iOptron Minitower Pro + Newt

[Waxing_Gibbous (Peter)]

After being (most accidentally) shot ('lower hip area' shall we say), a minor stroke, a "cardiac event" and two spinal fusion ops, all in the past 20 months I'm starting to reach the conclusion that I can't really get 'round to using all my gear, and so have decided to rationalise.

My current thinking is a 10" f5 newt on a go-to AZ mount. The newt is no problem.

However, despite the sudden plethora of combination AZ/EQ mounts, all of which are quite drool-worthy I don't really need a GEM function anymore and the only local viable alternative seems to be the iOptrons.

Reviews of the Minitower Pro or Minitower II seem to fall into two categories:
"OMG! It's changed my life. No single purchase I have made in twenty years has brought me so much joy. It's like I've won the lottery and been told I'll live to a hundred and thirty"
or
"OMG!!! I'm loosing the will to live. I've spent so much time on this monstrosity that my wife and family have left me, I've been sacked from my job and no-one will talk to me anymore. I'd be better off dead! Pray for me.

But I digress. Has anyone had experience with the Minitowers with a biggish scope attached? Or even just the Minitowers themselves.
Well considered reviews very welcome.

[dannat (Daniel)]

good to see you back Peter, i would have thought a 8" weight would be better on it
see this thread -seems a few mods were in order

also if you wanted to bother they could be bought directly from NG to save some $, though im not sure of their current price

[GeoffW1 (Geoff)]

Hi,

I have a Minitower II with usually a C8 attached. On a few occasions I've added a SW102 on the other end, just so I can look like I've escaped from a Flak gun emplacement.

I power it off a sealed lead-acid battery of about 30 aH which seems quite adequate for one night's use.

The Minitower has performed very well once aligned, especially the tracking, although I've found the GPS function to be flaky, and quickly stopped using it, in favour of manual data entry.

I don't miss the Synscan EQ5 I had, even though I eventually got the hang of polar alignment.

Cheers

PS After reading Chris' post below I'd second that, I forgot to say the supplied tripod legs are prone to vibration, and the whole setup can be affected by a wind gust. However I do no photography, so am not very bothered.

[cjb (Chris)]

I've had a Mini Tower since 2008 - great mount! Level it, align it (one star) and it will do amazingly accurate go to. The tracking is perfect! In terms of weight carrying - I currently use a small refractor on it as a grab and go but I have hung my NP127 on it with no dramas (quite a heavy refractor).

Problems - at very high magnification the image bounces around a bit due to the stepping of the motors - not noticeable at less than 150x. (This can be fixed if you want to "tune" the mount - just google "Mini Tower tuning".

A common fault is that the RA stepper motor dies. Mine died about 3 months ago after 7 years of faithful service . I ordered a replacement from IOptron and it arrived in 10 days from the USA. 10 mins to replace - cost about $50 AUD including postage. Mount is as good as new. IOptron were great to deal with!

The altitude clutch knob can lock solid. This problem is caused by the clutch washer being made of plastic that is too hard and too small. Just replace it with a larger Teflon washer. (The new ones may have a better washer?)

Half hour local time zones couldn't be set so I had to set the GMT as half an hour out and then set the local time correctly otherwise you couldn't find planets - set it once in 2008 never had to change it. (The new ones might not have this problem)

The hand set light can't be dimmed enough - either replace the resistor to reduce the brightness or tape a bit of red cellophane over it. (I run my mount with WiFi and Sky Safari on an I pad so I don't even use the hand pad)

Would I recommend this mount? Definitely! It is accurate (goto and tracking), light and compact and any problems are either easy to fix or not going to happen to you anyway. Remember that most people won't post on forums that their mount is working but the sure will post if there is a problem! This sometimes tends to skew the reviews in a negative light IMO.

Hope this helps,

Chris

[Blue Skies (Jacquie)]

I run my Minitower pro with an 8" SCT on it and it handles it just fine, although I did buy an extra counterweight to balance it correctly. I love its pointing accuracy, which is what I wanted it for, even if the tracking drifts a bit depending on how well I've got it leveled. I'm doing video, not still imaging, so I don't mind this so much. I'm working on muffling the loud "beep" it makes once its finished slewing at the moment, as you cant turn it off with a command.

BUT I did try to put a 10" RC on it and it did not like it at all - groaned and moaned and threatened to topple over. So I doubt it would handle a 10" newt, they're just not big enough.

[Waxing_Gibbous (Peter)]

Thanks all!
These are definitely the most useful replies I've had.
Re: the 8"Newt. Arrrrgggh! Now you've brought it up, I'll HAVE to buy one of these:
http://www.orionoptics.co.uk/CT/ct8.html
I couldn't afford the 10" CT so I was happy. Now I'm going broke without moving from the sofa.
Oh. BTW, where can I actually buy a Minitower?
Thanks again,
Peter

[mikerr (Michael)]

Peter, I have a Minitower Mk2 with Celestron C8 SCT and really like it. My first Goto, so I can finally find things. Magic.

Now, how do you want to hunt for objects?

The hand control is probably the weak link. I have not been able to find any one who could make the MT PRO or Mk2 (same beasts, different tripod supplied) work with an external planetarium type program to drive the scope to objects.
Working through the menu to select each object from the inbuilt data base is a bit laborious and once found/locked on it's info disappears from the screen. Really annoying to me.

The inbuilt data base of Deep Sky Objects is great and can be accessed many ways ie. NGC. IC, Messier etc.

Double stars are not well catered for. The list that comes in the instruction manual shows 40 (Northern Hemisphere biased) as being in the Hand Control data base.
Mine actually has 211 double stars in the HC data base which I tracked down to having come from the Ioptron Solar 60 8405 Hand Controller!!

You can enter SAO numbers but only if they are already in the inbuilt Double Star list!!

If you can, try to get a look at one operating at a club etc near you.

If you would like to discuss by phone or have questions, feel free to PM me.

Michael

[dannat (Daniel)]

telescopes-astornomy in SA

astronomy alive