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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.
Here's some photos I collected yesterday (4/28/2010):
I will definitely be using this for Mercury imaging.
Chris Cole
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