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Posts Tagged 'skywatcher'
WAVE-Mounts from Skywatcher with Strain Wave Gear
August 21 2024, Stefan Taube
The new WAVE mounts from Skywatcher incorporate industry standard strainwave gears. This gear design impresses with its excellent load capacity to weight ratio, its compact design and its favorable price.
Skywatcher offers two models:
- WAVE-100i Strainwave GoTo Wi-Fi with 10 kilograms load capacity
- WAVE-150i Strainwave GoTo Wi-Fi with a load capacity of 15 kilograms
Mounts with strain wave gears do not require counterweights. This makes them very portable and also suitable for travelling. An optional counterweight is available for the two new models, which can be used to increase the load capacity even further. This considerably extends the range of optics and applications that can be used.
The new tripod for these mounts is also noteworthy. The WAVE Carbon tripod can also be used with the WAVE SA column extension for the popular Star Adventurer series of photo mounts.
Both models of the new WAVE mounts are available with or without tripod and can be found here in our shop.
EQ-AL55i Pro: New mount for small optics and DSLR cameras from Skywatcher
April 22 2024, Stefan Taube
The Skywatcher brand has been offering small mounts for travelling and photography with camera lenses for years under the name Star Adventurer.
The technology and design of these successful models can be found again in a new mount that has a load capacity of 10 kilograms and can therefore also carry somewhat larger optics: Skywatcher mount EQ-AL55i Pro SynScan GoTo WiFi
This versatile mount is equipped with an adjustable counterweight bar. This allows use at all latitudes from 0° to 90° and avoids the problems that arise with many mounts outside our mid-latitudes. It is an ideal travelling mount!
The EQ-AL55i is fully controlled with a smartphone via the built-in Wi-Fi module and the free SynScan Pro app. This app is available for iOS and Android.
You can find more information about this mount here in the shop.
Well-proven 10-inch Dobsonian from Skywatcher now available in an inexpensive set
July 25 2023, Stefan Taube
For some years now, the manufacturer Skywatcher has been featuring the Skyliner Classic series: well-proven and highly popular telescopes in the Dobsonian design. They offer great optical performance for very little money because the substructure, affectionately known as a rocker box, is relatively inexpensive.
We have put together the Skyliner Classic Dobsonian Set for you, which is even more inexpensive! The set comprises:
- Skywatcher Dobson Telescope N 254/1200 Pyrex Skyliner Classic Dobson
- Skywatcher eyepiece Nirvana ES UWA 82° 16mm 1.25″
- Skywatcher eyepiece Nirvana ES UWA 82° 7mm 1.25″
- Omegon Premium Moon Filter 1.25″
- Omegon Newton Collimation Laser 1.25″ with inspection window
You get the largest telescope in the series, the 10-inch version, which features a 254 millimetre primary mirror, additional eyepieces, a filter for observing the Moon, and a practical laser to quickly collimate the telescope optics – and you save €108.85 on the cost of the individual parts!
All Skyliner Classic Dobsonians impress not only with their optics, but also with their standard equipment: two eyepieces, finderscope, eyepiece holder, carrying handle, and ascension axis tension fine adjustment are standard on all models!
More information, prices and options for ordering for all models can be found here in our shop!
New: CQ350 Skywatcher mount with high load capacity!
February 9 2023, Stefan Taube
In the CQ350, Skywatcher has created a heavy mount, which is still suitable for mobile astronomy. Thanks to its load capacity, it sits between the smaller EQ6-R and the larger EQ8-R.
The CQ350 is equally well suited for astrophotography in your own garden as it is for observatories; and thus represents an excellent compromise between mobile and stationary use.
Summary of key features:
- Load capacity up to 35 kilograms
- State-of-the-art computer controls (GoTo) with SynScan V.5 hand control box
- Integrated database containing 42,900 objects
- Toothed belt drive for smooth operation without gear backlash
- Dual dovetail clamp to accommodate all popular telescopes
This quietly operated mount is moved using belt drives with stepper motors in both axes (Encoder resolution: 55,193,600 counts/rev, 0.023 arcseconds). Its quiet operation and high slewing speed makes this mount even appeal to observatories with public guided tours.
