Hi Mike,
A quick question, before I launch into a fruitless research project.
You mention never having to touch the scope, even to align. Is this because you
have a permanent mount? If not, does the method require a EQ mount, or will a
good Alt AZ work (I have a TTS-160).
Just curious.
Thanks so much!
Diane
On Apr 27, 2020, at 9:50 AM, Michael McDonald <mikemac@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hopefully some of the Losmandy users will chime in but here’s what I thought
of them last year when I was looking for a new mount.
From what I hear, they’re pretty rock solid mounts with a nice mechanical
finish. Fairly straight forward, kind of old school, in design but a
“machinist’s” mount. They used to have the high end enthusiast niche pretty
much to themselves, between the low end mass market mounts and the premium
mounts such as the APs and Paramounts. Their design hasn’t changed much over
the years, which is both a good thing and a bad thing at the same time. Two
things were the deciding factor in my decision to not purchase one: 1) the
controller left me concerned and 2) newer, cheaper competitors had come on
the market.
The controller for the Losmandy’s appears to be made by a third party as an
add-on. It appeared that the SW was being done by a single guy. The
controller was showing its age from a technological perspective. And being
reliant one guy to provide the SW support for a multi thousand dollar
purchase made me nervous. And about that time, rumor had it that he passed
away, throwing more uncertainty into the equation.
And in the meantime, iOptron and Celestron had come out with new mounts for
the enthusiast with more of an eye towards astrophotography. In both cases,
their new mounts were less expensive (cost is a factor to me!) by a thousand
dollars or more depending on the models.
You should be aware that my decision process was driven by my expected use. I
THINK I still own an eye piece on a shelf somewhere. I used it when I first
got started to align the guide scope with the OTA. Never have used it since!
I’m strictly a astrophotography user so my mount needed to support that. I
try to touch the mount as little as possible, relying on technology to
operate it. Often “remotely” from my home office, only out by the mount when
doing a polar alignment or trouble shooting an issue. (That being said, I do
miss sitting by the scope in the middle of the night enjoying the stars and
the quiet. When the weather is nice and the mosquitoes aren’t eating me
alive!)
So that was my thinking. But there are lots of ways to go.
Mike McDonald
mikemac@xxxxxxxxxxx
On Apr 26, 2020, at 10:05 PM, Paul <emailpa@xxxxxxx> wrote:
Lots of good advice in this thread. The challenge and frustration of AP is
apparent.
Various mounts have been mentioned but not Losmandy. Is it not a quality
mount?
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