SingAstro

12 years ago, I bought my first GEM - iEQ45 from iOptron. Since then, I have used several iOptron mounts - CEM 25P, CEM 60 and CEM 120. Last Saturday (3 Dec 22), I ordered a HAE 29 - a new strain wave mount from iOptron. It's 3.7kg mount head makes it ideal for me to bring it for travel. Its specification looks impressive:


The items were packed in 3 boxes; mount head, tripod and a pier.




The mount head is packed in a nice bag:




When assembled, the whole setup can be lifted easily with one hand:


This setup is able to hold a Celestron C11 SCT!! The following image is from iOptron.

The full video can be found at: https://www.ioptron.com/v/Images/HAE29_C11.mp4

Looking forward to testing it in the field.

Alfred

HAE29 carrying a Megrez90 effortlessly slew to Saturn. Almost silent slewing.

[youtube]https://youtube.com/shorts/mI3_k-cj4as?feature=share[/youtube]



Will try a 127mm refractor next

The HAE29 handles a 1-m 127mm 7.1kg refractor with ease.

https://youtu.be/cUcTuJiEwdk/



With the mini-pier, there is enough clearance between the refractor and the Fibre Carbon tripod for all movements.

I will start with wide-field photography using this kit:



Will post images when the weather co-operates.

Nice! Ioption has come a long way. I recall very interested in their very first product, the Cube goto but the weight limit was too low due to use of plastic gears then. Now they are challenging the big companies.

If traveling is your main concern, why did you pick this mount over the AM5 or RainbowAstro? The cost?

Warp7 wrote: ↑Mon Dec 19, 2022 12:57 pm If traveling is your main concern, why did you pick this mount over the AM5 or RainbowAstro? The cost?

Hi Warp7,

Rainbow is beyond my budget.

I compared the AM5 vs HEM27 and found HEM27 more favourable. I don't have it now, will post the camparison table later.

I was about to buy the HEM27 in Nov when iOptron advised me that they have rolled out the HAE27 which I naturally went for.

I owned iEQ45, iEq45Pro, Smart EQ, CEM25, CEM60 and CEM120 mounts and used them for many years with astro clubs (rough handling by students).I find the iOptron mounts offer good value for money. Their mounts very reliable and technical support very helpful. I was a beta tester for their CEM60 mounts and got to know the company's culture of continual improvement for their products. In the past 12 years of using the different mounts I encountered few defects, all were resolved very promptly and professionally. In fact I have left a CEM60 and a CEM120 mount under a tarpaulin cover in a garden for 3 years and they are both functioning well.

With such positive experience with iOptron mounts and the AM5 mount offering about similar performance (actual iOptron's HAE29 is marginally better) and both in similar price bracket, my decision to go for the HAE29 was a quite straight forward one.

Alfred

This was the comparison table I used in my evaluation of the 3 brands of strain wave gear mounts:

Thanks for the detailed explanation Alfred. I'm surprised the HEM27 is similar to RainbowAstro in terms of weight.

I have used the HAE29 during the last 3 weeks with C9.25, 127mm refractors, Megrez 90 and Megrez 110 telescopes and also used it during a trip to Vietnam, and got to know it better.

I have successfully used Cartes du Ciel and Stellarium planetarium software to control the HAE29. However I have not been successful in use TheSky 6. Still trying to figure out why the latest TeleAPI plugin from ASCOM is not working.

Today, I received an enquiry from a fellow local astronomer regarding a problem mentioned at the Cloudynights forum. The forum writer suggested an improvement to the HAE's Alt adjustment and locking knob:



I have used several telescopes on this mount and found the Altitude adjustment and tightening knobs adequate to do it's job. The following picture show the solid altitude knobs used by the mount.



I am currently testing it with ASIAir

Alfred