good mount for astrophotography

[dew]

hi all i have suddenly come into very good fortune and have been blessed by beng allowed to buy a good mount for astrophotography for myself. so right now i am debating which to buy, eg: vixen GP, vixen GPDX, losmandy GM8, takahashi EM10 and vixen sphinx.
my main concern is in tracking accuracy that is needed for serious astrophotography and the second concern is portability. i realise of course that all the mounts mentioned above are pretty big and heavy so im just looking at relative light weight.
right now i'm looking at the vixen sphinx the most seriously, could those with more experience in astrophotography give advice? most of the literature of the sphinx on the web dont go into much detail over its suitability for astrophotography so i'm just wondering what the sphinx's performance compared with say, the tried and tested losmandy GM8, might be?
and i'm also curious about tak's EM10. that mount just looks so cool and sexy.. whats wrong with me.. anyway, does anyone have experience with the EM10 as well?
sorry for all these questions, but i hope anyone with experience in any of these mounts would voice their opinions cause i actually gotta make a decision pretty soon!
thanks!


eu-wen

[weixing]

Hi,
I do a lots of research when I'm think of getting a mount suitable for astrophotography. I first thought that as long as I can get a good mount, I can track accurately without problem. But from all the website and advice I get, I soon find out that no matter how good your mount is, you still need some manual tracking to correct the error even you do a perfect polar alignment.

For your case, I think what you need is any of the above mount as long as it can handle your scope weight plus a guide scope (or off-axis guider) with an auto-guider...

Anyway, my conclusion is as long as the mount can handle your scope weight well and can smoothly move in both axis, it will be suitable.

Have a nice day.

[JY]

Hi,

I would suggest that you look into the Yahoo groups for some groups discussing mounts.
The mount is the most important part of the setup for astrophotography, buy a good solid one.

I am doing some modest imaging with a LX200 in altaz with field derotator and SBIG camera/AO7, the critical problems I have encountered are :
- Backlash (delays in motor action when they reverse rotation)
- Periodic Error Correction (it corrects for the irregularities in the mount gears)

I have somehow overcome these with the use of the Adaptive Optics from SBIG.

My opinion on the mounts you mention :
GM8: I would not choose this one, take the G-11 instead
EM-10: a good portable solution

Cheers

Jean-Yves

[VinSnr]

hi all i have suddenly come into very good fortune and have been blessed by beng allowed to buy a good mount for astrophotography for myself. so right now i am debating which to buy, eg: vixen GP, vixen GPDX, losmandy GM8, takahashi EM10 and vixen sphinx.
my main concern is in tracking accuracy that is needed for serious astrophotography and the second concern is portability. i realise of course that all the mounts mentioned above are pretty big and heavy so im just looking at relative light weight.
right now i'm looking at the vixen sphinx the most seriously, could those with more experience in astrophotography give advice? most of the literature of the sphinx on the web dont go into much detail over its suitability for astrophotography so i'm just wondering what the sphinx's performance compared with say, the tried and tested losmandy GM8, might be?
and i'm also curious about tak's EM10. that mount just looks so cool and sexy.. whats wrong with me.. anyway, does anyone have experience with the EM10 as well?
sorry for all these questions, but i hope anyone with experience in any of these mounts would voice their opinions cause i actually gotta make a decision pretty soon!
thanks!


eu-wen

anyone will do...most important it must carry your load and fit your budget.

No matter which mount you choose, you still have to guide. No escape from this unless you are doing very short exposures for DSLR. However, some of these mounts have different gimzos on it......for example, sphinx has a GOTO so you might want to consider the different features on each mount.

But when comes to AP....there is no short cut. You still have to polar align, you still have to guide. There is no magic mount.

[acc]

Hi Eu Wen
Guess u muz have done well for your 'A' levels?

Based on cool factor and GOTO feature alone, the Sphinx would be a clear choice. Saw one in operation and was surprised at its almost silent operation.

[dew]

I am doing some modest imaging with a LX200 in altaz with field derotator and SBIG camera/AO7, the critical problems I have encountered are :
- Backlash (delays in motor action when they reverse rotation)
- Periodic Error Correction (it corrects for the irregularities in the mount gears)

hi JY, thanks for the advice, i was worried about the PEC thing like in tak's EM10 which doesnt have PEC but i still see amazing pictures posted by people who use the EM10? and for the sphinx mount in the website listing its specs PEC was not mentioned as well..

But when comes to AP....there is no short cut. You still have to polar align, you still have to guide. There is no magic mount.

yeah i mean i realise, from my own rudimentary foray in to planetary imaging, that AP is really difficult and would take alot of effort but i'm fine with that anyway. i just dont want my efforts frustrated by a mount which simply was not designed primarily for astrophotography. (eg, the sphinx?)


eu-wen

[dew]

oh and by the way, what is the name of the yahoo group discussing mounts for AP?
thanks!


eu-wen

[JY]

Hi,

A great group to get tips on astrophotography:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ccd-newastro/

One for the Paramount users
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/paramount/

Cheers

Jean-Yves