What killed the go-to wars?

Y'all remember those endless go-to threads pro and con? Seems like it was 90% of what there was to read on SAA. So what happened?

1. We got bored and moved on.
2. SAA broke up into a zillion forums and everyone hangs out with like minded folks.
3. The high end GEM makers all have go-to now.
4. The low end GEM makers all have go-to now.
5. The fork mounts all have go-to now.
6. Dob guys, after waging bitter warfare, quietly converted on the sly to the Argo Navis + stellarCAT system when it became reliable and widely available.
7. DSCs gobbled up the residual market leaving very few people out there who aren't computerized one way or another.

Sad part about it is some of us who like push-to have very few choices on the market these days--either older used stuff or Losmandy. I guess Vixen still puts out some push-to mounts.

What else killed the eternal go-to wars?

regards
Greg N

What else killed the eternal go-to wars?

What killed the GOTO wars?

Probably enough people realized that this is just a hobby and whatever it is that the other guy likes to do is fine.

I happen to like Starhopping, it's something that gives me pleasure and something that attracted me in a deep way to this hobby.

But I also understand that if the other guy or gal finds Starhopping to be a chore, an unpleasantness best done quickly, it's fine with me if they spend some money on a Push To or GOTO mount.

The GOTO/PUSHTO has been around long enough that it has become accepted. I am sure similar discussions went on when the first cars started to augment the bicycle. Now days, some people ride to work in a car, some people ride to work on a bicycle and it's more a question of what works for you...

Jon

Greg Nowell said:

Y'all remember those endless go-to threads pro and con? Seems like it was 90% of what there was to read on SAA. So what happened?

1. We got bored and moved on.
2. SAA broke up into a zillion forums and everyone hangs out with like minded folks.
3. The high end GEM makers all have go-to now.
4. The low end GEM makers all have go-to now.
5. The fork mounts all have go-to now.
6. Dob guys, after waging bitter warfare, quietly converted on the sly to the Argo Navis + stellarCAT system when it became reliable and widely available.
7. DSCs gobbled up the residual market leaving very few people out there who aren't computerized one way or another.

Sad part about it is some of us who like push-to have very few choices on the market these days--either older used stuff or Losmandy. I guess Vixen still puts out some push-to mounts.

What else killed the eternal go-to wars?

regards
Greg N

1. I don't think it's a matter of "got tired." I think go-to is now such an obviously integral and affordable and overwhelmingly popular part of the hobby that the "a pipe mount was good enough for pappy, a pipe mount is good enough for me, a pipe mount should be good enough for you" gang threw in the towel. Oh, there are a few curmudgeons still out there, but most just mutter to themselves now and have stopped trying to convert the great unwashed masses who've overwhelmingly accepted go-to. 8)

2. s.a.a. descended into chaos to such an extent that even the trolls--those with an amateur astronomy bent--gave up the ship. One of the favorite subjects of s.a.a. trolls back in the day was GOTO BAD. That is not to say that there were not plenty of outstanding amateurs who sincerely opposed to go-to, just that this was a fave troll.

3. That's not anything new.

4. That's a factor. Not so much that they have it, but that at least some of the low-end mounts like the CG5 are now amazingly accurate and reliable go-to wise.

5. Nuttin' new. I still use LX10s with my undergraduate astronomy students, but it's been a while since you could buy one, and it was the last non-go-to fork.

6. I still see plenty of non-go-to dobs...but, yes, lots of folks are interested in doing things like using a Mallincam or Stellacam to really push back the frontiers with a bigdob, and that requires tracking. Go-to is almost a secondary requirement for these folks.

7. I'm not really sure that DSCs are very popular anymore outside the dobsters (I have a set of Sky Commanders on my dob, and love 'em).



As for the availability of push to mounts, there are still plenty. There are the Vixens (non Sphinx), the EQ4 clones, and the Atlas and Sirius are available without go-to hand controllers (but also without slow motion controls). There are more good no-go-to alt-az mount around now than ever.

Ed, but that should not stop you from enjoying amateur radio... you just have to avoid that "crapola"...

Reason killed it. People finally realized that this is a hobby, and it doesn't matter how the other guy enjoys it.

Besides, I think that it was replaced by the video astronomy vs eyepiece astronomy wars.

Doug
Midway, FL