Goto mount with manual control?Posted By Don McDonald |
As much as I enjoy waltzing the night away with my big Dob, I am getting the bug to try a goto scope. After watching a friend go through months of frustration with an ETX 125, I have one primary requirement; the mount must be usable in manual mode if no power is available. And this doesn't mean untightening the clutches, it means access to the gearing with a good old fasioned plastic knob. I am disappointed that the current generation of goto equatorials have no manual control at all. I find this truly stupid. Older goto equatorials did have facility for manual control. Isn't that the whole point in having a GEM?
After a farily intensive survey of the major dealers and a long hunt through Astromart, I think I am hooped. Mounts like the iOptron cube and all the various Meade, Celestron and Orion fork mounts are strictly power only. I really like the Borg single arm mount. It has the potential to be motorized but is too small for my application. Does anybody know of anything out there that could be used goto and manual? Maybe a bunch of ATM'ers should get together and invent it for us.
After a farily intensive survey of the major dealers and a long hunt through Astromart, I think I am hooped. Mounts like the iOptron cube and all the various Meade, Celestron and Orion fork mounts are strictly power only. I really like the Borg single arm mount. It has the potential to be motorized but is too small for my application. Does anybody know of anything out there that could be used goto and manual? Maybe a bunch of ATM'ers should get together and invent it for us.
