iOptron HAZ71 & Robin Casady DOVE14 Saddle

I’ve had this HAZ71 since August 2025. The mount is fully functional and works as designed. You’ll notice that I’ve added some Velcro to the mount head and hand controller. I found this much more convenient than using the little strap on the hand controller while observing/imaging.  I’m selling because I’ve moved to the ZWO AM7.  When I sell equipment, I always want to make sure the buyer knows what they’re getting, so I want to share my thoughts on the mount.

Pros:

This mount easily handled everything I put on it, including an Askar 185mm APO and Celestron C11. Damping time with the Askar 185mm APO at 370x was about 2-3 seconds when observing at 370x. When using smaller/lighter OTAs (Askar V, C8, Askar 140), the HAZ71 is like a rock! The mount tracks well enough to keep Jupiter within the frame of ASI678MC for at least 2 minutes when imaging Jupiter with the Askar 185 and 3x Barlow. It works great for planetary imaging.

If you want to be up and running in minutes, this mount delivers. I bought this mount primarily to use with my OTAs and a Pegasus SmartEye. I did keep the HAZ71 on the tripod in my garage. I could carry it out, mount the OTA, and have it aligned within 5 minutes. Often, it was a few degrees off for when it would slew to the alignment object but once centered, go to accuracy in the region was very good if the mount was level. The mount would always put the object within the SmartEye’s fov. If slewing a long distance, I found it best to first select a bright star near my target and slew to that star. The mount would always put that star in the fov of a 40mm eyepiece with the Askar 185. After centering the star and syncing the mount, the mount would put any object within the SmartEye fov. The mount would then easily keep any object centered in the fov for hours.

If you want to run without any computers, power cords, or smartphone apps, this mount is a good choice. I didn’t time it, but I estimate the battery life carrying the Askar 185 to be around 3 hours. Of course, you can run all night with the ac adapter.

Using the SmartEye with it’s automatic processing, the mount works perfectly. I found that I often wanted to work on the subs myself and take over 30 minutes worth. For that to work, I had to add a derotator to eliminate field rotated walking noise. Setup with the derotator does require the use of a tablet or laptop. That said, I’ve produced some images that made me very happy with the combination. I included a few examples taken using this mount, an Askar 185mm APO with 0.8x focal reducer, the Wanderer Derotator, and an ASI2400MC camera (all obviously not included in this sale).

In summary: if you want a very high capacity:weight ratio, very quick setup, accurate go to operation, freedom from computers/apps, and the ability to do short (=<45 second) exposure astrophotography, this is a fantastic mount.

Cons:

iOptron’s Commander Lite software is not very good. If you want something with fancy computer control like ZWO offers with their mounts, you’ll have to use 3rd party software. iOptron says the HAZ series is compatible with SkySafari but I’ve never tried it.

If you want to do long exposure astrophotography, this isn’t the mount for you. I had assumed that I could use a derotator and take exposures that were at least 3 minutes long as has been possible for quite some time with traditional gear driven alt az mounts and direct drive alt az mounts. After adding the derotator and struggling to get good looking stars with exposures >45 seconds (I’d say 50% of subs were trash at 60 seconds), I contacted iOptron to figure out the issue. It turns out that the nature of strain wave gears induces error that requires guiding.  Along those lines, iOptron has made no provision for autoguiding with this mount. 

If you’ve read this far and are still reading, this might just be the mount for you. I want to be sure the buyer knows what they are getting and is happy with the purchase. So, feel free to ask questions!  I’ll be happy to share more images taken from the mount, including unprocessed subs or any impressions I’ve formed using the mount.

Since I was carrying such a large OTA, I felt that the stock saddle was a bit undersized. I read that switching to a larger saddle on the HAZ series improves stability with long refractors. So, I purchased a used Robin Casady DOVE14 saddle and had a local machine shop fit it to the HAZ71. With the existing holes, I could not center it perfectly and I had them machine it so that it can be mounted slightly offset in both directions. This worked perfectly for use with Askar APOs because they are front heavy and the dovetail plate ends up way off center if you’re trying to balance the OTA without moving the mounting rings from the factory position.  I did find that it significantly improved the mount’s performance with both the Askar 140 and 185. 

The HAZ71 lists for $4149 new and I have right at $350 in the larger saddle with the cost of the machine work.  That’s a total new price of $4499.

I’m asking $3850, which includes PayPay fees and shipping.