Thank you for the video. I purchased this mount along with a Lunt 400mm for the upcoming Eclipse on 08 April 2024. I received my equipment 2 days ago. I've been thinking about getting into Solar Astrophotography (AP) and visual. Thye eclipse gave me a good reason to make his purchase. Now I just need to clouds and upcoming rain to part ways, so I can practice visual and AP.
At the 3:25 mark when the mount is centering the sun, it appears the you captured the ISS transiting the sun. What are the odds of making a solar video and getting a transit? Well done!!!
I was wondering about that. It very well could have been something else. It looked kind of like the ISS but I think when I looked at the ISS solar transit times for my location it didn’t match up. I didn’t look to see when the Chinese space station or other things were transiting the sun. Didn’t appear to be an airplane at any rate.
You think there would be some software update on this model to make it more useful at night by tracking at least the moon . Also that was probably just a normal satellite passing at 3:25 , with well over 11, 000 of them orbiting the earth .
It is basically a software-limited version of their GTI mount but with the solar tracking camera. Yes, it would be nice if it still had all the other functionality.
Hello, I got a question for you. If you mount different solar scopes on the Solar Quest, is it easy get the balance correct, referring to moving the scope fore or aft, to minimize stress of the Solar Quest leveling procedure? I hope my question makes sense.
Collapsed length is 27”, shortest height with legs spread is 25”, tallest height with legs extended is 44” without column. The extension column adds 8.5” so max height would be 52.5” roughly.
Any smallish scope (around or under 10 pounds or so) with a vixen rail should be fine. The tripod is pretty light so you can probably put a somewhat heavier scope on it if you upgraded the tripod.
I got this mount for my solarmaxiii. We will see how it works. I turned on the motor and then turned off. When I try to turn back on, it will not come on. Doing something wrong?
Hi, do you have any problem with this Mount? , I bough one a month ego ,was working pretty good ,but now when go to point the Sun ,is off ,I shut off re start and the same thing ,plus if I want to restart I need to disconnect the battery pack reconnect and restart ok, nice video ,thanks.
It tracks pretty good. I haven’t tried it at high magnification, so not sure on that. It will keep the sun in the field of view for a long time with the tacking camera (it did the entire eclipse without issue, for example) but I’m not sure about how well it would keep a specific prominence in the center of the field of view.
Nice review! I was considering buying this mount to photograph the upcoming eclipse but I don’t think I’ll be doing much solar photography after the eclipse. Are there any other mounts that can be used for solar as well as lunar and night time photography that have the ability to track that don’t require a polar alignment?
The skywatcher AZGTi mount is basically the same but doesn’t have the solar finder and can be used for deep sky and planets. It will track the sun too, but it will be more of a manual effort to get aligned with the sun.
DoesGreat review! Just received my Solar Quest mount. Was wondering however.. The little solar sensor/finder, does it have a thin plastic wrapper on the glass which needs to be removed? As it seems to scratch even with trying to clean it with a microfibre cloth...?
Great video! It's been 8 months since you posted the video. His the mount still working well? How long does a fresh set of batteries last under normal use?
I still use it and it worked great during the eclipse. Not sure how long the batteries last, but it is quite a while. I’ve never had them die as if I’m concerned that they might be running low I just swap them out.
The directions that come with this product are very sketchy at best. Just bought one of these units and very happy with it otherwise. Your review was perfect and to the point thank you!
Should track through setting ok, but rising will be harder since it won’t be able to track it until it finds it which it won’t do until it is risen. It is easy to find the sun at sunrise, so you could probably align it manually. But not sure how long it will take to start tracking it correctly. I’m not sure what it would do with the sun if it was only part way up.
Thank you for the video. I purchased this mount along with a Lunt 400mm for the upcoming Eclipse on 08 April 2024. I received my equipment 2 days ago. I've been thinking about getting into Solar Astrophotography (AP) and visual. Thye eclipse gave me a good reason to make his purchase. Now I just need to clouds and upcoming rain to part ways, so I can practice visual and AP.
It is a great solar tracking mount. I’ll be using this one for visual and using my Seestar to do a Timelapse of the eclipse.