The mount comes with counterweights and a tripod. However, the mount can also be purchased without a tripod if you want to use it in a fixed position in an observatory. You can find both versions here in our shop.
New mount from Skywatcher: the AZ-GTiX WiFi
December 5 2022, Stefan Taube
Skywatcher is introducing a new mount from the AZ-GTi series. These altazimuth mounts feature:
- Low weight and compact design
- Motorisation with computer control (GoTo)
- Integrated WLAN to connect to a smartphone or tablet
The new version, the AZ-GTiX WiFi, offers a higher load capacity and two saddle plates for mounting two instruments, for example a telescope and a camera, side-by-side.
The AZ-GTiX mount can be used with any sufficiently-large camera tripod with a 3/8-inch photo thread. Skywatcher also offers the mount in a set with a tripod: AZ-GTiX WiFi with tripod.
The AZ-GTiX mount has a built-in WLAN module so you can control it wirelessly using a smartphone or tablet. All you need to do is install the free SynScan app for iOS or Android. Using its servo motors, the mount slews the telescope to any of the 10,000 celestial objects that you can select via the app.
All mounts in the AZ-GTi series can be found here in our shop.
The new apos from Skywatcher: Evolux 62ED and Evolux 82ED
May 5 2022, Stefan Taube
The trend towards astrophotography with small but high-quality refractors is continuing. These lightweight apos do not need an expensive mount, are easy to transport and provide fantastic images of wide areas of the night sky.
With the new Evolux series, Skywatcher offers two new models in this segment:
Compact and proficient: the Skywatcher Apochromatic Refractor AP 62/400 Evolux 62ED
Evolux telescopes are perfect wide-field instruments and are therefore ideal for observing and photographing large areas of the night sky. The doublet lens consists of a combination of optical glass, including a low-dispersion ED glass element, which provides sharp images of stars with high contrast and no visible chromatic aberration.
All lens elements are coated with Skywatcher’s sophisticated metallic high-transmission coating (MHTC™), one of the highest quality multilayer coatings in its class, which allows up to 99.5% light transmission.
Evolux telescopes are supplied in a foam-lined aluminium case and are equipped with a 2.4″ dual-speed rack and pinion focuser, together with a tube clamp with a Vixen-style prism rail. The dew shield can be retracted for easy transportation.
The appropriate field flattener should be used for photography: Flattener 0.9x Evolux-62ED and Flattener 0.9x Evolux-82ED. These optical aids ensure sharp star images even at the edges of the field of view and reduce the focal length, so that the Evolux becomes a fast and corrected telescope for astrophotography.
The Skywatcher Heritage FlexTube telescope, now available as GTi
September 22 2021, Stefan Taube
The Heritage FlexTube telescope is a much-loved Dobsonian with a table-top tripod. Its very compact mount is easier to transport due to a collapsible upper part – it doesn’t get more compact!
The manufacturer Skywatcher now offers this handy Dobsonian with computerised controls: the Heritage FlexTube Virtuoso GTi telescope
Skywatcher Dobson N 150/750 Heritage FlexTube Virtuoso GTi telescope
The Virtuoso GTi’s mount hones in on selected objects and follows their path across the sky, so that they are always visible in the eyepiece.
The mount also has its own WiFi to which your smartphone can connect. Using the free SynScan app for iOS and Android, you can then set up and control your mount. Once the app is installed on your smartphone, you no longer need an internet connection to control the mount.
Manual controls are also not required and are therefore not included.
The motorised version of the Dobsonian is also very compact and easy to transport.
As with the non-motorised version, the Virtuoso GTi telescope also uses tried and tested 150/750 Newtonian optics. This 6-incher with a convenient aperture ratio reveals faint nebulae in the night sky, such as the famous Orion Nebula, the Messier 13 globular cluster or the Andromeda Galaxy, 2.5 million light years away.
By the way, you can also mount the Heritage FlexTube Virtuoso GTi on a camera tripod or an astronomical tripod with a photo thread, such as the Skywatcher tripod with 3/8″ mounting bolt.
