Is Goto mount really necassary? If so at what price?

elton · Post by **elton** » Wed Jan 21, 2004 10:02 am

When I started with a C90 on a photo tripod a long time ago, it was very very tough looking for anything dimmer than mag 8, especially with the small 25mm finder. I think this could be discouraging for beginners after spending big bucks on the scope and not seeing much. Thats why I usually recommend starting with binos cos it is easier to learn star hopping through it and it can be more often used (even brought on holidays). When you think you are done with binos, you would probably have seen about half the M list and can then move up to any scope you want, and the binos will still be useful even after you get a scope.

As for GOTO vs nonGOTO, pardon me for throwing another dimension to this discussion. How about non-GOTO DSC equipped scopes? DSCs are small and don't need large batteries but allow you to find faint stuff like GOTO. This is most viable for existing owners of non-goto scopes like GP mounts who want to see more stuff in a night. For beginner scopes, there is no point getting a non-GOTO then upgrading to GOTO or DSC, might as well get a GOTO straight away since they are so cheap.

Anyway the state of the hobby moves on. I won't be surprised that 10 or 20 yrs from now, all motorised mounts sold will be GOTO and over the last couple of years, things look like its going that way. If that happens, it would be difficult to insist on star hopping as a start. In fact, star hopping without GOTO could then be an advanced skill (with lots of bragging rights) and using GOTO a beginner skill.

Post by **weixing** » Wed Jan 21, 2004 10:24 am

Hi,
You consider GOTO cheap??? Hmm... With price of the GOTO, I can get a bigger aperture scope. If your scope are small, even you have the world best GOTO, you won't be able to see much objects.

Anyway, in order for a DSC to work, you still need to have a motor drive and most DSC now is design as a kit, mean that you need to mount it in a odd way on your mount.

By the way, a GOTO or a non-GOTO is not so importance as long as they are cheap (currently, they are not cheap) and allow manual operation. It will be nice if you can key in a coordinate and they will GOTO it and allow you to upload your own customize database to the hand controller. It will be even better if allow you scan the sky manually, using joystick or something like arrow keys... Does current GOTO system got this???

Have a nice day.

Post by **VinSnr** » Wed Jan 21, 2004 11:14 am

You consider GOTO cheap??? Hmm... With price of the GOTO, I can get a bigger aperture scope. If your scope are small, even you have the world best GOTO, you won't be able to see much objects.

Anyway, in order for a DSC to work, you still need to have a motor drive and most DSC now is design as a kit, mean that you need to mount it in a odd way on your mount.

By the way, a GOTO or a non-GOTO is not so importance as long as they are cheap (currently, they are not cheap) and allow manual operation. It will be nice if you can key in a coordinate and they will GOTO it and allow you to upload your own customize database to the hand controller. It will be even better if allow you scan the sky manually, using joystick or something like arrow keys... Does current GOTO system got this???

Have a nice day.

For DSC to work, you don't always need a motor drive. You can push it by hand. That's how sky commander and some other dob drivers work.

For keying in your own coordinates or customize your own database, the Meade Autostar allows that. Using joystick is also possible on the LX-200...it's call Rob Roy's joystick.

As for elton commetning that GOTO is cheap....well, you have to first see how much he spent on his teleport .

harlequin2902 · Post by **harlequin2902** » Wed Jan 21, 2004 1:24 pm

It will be nice if you can key in a coordinate and they will GOTO it and allow you to upload your own customize database to the hand controller. It will be even better if allow you scan the sky manually, using joystick or something like arrow keys... Does current GOTO system got this???

Yes, even the most basic GOTO systems found in the smaller Nexstar scopes have some of those features. (Nexstar 80, Nexstar 114, Nexstar 4) You can key in the RA and DEC co-ordinates and the scope will slew to it. You can also press the arrow keys on the hand paddle to move the scope around (but users hardly do that anyway...waste of battery power !)
Adding some of your favourite objects to a list is also possible on the smaller Nexstar units, but the number of objects you can add on the smaller Nexstar units is very limited compared to the ETX series.

elton · Post by **elton** » Sat Jan 24, 2004 5:00 pm

wah lau, came back from new year and got misunderstood. What I meant was that there is no point buying a beginner (and less so for intermediate and advanced scopes) scope then upgrading to goto / dsc cos of price difference is probably less than the upgrade. Take the example here, the price difference of goto in the C10 is about $300. Any goto or dsc upgrade bought separately will probably cost more. Whether you need goto is the subject of discussion here.