Hey Andeelym,
Having used the IOptron system on the GP, I must say, together with it's minitower and 'G cube' reviews it is an oustanding system. But long run wise you end up being a little limited. Though its a great system, it has it flaws. They should and I think did, solve the issues with the IEQ45 with regards to ST4 guiding port and better USB support.
Not many reviews on the IEQ45 as yet from around the globe so can't say much on that. But from what I have read, Atlas, Sirius, HEQ5/6, CGEM all have good reviews and been field tested.
The mount being the most costly investment is for many here a compromise on portability and long term usage. We all are not blessed with large gardens or Penthouses...and thus resort to window/balcony/MSCP/outdoor setting up. Permanent set ups are hard to come by here and placing a tripod near a window is difficult due to space and family concerns. However, one way to solve this is the FLower Pot pier which if you Google you could find someone who did it.
If our window view is enough for some good Observations and AP (normally NE to S or E to SE) then consider placement and where you will be Obbing from. Then any problems with home decor and space?? Hence the FLower pot pier (info PM me!) so no legs stick out!!
If you have to always Ob outdoors, then perhaps a re-look into the entire Astro set up is in hand. From Mount to Scope! No point buying a 8-9" SCT and a EQ mount only to have to carry all that around and end up feeling tired and discouraged! Even a 5" and EQ mount can get cumbersome for some! This is where those wonderful 80mm to 90mm refractors come in really handy! YEs they will not give you large views of the planets and clusters....but you will be Obbing more often then a set up which zaps your stamina everytime!
Once you have determined all this, then consider the mount, which should be the first thing on the list of Astro gear! I went from 5" to 8" and now 80mm and 66mm scopes and find myself so much happier and less discouraged when clouds roll in, since less to clear up!
All to often we look at what we wish and want to see...but forget to consider strongly what and how much time and effort we can spend. Cost may be a factor but being humans that we are, somehow we find the cash...but that isn't the important bit.
This is a hobby where what you buy will ultimately determine it's future and your future with it! It's not only costly, it's cumbersome, it's a learning curve and it WILL discourage the uninitiated! Thats what a hobby is,....BUT....with careful considerations, planning, the enjoyment can be had if we only kept it simple and accepted our short comings!
PErsonally I had large scopes and lots of grab and go gear...wanting to join the bandwagon of outdoor obs like any good ole Astronomer! Yah HAHA...with kids, a family and a job that tires me out...Fat chance!! I scaled down alot on equipment, and wish I didn't have to, but it allowed me to re think my style of Astronomy, practice AP and still spend time with family!
Well just my 2c on options and what to consider. As for pricing on GOTO's? Atlas, Sirius for heavy dutyness with the Synscan systems are pretty good! HEQ5/6's are ok too. I kinds like the Synscan systems now due to it's expandability and compatability with alot of things!
If cost is an issue, then GP's, GP2 with any Goto motors are good. Just get 80-90mm refractors or 5"-6" mak/sct and your good! Make a Finder guidescope to piggyback and you shouldn't overload it more than 10-11lbs!
Best GOTO System you have ever used
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timatworksg
- Posts: 767
- Joined: Mon Feb 01, 2010 9:42 pm
- Location: Pasir Ris
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timatworksg
- Posts: 767
- Joined: Mon Feb 01, 2010 9:42 pm
- Location: Pasir Ris
GOTO with any system is pretty decent if your just viewing and no AP. Once into the realm of Astrophotography...*drum roll* it's a whole new learning curve again!!
All mounts and their motors will have some error somewhere no matter how well it's built! Balance of our scope/scopes, CCD's, wires, wind, low horizon, etc etc can effect even the best of systems. Viewing wise, as long as the target stays within the FOV of the eyepiece your good. Also slewing wise, if the target is a little off but there...thats good to! But an EQ mount still benefits from as close as possible alignment to the poles. That way the RA is parallel to the stars when they move from East to West!
Autoguiding helps to correct the small errors like atmosphere, sudden weight shift, gear meshing, RA passing zenith, small sudden breeze, but only so much. Guiding will not correct a badly aligned mount.
All GOTO's have their goods and bads as well as their workings with the mount it's matched up with. The LXD EQ's had errors, but that was more to a gear issue which is easily solved with some tweaking! Even Atlas and Sirius could do with some pimping! I went to the extent of breaking my Sirius up, washed off the China Paste and re-greased with Red Lithium HP grease! Nice, smooth and not loose!
But Grab and Go wise...I love those minitowers!! Bloody wonderful invention!! Hmmm...maybe I should sell my Voyager Alt/AZ and grab a tower...hehe!
All mounts and their motors will have some error somewhere no matter how well it's built! Balance of our scope/scopes, CCD's, wires, wind, low horizon, etc etc can effect even the best of systems. Viewing wise, as long as the target stays within the FOV of the eyepiece your good. Also slewing wise, if the target is a little off but there...thats good to! But an EQ mount still benefits from as close as possible alignment to the poles. That way the RA is parallel to the stars when they move from East to West!
