I want to buy a cheap and capable mount with goto. I heard that the iEXOS-100 is pretty good. Do you know anyone that have an ExploreScientific iEXOS-100 PMC-Eight? What opinion do you have on this mount?
What do you think about the ExploreScientific iEXOS-100 PMC-Eight?
I have one, and it's a good little mount all things considered. I thought that the lack of fine azimuth adjustment would be a problem, but the action is smooth enough to make small adjustments just by loosening the bottom bolt. I control it via EKOS through astroberry server, and most of the time it works well. It does have its quirks.
The one thing that I would highly recommend is to make sure you're guiding it - even at 135mm focal length, stars are typically trailed a bit as it has quite a bit of periodic error. Guiding at 0.5 - 1 second with multi-star does a good job of keeping it under control. Plus polar alignment is much easier through the guidescope as opposed to trying to boresight it through the polar alignment "tunnel."
Many of my images on here are done with my iExos-100. I would recommend it, but don't expect too much from it.
The one thing that I would highly recommend is to make sure you're guiding it - even at 135mm focal length, stars are typically trailed a bit as it has quite a bit of periodic error. Guiding at 0.5 - 1 second with multi-star does a good job of keeping it under control. Plus polar alignment is much easier through the guidescope as opposed to trying to boresight it through the polar alignment "tunnel."
Many of my images on here are done with my iExos-100. I would recommend it, but don't expect too much from it.
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Todd Stephens:
I have one, and it's a good little mount all things considered. I thought that the lack of fine azimuth adjustment would be a problem, but the action is smooth enough to make small adjustments just by loosening the bottom bolt. I control it via EKOS through astroberry server, and most of the time it works well. It does have its quirks.
The one thing that I would highly recommend is to make sure you're guiding it - even at 135mm focal length, stars are typically trailed a bit as it has quite a bit of periodic error. Guiding at 0.5 - 1 second with multi-star does a good job of keeping it under control. Plus polar alignment is much easier through the guidescope as opposed to trying to boresight it through the polar alignment "tunnel."
Many of my images on here are done with my iExos-100. I would recommend it, but don't expect too much from it.
Thank you so much mate! Very appreciated!
Todd Stephens:
I have one, and it's a good little mount all things considered. I thought that the lack of fine azimuth adjustment would be a problem, but the action is smooth enough to make small adjustments just by loosening the bottom bolt. I control it via EKOS through astroberry server, and most of the time it works well. It does have its quirks.
The one thing that I would highly recommend is to make sure you're guiding it - even at 135mm focal length, stars are typically trailed a bit as it has quite a bit of periodic error. Guiding at 0.5 - 1 second with multi-star does a good job of keeping it under control. Plus polar alignment is much easier through the guidescope as opposed to trying to boresight it through the polar alignment "tunnel."
Many of my images on here are done with my iExos-100. I would recommend it, but don't expect too much from it.
By the way, you have got a lot of awesome pictures! Great job!
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Todd Stephens:
I have one, and it's a good little mount all things considered. I thought that the lack of fine azimuth adjustment would be a problem, but the action is smooth enough to make small adjustments just by loosening the bottom bolt. I control it via EKOS through astroberry server, and most of the time it works well. It does have its quirks.
The one thing that I would highly recommend is to make sure you're guiding it - even at 135mm focal length, stars are typically trailed a bit as it has quite a bit of periodic error. Guiding at 0.5 - 1 second with multi-star does a good job of keeping it under control. Plus polar alignment is much easier through the guidescope as opposed to trying to boresight it through the polar alignment "tunnel."
Many of my images on here are done with my iExos-100. I would recommend it, but don't expect too much from it.
I noticed that you have photos taken with dslr cameras and normal lenses. How did you manage to connect the camera to the vixen mount?
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Thanks!
I use an arca-swiss pano head bolted to the top of a short vixen plate, and then an arca-swiss plate on the bottom of the lens collar ring. The plate just clamps into the pano head. My camera and guidescope are mounted side-by-side on each end of the arca-swiss plate, 90 degrees from the axis of the plate. Then the pano head is rotated so the plate is pointed at Declination 0 when the mount is in the home position. This lets me slide the setup left and right to balance in one axis, and I can slide the vixen plate forward and back to balance in the other axis.
Hope that makes sense? It’s a lot of connections, but it works fine with my 135mm lens.
I use an arca-swiss pano head bolted to the top of a short vixen plate, and then an arca-swiss plate on the bottom of the lens collar ring. The plate just clamps into the pano head. My camera and guidescope are mounted side-by-side on each end of the arca-swiss plate, 90 degrees from the axis of the plate. Then the pano head is rotated so the plate is pointed at Declination 0 when the mount is in the home position. This lets me slide the setup left and right to balance in one axis, and I can slide the vixen plate forward and back to balance in the other axis.
Hope that makes sense? It’s a lot of connections, but it works fine with my 135mm lens.
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Todd Stephens:
Thanks!
I use an arca-swiss pano head bolted to the top of a short vixen plate, and then an arca-swiss plate on the bottom of the lens collar ring. The plate just clamps into the pano head. My camera and guidescope are mounted side-by-side on each end of the arca-swiss plate, 90 degrees from the axis of the plate. Then the pano head is rotated so the plate is pointed at Declination 0 when the mount is in the home position. This lets me slide the setup left and right to balance in one axis, and I can slide the vixen plate forward and back to balance in the other axis.
Hope that makes sense? It’s a lot of connections, but it works fine with my 135mm lens.
Yes, I understand! Thx so much
I had one and agree with the previous comment about guiding to prevent star trails. It was my first equatorial mount and I learned a lot using it.
The only other caveat with this mount concern’s cable management. I use an ASIAIR Pro and the mounts USB port is very fragile. My cable snagged and broke the USB port off the main board. Explore Scientific covered my first incident under warranty. I had another cable snag and the port broke again so I decided to upgrade to an HEQ5 Pro mount.
I was an early adopter of the mount so it’s possible that they have addressed that weak point by now.
The only other caveat with this mount concern’s cable management. I use an ASIAIR Pro and the mounts USB port is very fragile. My cable snagged and broke the USB port off the main board. Explore Scientific covered my first incident under warranty. I had another cable snag and the port broke again so I decided to upgrade to an HEQ5 Pro mount.
I was an early adopter of the mount so it’s possible that they have addressed that weak point by now.
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Todd Stephens:
Thanks!
I use an arca-swiss pano head bolted to the top of a short vixen plate, and then an arca-swiss plate on the bottom of the lens collar ring. The plate just clamps into the pano head. My camera and guidescope are mounted side-by-side on each end of the arca-swiss plate, 90 degrees from the axis of the plate. Then the pano head is rotated so the plate is pointed at Declination 0 when the mount is in the home position. This lets me slide the setup left and right to balance in one axis, and I can slide the vixen plate forward and back to balance in the other axis.
Hope that makes sense? It’s a lot of connections, but it works fine with my 135mm lens.
What is your average RMS TOT ERROR on the ExploreScientific iEXOS-100 PMC-Eight?