I took a few pictures of the most common objects and am using a Lumix G85 with a 100-300 (200-600mm eq.) lens. That is around 2.2lbs/1kg (Yes, that is a micro four thirds sensor) together with a Omegon Mount MiniTrack LX3 Essentials. It is a very cheap mount which you have to tention manually and it only runs for 1h at a time, polar alignment is hard due to the cheap “straw” you have to look through.
I really like this hobby and want to upgrade to a newer mount and the Sky-watcher Star Adventurer GTi looks really good for the price. However, I am worried about it’s max payload of just 11lbs/5kg. For me it is more than enough, but I want to know if it will be enough along the way if I upgrade to heavier camera or even a dedicated one with a proper telescope.
Can someone tell me about the Sky-watcher with a heavier load or pro-level gear on a different mount and how heavy it is and if you think this mount will be enouh for it.
As a beginner, it’s perfect for me with a small refractor with ALL the accessories (cooled astro camera, filter wheel, auto focusser, guide scope and camera, ASIAir).
Sure you can spend more now on something fancy like a strain-wave, but those prices are much higher and unless a big heavy scope purchase is imminent, get the GTi, use it with what you have or nab a small refractor, and pick up your next mount on the used market when it’s time for much less. It really makes things easy.
How heavy is your equipment? I have a telescope lying around that is used for observation and not photography, but I could buy an adapter for it. The telescope is 3.5kg and my camera another 500g, so ~4kg in total. Do you think it can handle this? Or does something this heavy cause too much issues?
generally as long as you aren’t pushing near the weight limit of your mount it should track fine for deep sky (personally, my imaging train weights 20 pounds, with a 30 pound class mount). You should be fine at 4kg, but might be pushing it if you decide to get autoguiding in the future
Auto guiding right now! Under 3” of error, though I don’t really know if that’s particularly good or bad. Pretty new at this!
I’m just under 4kg, and it works well. I’m able to get very good balance, which matters, and my focal length isn’t too long at 270mm which is forgiving.
It’s really great having a go-to mount. Saves my neck, especially with the ASIAir and plate solving.
Another question: Do you have the tripod that is optional for an additional 100€? Would this work as a everyday tripod to take somewhere or is it too heavy and bulky?
I did get the tripod because I have no prior experience with tripods and wanted to make my life easy. I’m probably a bad judge as to its usability for other purposes, but it is definitely large. There are much sleeker options for carrying around but this sucker goes from my office to the backyard and occasionally the trunk.