I wish there were more reviews out there on actual usage and compatibilities. On paper it looks awesome! But it is such an expensive purchase, one wants to be very sure of the value and performance.
The accuracy of tracking depends on a lot of things, including the quality of your polar alignment as well as the weight being lifted compared to the weight rating of the mount. On its own the 8" SCT would not be a problem in terms of weight. However, harmonic mounts appear to be susceptible to periodic error. I would suggest using an autoguider.
Not quite - the Earth rotates around what's called the true north or south pole. Depending on where you are on the Earth, your compass can be a good - or not-so-good - indicator or what north or south is. There are lots of ways of aligning your mount to true north or south, such as PoleMaster or iPolar electronic ways, SharpCap or any number of software - which needs a camera and computer, a couple of different methods included in the hand controller for a go-to mount, or the old tried-and-tested drift alignment method.
This is amazing how small it is. Not much difference to something like a star adventurer in size but a world of difference in capability.
You betcha. A Star Adventurer only has one axis!
I wish there were more reviews out there on actual usage and compatibilities. On paper it looks awesome! But it is such an expensive purchase, one wants to be very sure of the value and performance.
Stay tuned. This is a difficult thing to do for a number of reasons, but we're hoping to get one done.
hopefully you can in a future video post how well the encoders perform while imaging and not guiding
can we use a 8 inch Edge without autoguiding and without counter weights? will it track accurately good enough for imaging deepsky?
The accuracy of tracking depends on a lot of things, including the quality of your polar alignment as well as the weight being lifted compared to the weight rating of the mount. On its own the 8" SCT would not be a problem in terms of weight. However, harmonic mounts appear to be susceptible to periodic error. I would suggest using an autoguider.
Great vid. Does the earth rotate around the magnetic north south for polar alignment with a good common compass?
Not quite - the Earth rotates around what's called the true north or south pole. Depending on where you are on the Earth, your compass can be a good - or not-so-good - indicator or what north or south is.
There are lots of ways of aligning your mount to true north or south, such as PoleMaster or iPolar electronic ways, SharpCap or any number of software - which needs a camera and computer, a couple of different methods included in the hand controller for a go-to mount, or the old tried-and-tested drift alignment method.
Cost? Shouldn’t you tell us the cost as part of the review?
About $5500 !
Cool mounts, but ungodly expensive for what it is.