What's a good mount to replace a Tak NJP?

[wysiwyg (Mark)]

Greg,

When going through the process myself the two major factors I was looking for was Precision and Setup time. The goal for me was to reduce what I called "stuffing around" time and increase imaging time, regardless whether it was a permanent setup or portable.

With the PME its really flicking one switch and off you go when in a permanent setup. In the field its slightly more than that but IMO still considerably less hassle than any mount I have seen or used.

The PME may look chunky but its actually very light considering its size.

I'm sure once you got yours up and running you will quickly realise its benefits.

Every mount has its flaws, there is no such thing as a perfect mount, but when looking from a precision and setup time perspective its second to none IMO.

Good Luck!

[Zaps]

Originally Posted by wysiwyg

..when looking from a precision and setup time perspective its second to none IMO.

Takahashi wners would disagree with you, I'm sure. The Tak mounts are natively very precise and some of the easiest and fastest of all to set up. In my opinion.

[rally]

Zaps,

As a Takahashi mount owner - EM200 and NJP, I can say that compared to a P-ME and other higher end mounts they really are quite primitive when it comes to automation and computer control.

The Takahashi mounts are mechanically excellent if maintained, that is something that most Tak owners would agree with.

But . . . .
they have no home position and/or no absolute position positioning in their encoders, so its virtually impossible to setup an automated remote control system.
I once asked on the Tak Users Group if anyone had done so - years later my post still remains unanswered.

Even an EQ6 can be setup with Periodic Error Correction - you can't do this on a Tak with Temma ! (at this point).

The Temma only reports its position to a low resolution so using say TheSky6 at high mag - its jumpy - because the software does not know where the Mount actually is to a high degree of accuracy.

In all but the very, very latest Temmas with new Hand Controllers, if you are in the Southern Hemisphere you need to hold those two "magic" keys down on the hand controller at bootup in order for RA to rotate in the right direction ! - this is a disaster if you have any momentary power glitches and necessitates a human at the helm.
I cannot understand in this day and age how Tak thinks this particular process is acceptable.

Any Pointing model you create is hard to make permanent because of the lack of absolute encoding - which means you have to manually sync the mount at every session.

When you consider that an EM400 is only slightly less expensive that the the price of a P-ME you can see why people would buy a P-ME instead for astrophotography and observatory control.

You can set up a P-ME in the field with the right pier very rapidly - it can be done to an extremely high degree of accuracy and with a pointing model you can have a Polar Alignment accurate into the arc seconds range within 10 minutes of having the equipment assembled.

The degree of integration that comes with the available software is another reason that makes the P-ME so much better.
A long story could be written about this alone.

Like anything there are pros and cons and the cost is high, TheSky6 (supplied) must be used to control it no matter if you use ASCOM or not.

But back to the OP's thread "Replacing his NJP" - an EM400 is basically just the updated version of the NJP - same controller, slightly different mechanical arrangement - there is barely any net gain so I couldn't see any benefit.
Certainly a retrograde step considering Greg already has a P-ME
for his other OTA's.

Cheers

Rally

[netwolf]

If the Tak uses Servo motors would it be possibly I wonder to retrofit it to be controlled by the Sitech controller or any other Servo controller like SS2K etc.

Regards
Fahim

[wysiwyg (Mark)]

Originally Posted by netwolf

If the Tak uses Servo motors would it be possibly I wonder to retrofit it to be controlled by the Sitech controller or any other Servo controller like SS2K etc.

Regards
Fahim

Anything is possible, but the question remains at what cost and effort?
By the time you add the cost of these mods and assume you get it working, then why not get a PME. It would probably be way cheaper and you will be given an out of the box solution from the get go!

Mark

[gregbradley]

Thanks for the replies.

It seems the PME is the clear favourite still. I got my permanent pier bolted to its concrete pier today and packed it with cement under it so it was level.

The PME is surprisingly light. Its about 35kgs or so and not that much heavier than the NJP which surprised me. It is physically quite a bit bigger.

I intend still using my NJP for now and probably will later install it at my dark site observatory for when I go down there. Skies there are still superior to where I live.

If you use the Chick Faranda Temma driver you can park the Tak mounts and the next night it is still synched and ready to go at the flick of a switch.

But I agree no PEC is probably its biggest drawback and also the holding down the S1 key at bootup to set it to Southern Hemisphere smacks of those complicated Japanese clocks where you had to hold down lots of keys to access various functions. A bit of hangover from earlier Japanese manufacturing there.

Thanks for the inputs.

Greg.

[ausastronomer (John Bambury)]

Hi Greg,

I am not an imager hence don't know a lot about these mounts from an end user point of view. However, I know a couple of guys in the USA who use larger refractors on the Mountain Instruments MI-500 mount and are very happy with its performance. I believe the larger Mountain Instruments Mounts are now made by Mathis Instruments. Just wondering if there is a reason why one of these mounts has not been mentioned by anyone, as they have the load capacity and cost a bit less than some of the other mounts in this load capacity range.

http://www.mathis-instruments.com/specs.html

Cheers,
John B

[wysiwyg (Mark)]

Originally Posted by ausastronomer

Hi Greg,

I am not an imager hence don't know a lot about these mounts from an end user point of view. However, I know a couple of guys in the USA who use larger refractors on the Mountain Instruments MI-500 mount and are very happy with its performance. I believe the larger Mountain Instruments Mounts are now made by Mathis Instruments. Just wondering if there is a reason why one of these mounts has not been mentioned by anyone, as they have the load capacity and cost a bit less than some of the other mounts in this load capacity range.

http://www.mathis-instruments.com/specs.html

Cheers,
John B

If you want to use the mount remotely though you have to add $4400 to the price of the MI-500 + $250 power supply + Scope Adapter plate $800. The only upside is Weight Capacity, 50kg more than PME.
So now your looking at a mount worth over $17K US.

PME has all that for $14.5K US, its still a cheaper option.