Autoguiding helps to correct the small errors like atmosphere, sudden weight shift, gear meshing, RA passing zenith, small sudden breeze, but only so much. Guiding will not correct a badly aligned mount.
All GOTO's have their goods and bads as well as their workings with the mount it's matched up with. The LXD EQ's had errors, but that was more to a gear issue which is easily solved with some tweaking! Even Atlas and Sirius could do with some pimping! I went to the extent of breaking my Sirius up, washed off the China Paste and re-greased with Red Lithium HP grease! Nice, smooth and not loose!
But Grab and Go wise...I love those minitowers!! Bloody wonderful invention!! Hmmm...maybe I should sell my Voyager Alt/AZ and grab a tower...hehe!
My wife never complained about how much time, effort & money I spent on my Astronomy hobby!................suddenly I met her!!!
Thanks Tim for the advice.
I am finding myself ending up with at least 3 kinds of setup.
For now, a planetary setup, a grab&goto setup and a travel setup.
My planetary setup consist of my 8" SCT with astroslew and aluminum surveyor tripod. Though manual, but its nice and steady and can do planetary image.
Grab and goto setup will be my smartstar-g on the aluminum surveyor tripod and the AT65EDQ (which I am going to buy soon). Basically, goto is useful for hunting stars and nebula and the can do widefield imaging with the small refractor.
Travel setup will be the AT65EDQ and a gorrilapod focus so that I can "tie" to the hotel window/balcony and do viewing and maybe imaging when i travel.
I am lacking the EQ functionality for using my 8" SCT as a nebula imaging and the AT65EDQ as a guidescope. Hence this thread to seek a capable GOTO GEM.
For minitowers, those with the timken bearing upgrades are gems! Wonderful guiding and strong enuff to carry a 5-6" refractor. Can even handle 2 C8s side by side. Really impressive, was almost going to buy one from CN classified but the seller broke something and have to sent it for repairs. Upon hearing that, it made me hold back my purchase. Nevertheless, its a solid combo.
I am finding myself ending up with at least 3 kinds of setup.
For now, a planetary setup, a grab&goto setup and a travel setup.
My planetary setup consist of my 8" SCT with astroslew and aluminum surveyor tripod. Though manual, but its nice and steady and can do planetary image.
Grab and goto setup will be my smartstar-g on the aluminum surveyor tripod and the AT65EDQ (which I am going to buy soon). Basically, goto is useful for hunting stars and nebula and the can do widefield imaging with the small refractor.
Travel setup will be the AT65EDQ and a gorrilapod focus so that I can "tie" to the hotel window/balcony and do viewing and maybe imaging when i travel.
I am lacking the EQ functionality for using my 8" SCT as a nebula imaging and the AT65EDQ as a guidescope. Hence this thread to seek a capable GOTO GEM.
For minitowers, those with the timken bearing upgrades are gems! Wonderful guiding and strong enuff to carry a 5-6" refractor. Can even handle 2 C8s side by side. Really impressive, was almost going to buy one from CN classified but the seller broke something and have to sent it for repairs. Upon hearing that, it made me hold back my purchase. Nevertheless, its a solid combo.
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timatworksg
- Posts: 767
- Joined: Mon Feb 01, 2010 9:42 pm
- Location: Pasir Ris
Nice plan you have there!
Hmm...8" SCT and guide with the 65mm quad,...thats some heavy payload! Something minimum Atlas or above for such! Then again Atlas is cutting it tight!
You might consider another lighter refractor (60 - 70mm APO/Acro, short focal length) just for guiding use! The Orion short tube is also a worthy consideration. I know its spending money again, but this way you can both AP with the 8" guided by the lighter doublet/Acro or Image with the AT65 quad for wide field and guide with the lighter scope. This way you have the best of both worlds for close ups and wide fields.
Then in the future future..lol...reducer for the 65quad for super wide fields!! You can also travel with both the 65 and a guide scope both in one bag, together with a DSLR!!
But mount wise...yeah...Atlas or above if you wish to AP with the 8" and Autoguide! Don't forget to add in weight from extensions, dovetails and the such! Side by side mount or piggyback? CCD cam/s or DSLR and CCD cam? Imagine the set up and play it in your head so you have a general idea of yourself setting everything up!
What I hate the worst now with AP....WIRES!!! Just bought a powered USB hub to centralize the 2 cams, EQMOD and GPUSB with one USB wire to my laptop! Need the powered hub as these take in more than 500mA and normal USB no powered hubs allow below 500mA! Thats another thing you could also buy...good ones not cheap though!
Hmm...8" SCT and guide with the 65mm quad,...thats some heavy payload! Something minimum Atlas or above for such! Then again Atlas is cutting it tight!
You might consider another lighter refractor (60 - 70mm APO/Acro, short focal length) just for guiding use! The Orion short tube is also a worthy consideration. I know its spending money again, but this way you can both AP with the 8" guided by the lighter doublet/Acro or Image with the AT65 quad for wide field and guide with the lighter scope. This way you have the best of both worlds for close ups and wide fields.
