I thought I would give a short review of my new, mostly visual observing setup.  If anybody has seen me out at Big Woods, I am pretty much only taking pictures.  I had longed to do some visual observing for awhile.  The reason being the only mount I have is the Orion Atlas which is always taking images.  So, in celebration of getting one year older, I bought the Ioptron MiniTower altazimuth mount.  I have used it a few times with the Orion 150mm Maksutov and have to say that it is quite the capable setup.  So, I’ll just write down the pros and cons.

PROS

  • weight capacity of 25lbs
  • GPS allows for accurate tracking and goto.  It was able to keep Mars in the eyepiece field at ~300X for 30minutes!
  • a method for allowing easy daytime observing
  • setup takes less than 15minutes (if the GPS gets a fast lock)

CONS

  • the GPS can take some time to get a satellite lock, which is essential for alignment and good tracking (it is not essential for goto; if you can see the object by naked eye, you can adjust the goto manually and all proceeding motor-driven gotos will be decent)
  • after several slews, the altazimuth rotation can tangle your battery power cord around the tripod
  • Ioptron’s QC leaves much to be desired.  As such, I have read reviews of absolute love for this mount and reviews of it being a terrible purchase, nothing in between.  Join the Minitower Yahoo Group if your considering the MiniTower.  So far, I have not encountered any problems with mine.

My favorite experience has been the ability to see objects during the daytime down to magnitude +2.  If anybody hasn’t tried it yet, get out and look at Mars during the day.  The coloring is a more definitive reddish orange (versus a blazing yellow at night) and the polarcaps and surface markings are quite visible.

I will definitely be using this for Mercury imaging.

Chris Cole