Help need on EQ mounts

[Davegn]

Hi all,

I have a newbie qns or EQ mounts and GOTO mounts.

As i m new to EQ mounts, and I my intending to upgrade to an Omni XLT 102 with a (CG-4) mount.

How m I going to do an alignment if I m not able to view Polaris from my site.
Are there any other forms of alignment?

I have heard that an EQ mounts are useless in Singapore. Yet I also have heard that is very useful.

Or would I be better for a Nexstar 4se with a go to mount? It could be a real turn off if the batteries die in a middle of a viewing session.

Thanks in adv for all your help.

[Gary]

Hi Davegn. Welcome to the forum.

I think the most important question you need to ask yourself why do you need a tracking mount. Is it mainly/only for visual purpose or astrophotography or a bit of both. And if it is a bit of both, which bit of both you prefer more.

Once you have answer that question honestly, you can justify the cost and effort and compromises you have to and willing to make to accomplish those objectives.

That is the main reason why you hear conflicting opinions of EQ mounts being useless and very useful.

EQ mount may be useful to a person who is very interested, committed and passionate about getting the maximum enjoyment out of Astrophotography. Other types of tracking mounts may introduce issues that makes astrophotography slightly more of a hassle or requires more software post processing. Those who are keen to load a lot equipment on a single mount will find heavy duty EQ mount most useful. A very good EQ setup can be enjoyed visually too.

Thus the value of EQ can be maximised if you have a semi-permanent/permanent set up at home/office with a good view of the sky (e.g. balcony, backyard, rooftop, ..etc). Better still if you have private transport and you can bring this setup to clear skies overseas. Since the setup, aligning and tear up of an EQ system is arguably the most time consuming compared to az manual/az-GOTO setups, the best way to realise the EQ value is to go dark skies where you may have potentially hours of clear sky which can then justify the time-consuming parts.

EQ mount may be useless to a person who is more interested in quick visual astronomy or into grab-and-go astronomy where weight, portability and reaction to sudden clear patches of clear sky is very important. If they can bear with the weight, perhaps include a non-EQ az tracking mount so the objects can stay in the view longer compared to a fully manual system. For the visual-only people who are always suffering from aperture fever, the EQ mount may be useless because it is very troublesome to mount a big telescope (e.g. 18 inch and above) on it. In that case, a dobsonian system will be the preferred choice.

If you cannot do Polar alignment, you can do drift alignment. Or if you are not too particular about tracking accuracy over very long periods of time (e.g. for long-exposure astrophotography), just using a compass, level bubble and setting the approximate lattitude degree will do. Just make sure the mount you are getting can go 0 degrees lattitude or use other accessories to make that possible.

Some systems like the Meade's Lightswitch (LS) and Celestron's Sky Prodigy offers almost idiot-proof setup system. Just switch on the power and they will align automatically. The accuracy can then be further improved by the user centering various objects in the sky.

As for batteries, you just need to make sure you know the specs and charge it accordingly before use. Power consumption can be calculated base on the specs of the mount, scope and other accessories you may be using. Sometimes a relatively small portable battery unit may be all you need for the whole night.

For me personally, once I realised I am much more into visual and sidewalk astronomy, most the tracking mounts are "useless" to me. For my past few trips in my friend's Johor house with a nice frontyard, I was still using a manual AZ mount throughout all the nights. Even though the CG5 with dual-axis motor and controller is already nicely setup (minus the counterweight) in the living room just a few meters away. Still, I felt "lazy" to use it due to my preference of visually enjoying the night sky and the thrill of manually finding the objects without worrying about batteries running out or tripping over wires or forgetting to lock some clutches. Of course, I have zero nice astro photographs to show others after the trip. But I have absolutely no regrets learning the concepts of an EQ mount through actual hands-on even though I don't use mine frequently. It makes you appreciate/enjoy the brilliancy of its invention and inventor and human being's determination and resourcefulness to solve such tracking issues.

Hope this helps and whatever your final decision, remember to have lots of fun enjoying the sky and the learning process.

[Davegn]

Hi gary. Thanks for your answer. That really helpful.
I have been using az mounts for some time now.

I do intend to do astrophotography. And want an eq mount so that i could be able to do a piggybag with my current scope and my cam.
I dont have my own transport but i would not mind the weight or the setting up time.

Yet again i shall do my research again to see which to the choices would be better for me.
Once again thanks gray.

[Gary]

No worries! Feel free to ask the EQ mounts questions at the Equipment subforum. The more details you can offer, the more the EQ experts here will be able to help you.

For example:

- Which EQ mounts you have used and find them not suitable in what areas for your AP expectations.
- Which scope and camera you will be using.
- What is your budget for this mount.
- Do you prefer to do lunar/planetary imaging or DSOs or both. This may change your decision for your choice of scope and thus the mount too.
- Unless you are setting up an observatory, there is usually a maximum tolerable weight for most people. Else, we may advise you to get the heaviest duty money can buy and use that one for the rest of your AP career. LOL.

The more detail we can define our problems, the closer we are to finding the exact solutions.