Skyscan or Autostar or Argo-Navis

[miki63au]

Greetings all, its raining in Adelaide so I have lots of time to think ahead.
What is the opinion regard of upgrading of old eq mount?

Synta Skyscan has a reputation of robustness and
2 stepper unclouded, you need to make a specific
gear train for the worm ~$1000

Meade's Autostar is cheap (~$250 controller plus the LXD-75 motors (?),
has the benefit to setup for different worm gear ratio.

Argo-Navis is the most sophisticated controller,
but need lots of mods plus motors with separate control electronics.
All up probably $1500 bux



Don't know, chip in with your opinion.

Miklos.

[iceman (Mike)]

What mount and telescope are you going to use it with?

[miki63au]

Have a look below,
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ad.php?t=25323

[Karls48 (Karl)]

I have modified GSO SV1 mount for use with Meade Autostar and DS motors. I think that DS motors are same as on LDX-75.You could get whole package for about US$150 about year ago, but I don’t think you will find it anymore. Nice thing about Autostar is that you can use practically any gear ratio. Bad thing about the motors is that it uses rather small plastic gears train and those gears strip easily if your mount hits had stop. Also, when slewing, it is quite noisy. I doubt it will work with your big mount and big telescope. It may, if you sacrifice slewing speed and geared it down 2 or 3 to 1.

[miki63au]

Karl,
my understanding is that the LXD-75 motors are much
better and more robust than the DS. No plastics there.
I agree with you on the balance issue. I have to work
on it, those lead counterweights is a pain in the @#$#@
to adjust. I like to make a sleeve for the 1.5"dec shaft with low pitch tread
and make a new stainless steel weight set, but tat have to wait for finance...
Miklos.

[gary]

Hi Miklos,

As Iceman Mike rasied, what would you like to do with the mount?

If the answer is primarily astrophotography, perhaps keep the existing
drive motor for RA tracking and consider an Argo Navis for locating objects
using PUSHTO.

Do you really need the GOTO component (i.e. slew), or just tracking?

Best Regards

Gary Kopff
Managing Director
Wildcard Innovations Pty. Ltd.
20 Kilmory Place, Mount Kuring-Gai
NSW. 2080. Australia
Phone +61-2-9457-9049
Fax +61-2-9457-9593
wildcard@wildcard-innovations.com.au
http://www.wildcard-innovations.com.au

[miki63au]

G'day Gary,
my prime interest is the planets and the moon.
Perhaps later the satellites. If you recall my location
of your visit, its limited of deep sky objects, howerer
I would not mind to assisted by technology to find them
and use filters to cut true the light pollution.

Tracking or go-to, well the mechanical mod is the same difficulty,
(see pictures I sent to you last week)
To keep the ac synchronous motor drive I still need to build a drive
corrector as well modify the dec axis with a worm and dc motor.
Not much less work than a "cheap go-to" .
Thank you.
Best Regards,
Miklos.