Computerized Mounts
| In this video I compare various intermediate mounts (advanced mounts) that are on the astrophotography market today. This comparison includes the skywatcher eq6 pro; skywatcher eq6-r pro; atlas eq-g; atlas II eq-g; celestron CGEM II and the Ioptron CEM40. It is my sincere hope that this comparison video helps you to narrow down your list of mounts you want to buy. | In this video I compare seven beginner level telescope mounts for astrophotography in 2020: The SkyWatcher EQM 35, the Ioptron CEM25p, the Celestron Advanced VX (AVX) the Ioptron EQ30, the Meade LX85, the Sky-Watcher HEQ5 pro and the Orion Sirius EQ-G mount. Please understand that this is just my own personal comparison. | In this video I want to show you how I capture Deep Sky Objects, like nebulas and galaxys. It's the most complicated part of astrophotography and you need to prepare your telescope before you can image distant stars... | ||
Equatorial GoTo Mount Telescopes
An equatorial mount is primarily built the same as an altazimuth mount with one axis aligned parallel to the axis of rotation of Earth by pointing it at the North or South celestial pole.
This type of mount moves the telescope in two axes:
- polar axis or right ascension (moves the telescope east-west)
- declination axis (moves the telescope up-down).
With an equatorial mount, polar axis must be parallel with the rotational axis of the Earth. For movement in the polar axis, the motor turns the mount at the same rate as the Earth's rotation. The declination axis is perpendicular to the polar axis. It is used to make adjustments in declination – allows the telescope to be pointed at celestial objects of different declinations. To keep the celestial object centred in the eyepiece, the user needs to turn only the polar axis to track the object.
An equatorial mount allows the telescope to move in an arc that is perfect for tracking stars as they move across the sky.
Compared to an alt-az mount, the movement of an equatorial mount is continuous, which is perfect for:
- taking long exposure images and
- smooth tracking across the sky.
Altazimuth GoTo Mount Telescopes
This type of GoTo mount is straightforward to use and is suitable for beginners. Because of its simple design, it is much cheaper than an equatorial mount, which makes it appealing for amateurs in astronomy.
The most common types of the altazimuth GoTo mount are:
- Altazimuth - Single fork arm
- Altazimuth - Dual fork arm
Altazimuth GoTo mount supports and moves the telescope in two different directions.
Two motors move the telescope separately:
- vertically (up-down)
- and horizontally (left-right).
Each axis is motorized and controlled by a computer.
To track an object, an altazimuth mount requires movement in both directions. Roughly speaking, tracking of an alt-az (altazimuth) mount can be visualized as a "zig-zag" motion. This type of tracking keeps the observed objects centred in the eyepiece. The problem is that all other objects in the field of view will rotate around the center of the field of view — this is called field rotation. Because of that, this type of mount is not very suitable for astrophotography — it is impossible to take long exposure photographs without the effect of field rotation. It is still possible to take beautiful sky images with an altazimuth mount by taking multiple short exposure images and stacking them together with special software.
Altazimuth mounts can also be used for observing terrestrial objects.