Thanks for the video! Im now considering buying one of these to go with my Lunt 40
Adding this to my list. I’m waiting on shipment of a Lunt 40. This will make things so convenient. Now to find a good camera
MONO I use the ASI 462
I may have to buy this for my Coronado solarmax 40
At the 3:25 mark when the mount is centering the sun, it appears the you captured the ISS transiting the sun. What are the odds of making a solar video and getting a transit? Well done!!!
I was wondering about that. It very well could have been something else. It looked kind of like the ISS but I think when I looked at the ISS solar transit times for my location it didn’t match up. I didn’t look to see when the Chinese space station or other things were transiting the sun. Didn’t appear to be an airplane at any rate.
You think there would be some software update on this model to make it more useful at night by tracking at least the moon . Also that was probably just a normal satellite passing at 3:25 , with well over 11, 000 of them orbiting the earth .
It is basically a software-limited version of their GTI mount but with the solar tracking camera. Yes, it would be nice if it still had all the other functionality.
Hello, I got a question for you. If you mount different solar scopes on the Solar Quest, is it easy get the balance correct, referring to moving the scope fore or aft, to minimize stress of the Solar Quest leveling procedure? I hope my question makes sense.
What is the height adjustable range for the tripod 🤔
Collapsed length is 27”, shortest height with legs spread is 25”, tallest height with legs extended is 44” without column. The extension column adds 8.5” so max height would be 52.5” roughly.
Hi, will this works with the Lunt 60 tilt solar telescope? Eventually with the other mount from skywatcher... thanks!
Any smallish scope (around or under 10 pounds or so) with a vixen rail should be fine. The tripod is pretty light so you can probably put a somewhat heavier scope on it if you upgraded the tripod.
I got this mount for my solarmaxiii. We will see how it works. I turned on the motor and then turned off. When I try to turn back on, it will not come on. Doing something wrong?
Hi, do you have any problem with this Mount? , I bough one a month ego ,was working pretty good ,but now when go to point the Sun ,is off ,I shut off re start and the same thing ,plus if I want to restart I need to disconnect the battery pack reconnect and restart ok, nice video ,thanks.
No problems so far…
Same issue here
I returned and I bought a new one , so far this one is very good.
does it track accurately enough to allow long videos of solar prominences in H alpha? - which require a lot of magnification.
It tracks pretty good. I haven’t tried it at high magnification, so not sure on that. It will keep the sun in the field of view for a long time with the tacking camera (it did the entire eclipse without issue, for example) but I’m not sure about how well it would keep a specific prominence in the center of the field of view.
Nice review! I was considering buying this mount to photograph the upcoming eclipse but I don’t think I’ll be doing much solar photography after the eclipse. Are there any other mounts that can be used for solar as well as lunar and night time photography that have the ability to track that don’t require a polar alignment?
The skywatcher AZGTi mount is basically the same but doesn’t have the solar finder and can be used for deep sky and planets. It will track the sun too, but it will be more of a manual effort to get aligned with the sun.
DoesGreat review!
Just received my Solar Quest mount.
Was wondering however..
The little solar sensor/finder, does it have a thin plastic wrapper on the glass which needs to be removed?
As it seems to scratch even with trying to clean it with a microfibre cloth...?
I think maybe it did. I honestly can’t remember but I think it probably did.
Great video! It's been 8 months since you posted the video. His the mount still working well?
How long does a fresh set of batteries last under normal use?
I still use it and it worked great during the eclipse. Not sure how long the batteries last, but it is quite a while. I’ve never had them die as if I’m concerned that they might be running low I just swap them out.
The directions that come with this product are very sketchy at best. Just bought one of these units and very happy with it otherwise.
Your review was perfect and to the point thank you!
Yeah, directions are limited but there isn’t too much to figure out luckily.
Can that track the sun rising and setting?
Should track through setting ok, but rising will be harder since it won’t be able to track it until it finds it which it won’t do until it is risen. It is easy to find the sun at sunrise, so you could probably align it manually. But not sure how long it will take to start tracking it correctly. I’m not sure what it would do with the sun if it was only part way up.
Since the directions suck presumably because of Chinese translation can you please tell me what the green light is suppose to tell you?
Just power status I guess. Yeah, directions don’t really tell you much.