Then in the future future..lol...reducer for the 65quad for super wide fields!! You can also travel with both the 65 and a guide scope both in one bag, together with a DSLR!!
But mount wise...yeah...Atlas or above if you wish to AP with the 8" and Autoguide! Don't forget to add in weight from extensions, dovetails and the such! Side by side mount or piggyback? CCD cam/s or DSLR and CCD cam? Imagine the set up and play it in your head so you have a general idea of yourself setting everything up!
What I hate the worst now with AP....WIRES!!! Just bought a powered USB hub to centralize the 2 cams, EQMOD and GPUSB with one USB wire to my laptop! Need the powered hub as these take in more than 500mA and normal USB no powered hubs allow below 500mA! Thats another thing you could also buy...good ones not cheap though!
My wife never complained about how much time, effort & money I spent on my Astronomy hobby!................suddenly I met her!!!
Ya, also need to meddle with the attachments and such. Looking at the nexguide for a computerless guiding. But not sure how good is that.
Nah, travelling with 2 scope and and a GEM? My wife will kill me. I think just the AT65EDQ and a DSLR max... anyway I will be using the DSLR for daytime use.
For a good powered USB hub, you can look for a 7 port hub with a included AC adapter in dealextreme.com for less than 10 USD. Am using it for almost a year with no problems. I have 2 of those. Almost like spoil and throw. For power for the USB hubs, You can buy the apple iphone charger cos it give 5V 1A in a very low profile plug and you can use a USB to power plug head to your USB hub. I can show u some pics if you need.
Actually, I might end up with a G-11 with gemini...
Nah, travelling with 2 scope and and a GEM? My wife will kill me. I think just the AT65EDQ and a DSLR max... anyway I will be using the DSLR for daytime use.
For a good powered USB hub, you can look for a 7 port hub with a included AC adapter in dealextreme.com for less than 10 USD. Am using it for almost a year with no problems. I have 2 of those. Almost like spoil and throw. For power for the USB hubs, You can buy the apple iphone charger cos it give 5V 1A in a very low profile plug and you can use a USB to power plug head to your USB hub. I can show u some pics if you need.
Actually, I might end up with a G-11 with gemini...
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timatworksg
- Posts: 767
- Joined: Mon Feb 01, 2010 9:42 pm
- Location: Pasir Ris
Nice...a G-11 with gemini will do wonders long term! Yes a mount is expensive but this is a hobby which you can bring through all your life. And you don't really need to sweat unless you Grab and Go or stress out from clouds..haha!
I already got myself a 7port Hub, but just need 4 ports so I can centralize everything! Trying to keep the motto of "less I walk back and forth to grab stuff, the more time I can Ob"..lol!
So far the Nexguide has been pretty workable. No bad reviews so far though. It all boils down to the scope and the cam. A good optic 60mm will pick out lots of nice guide-able stars. A cheap Bino lens will pick out stars but not all...lol! An off axis guider allows one scope use, but you may get flex and sometimes can't pick a star out! Unless you wish to get a OHY CCD...$$$.
I may go the dedicated guider route but pretty happy with my DSI and DIY 50mm scope. Besides, you don't need sharp stars to guide...technology makes things easy!
If you travel light, do the CCD drift method. That way you can spend a short time to set up, a good maybe 30mins or so of CCD drift align (maybe more) than a programmable Remote and then sit back and let the DSLR do the rest. Make sure you bring lots of batteries..haha!
Which reminds me, I do need to get the remote for Bulb and programmable exposures. Set the length, how many and press. Done! Neat!
I already got myself a 7port Hub, but just need 4 ports so I can centralize everything! Trying to keep the motto of "less I walk back and forth to grab stuff, the more time I can Ob"..lol!
So far the Nexguide has been pretty workable. No bad reviews so far though. It all boils down to the scope and the cam. A good optic 60mm will pick out lots of nice guide-able stars. A cheap Bino lens will pick out stars but not all...lol! An off axis guider allows one scope use, but you may get flex and sometimes can't pick a star out! Unless you wish to get a OHY CCD...$$$.
I may go the dedicated guider route but pretty happy with my DSI and DIY 50mm scope. Besides, you don't need sharp stars to guide...technology makes things easy!
If you travel light, do the CCD drift method. That way you can spend a short time to set up, a good maybe 30mins or so of CCD drift align (maybe more) than a programmable Remote and then sit back and let the DSLR do the rest. Make sure you bring lots of batteries..haha!
Which reminds me, I do need to get the remote for Bulb and programmable exposures. Set the length, how many and press. Done! Neat!
My wife never complained about how much time, effort & money I spent on my Astronomy hobby!................suddenly I met her!!!
I am happy with the Gemini GOTO, its a reliable system. It has a milled out casing from a solid block of aluminium that house the electronics, this system is really design to be use in the field. It has pretty good goto accuracy so long as the initial alignment is accurate, and you can improve upon the pointing model by setting your targets as reference points once you have successfully acquired them.Kelvin has the Gemini GOTO system on his GM8, so he may be happy to tell u his experiences.