New: Skywatcher Star Adventurer with Wi-Fi
October 16 2020, Stefan Taube
The manufacturer Skywatcher has now equipped its Star Adventurer with Wi-Fi. This means that the popular photographic mount can now be controlled conveniently and most importantly, remotely, using a free app.
The set also includes a polar wedge, a counterweight and an L-bracket.
What hasn’t changed is the proven concept: the Star Adventurer allows the tracking of the night sky with a camera. In this way, long-exposure images of the night sky can be taken without a telescope, simply through the camera lens. Such photographic mounts are enjoying ever-increasing popularity. The Star Adventurer is one of the larger models with a load capacity of five kilograms.
We offer the Star Adventurer as a photographic set with practical accessories, or in the standard configuration . All you need is a photographic tripod and of course a camera. However Skywatcher itself also offers a tripod for the Star Adventurer.
As far as the camera is concerned, we offer a wide range of DSLR cameras which are specially modified for astrophotography.
Skywatcher EQ8-R: The new observatory class mount!
February 5 2020, Stefan Taube
Skywatcher’s EQ8 series astronomical mounts are the most capable models from this manufacturer. They can carry telescopes and accessories weighing up to 50 kilograms! This makes EQ8 mounts particularly interesting for observatories – no matter whether garden, school or club observatories.
Skywatcher EQ8-R mount with tripod
Skywatcher has updated its EQ8 mount and now offers it in two versions: the EQ8-R and EQ8-RH mounts. The EQ8-RH version has a high-resolution Renishaw encoder on the right ascension axis. This eliminates the need for tracking control during astrophotography.
Both versions of the EQ8-R mount come supplied with the Skywatcher’s proven SynScan control.
These latest EQ8 models offer the following improvements as compared to the initial version:
- Internal cable routing prevents cable clutter and cable damage
- More connection options for accessories: 4x USB, 3x 12 volt outputs
- Optimized positioning of the drive motors for improved balance
- Improved clutches on the axes for a more secure grip
- Improved clamping screws on the prism clamp for greater comfort and greater clamping force
- Belt drive on the declination axis for smoother running
Skywatcher offers a special tripod for its EQ8 mount. The tripod also allows portable use of the mount, but does require two people for setting it up.
If you want to set up the mount on a fixed pier, you can simply order the EQ8 mount without the tripod. The tripod may also be ordered at a later date. All versions of the EQ8 mount can be found here at Astroshop.
With its EQ8-R, Skywatcher offers a modern mount for large OTAs – which the latest stage of development has made almost perfect!
New Starquest Telescope from Skywatcher
October 30 2019, Stefan Taube
Skywatcher’s new Starquest telescopes combine small optics with a lightweight equatorial mount in a new design. A lightweight aluminium tripod with a storage shelf is also included, the perfect telescope for easy transportation and a quick view of the sky.
Skywatcher Newton 130/650 Starquest EQ
The high-quality Starquest mount contains a worm gear with 122 teeth on each axis. This ensures high stability and sensitive manual tracking with the easy-to-use flexible shafts – even beginners can easily cope.
The correct telescope to choose from depends on your preferred application:
- The refractor AC 102/500 shows large sections of the sky. Large objects such as nebulae, open star clusters or comets can be observed with it.
- The Maksutov MC 102/1300 is particularly compact. Despite its small size, this telescope has a very long focal length. It allows high levels of magnification, and is a real specialist for the Moon and planets – but also planetary nebulae and double stars can easily be observed with the Maksutov. With this selection of potential objects and the rear-facing lens position, the Maksutov is ideal for the balcony observatory in light-polluted cities. Another advantage is the closed optical tube: the mirror cannot become contaminated.
- The Newton 130/650 telescope is the best compromise. It has the widest aperture and therefore collects most light. Even faint nebulae can still be identified. The Newton telescope is also particularly inexpensive due to its design. However the relatively long tube has the greatest lever effect on the mount.
More information and all the models can be found here in Astroshop.