New Skywatcher Solarquest mount

[c8er]

Has anyone tried the new Skywatcher Solarquest mount, which claims to find and track the sun automatically? If it works as advertised its inbuilt solar auto-guiding/tracking could make it a useful mount for lightweight solar setups (stated load capacity of 4kgs).

Link here to APM telescope's webpage for the product (Skywatcher USA don't seem to have it listed but Skywatcher Europe, Canada, and Australia do).
https://www.apm-telescopes.de/en/mounts ... nt--tripod

Cheers,
Chris Morriss

[pedro]

It seems interesting for outreach.

more info at:

http://ca.skywatcher.com/product/product/solarquest/

[ffellah]

Interesting that someone thought about it...

Franco

[c8er]

Agena Astro have asked Skywatcher USA if they will be selling it, and told me the answer was, no they won't.

Chris M

[marktownley]

I wonder if it will stop tracking when the sun goes behind a cloud?

[pedro]

I ordered one and I guess I will have it this week. I will keep you guys posted.

For 300 euros it is difficult to ask for more

[marktownley]

That was my thought too Pedro, I quite fancy the idea of something for quick grab and go full disks that I can just carry the scope and mount out in one go (in between the clouds!) - be interesting how you get on Pedro. You don't have clouds where you are very often so give it a try covering the sensor with your hand and see if it stops tracking for me.

The only other thing that concerns me is payload, not sure it would take my 60mm scope with DS 50mm etalons on...

[bart1805]

The answer is in the manual:
2.3 Envioremental Influence
1. Clouds, especially thick or low clouds might reduce the accuracy of auto-pointing. They might also lead to visible drift of the Sun in the eyepiece while the SolarQuest is tracking the Sun.
2. Strong reflected light, which happens to appear within the SolarQuest’s searching path, can terminate the auto-pointing routine unexpectedly.

[marktownley]

Thanks Bart, I thought that might be the case.

[pedro]

The payload is 4Kg, I guess it will hold your 60mm scope Mark

http://www.opticalvision.co.uk/spotting ... mount.html

[pedro]

My solarquest mount arrived today. Unfortunately I will not be able to use it during the next weekend

[pedro]

nice solarquest review

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/3204 ... rst-light/

[pedro]

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=25170&p=226169#p226169
SolarQuest review

[pedro]

Ré, P. (2018). Sky-Watcher SolarQuest Mount. PDF

http://www.astrosurf.com/re/solarquest_ ... 181008.pdf

[skyhawk]

Has been discussed here a lot

IMG_20190312_151617045.jpg (98.5 KiB) Viewed 297 times

IMG_20190314_171135438.jpg (1.98 MiB) Viewed 297 times

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKvRG28dwnc





,..

[skyhawk]

Added remote focus so that everything can be done from indoors now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7VXcG6hmFA

[skyhawk]

Has anyone tried the new Skywatcher Solarquest mount, which claims to find and track the sun automatically? If it works as advertised its inbuilt solar auto-guiding/tracking could make it a useful mount for lightweight solar setups (stated load capacity of 4kgs).

Link here to APM telescope's webpage for the product (Skywatcher USA don't seem to have it listed but Skywatcher Europe, Canada, and Australia do).
https://www.apm-telescopes.de/en/mounts ... nt--tripod

Cheers,
Chris Morriss

If you use the search on the forum it has been discussed a lot