SingAstro

From what i gathered during the astro trip, I've got some idea regarding the types of mounts for imaging and visual.

I've decided (if i can commit now) to go in the direction of imaging. So how do I start looking for a equatorial mount ? I just started in astronomy so i don't have a clue at all.

It boils down to what telecope and accessories (camera, filter wheel, etc) you are going to use. You need to see how heavy everything is then find a good mount that will handle that weight comfortably.
All this will have to be offset by cost of course. But if you have a tight budget, my advise is to spend as much as you can on the mount. That is 1 of the most important pieces of your equipment if not THE most important. With a good sturdy mount, you can take pictures using ANYTHING that can go on it. You can always upgrade telescope/camera later and its easier to sell those than a mount.

Vincent

Good to hear that after you saw how much stuff Remus and me carried to the trip, it did not deter you from astrophotography but instead made u take the plunge!

Yes, the mount is the most important. Recall how I failed to get the autoguider done. Its all because of the mount.

Good, strong mount with an autoguider port is the way to go. Avoid Chinese clones mount. GPD2 and GM-8 are the cheapest quality mounts.

Meng Lee wrote:Good to hear that after you saw how much stuff Remus and me carried to the trip, it did not deter you from astrophotography but instead made u take the plunge!

Yes, the mount is the most important. Recall how I failed to get the autoguider done. Its all because of the mount.

Good, strong mount with an autoguider port is the way to go. Avoid Chinese clones mount. GPD2 and GM-8 are the cheapest quality mounts.

it's abit ironic considering i have back injury. i cant remember which 1 is u liao.

or take it EASY with Vixen photo guider GP2, also shown on the trip.

http://vixen-europe.com/htm/zubehoer/fo ... guider.htm
(non- english page)

Hi,
IMHO, the mount you need will depend on your load. Below are some mount:
1) Vixen GP Mount (Mount Head Weight: ~4kg) - For load up to 7kg. 5kg max load is prefer for Astrophotography. I think this is the cheapest, good quality mount in the 7kg load class. In fact, with good polar alignment, I'm able to use this mount at max load to take image of 1 min unguided exposure with good result through a 1000mm focal length scope.

2) Vixen GPD Mount (Mount Head Weight: ~8.5kg) - For load up to 10kg, 7kg max load is prefer for Astrophotography. My current mount and with good polar alignment, I'm to use this mount at max load (provided there is no wind :p ) to take image of 2.5 min unguided exposure with good result through a 1000mm focal length scope.

3) GM-8 Mount (Mount Head Weight: ~9.5kg) - For load up to 13kg. A popular mount for Astrophotography, but (base on most review and comments) it seem like the mount performance is not very good "out of the box" as you'll need to do some re-adjustment to the gears before it'll give good result for Astrophotography.

Have a nice day.

The Vixen GP Mounts are very good for entry level astrophotography use. You should benefit from the low periodic errors compared to the China made equivalent.

Regards,
Sam

A limitation with the Vixen mounts is the lack of an autoguider port. At least that is true when I was had 1. That was quite a few years ago. Is it still true? Back then, only mounts with SS2K had autoguider ports.

The Losmandy mounts (G11 and GM8) give relatively good results out of the box for most AP. Unless your image scale is really very small, then various short comings will surface. The dreaded 76 sec error can be guided out at most focal lengths.

Vincent

The GM8 that I use tracked fine and well...sometimes better than the G11...
The Vixen GP/GPD performs well out of the box based on tracking performance, but lack the greater variety in speed choice than the Losmandy mounts, which is a manifest of paying for what you get. With the DD1 and MT1 motor drive system retrofitted, there is no provision for autoguiding except for the usage of the STARBOOK SS system new retrofit, you can. Otherwise the other choice would be SPHINX from Vixen which provides autoguiding, but I have not seen plentiful users out there with successfive guiding performance based on the SPHINX system as yet. Both the GM8 and G11 worked fine out of the box. Not much tweaking except for the occasional maintainence and re-greasing, and then recent change to precision worm gear in the case of G11. Brought the Vixen GP out on overseas Austrlian trips before. Super portable but gotta do manual guiding back then for long exposure DSO stuff. GPD as Weixing has pointed out, will have a heavier load capacity, but is also a heavier mount than the GP. I have all four mounts for you to see if you wish.

i'll ...err...do some reading up first..to save myself from some degree of embarrasment. :oops: