of some new features that was straight forward to do
Both scopes will let you image past the meridian quite happily.
Neither mount is being pushed to the limited with a 10”RC on one and a 106mm refactor on the other though both with big fat heavy CCDs on them, filters wheels, MOAG etc. The Mach1 will happily take the RC imaging setup when needed with room to spare and I ran the 900 with refractor and RC for a while.
For laughs I tried unguided and had good results on the very well aligned mount in the observatory but I do guide and as I said, they never miss a beat. Much easier but I would imagine not having to guide and make correcting adjustments can only be an advantage for the imager.
No experience with other mounts other than HEQ5.
I hope this helps.
David
|
thanks David, it does help. What software do you use for capture and guiding with these mounts?