New Telescope Mount is Incredible

Old mount on top, new mount at bottom.

I already wrote about my problems with my old primary telescope mount so I won't get into the specific issues I have been experiencing with that old mount here in this blog entry.  A couple of days ago, I was able to take the new mount out for a spin out under the sky for a bit of visual solar astronomy and I was very pleased. 

This new mount is simply incredible by comparison and is a tremendous upgrade from the old mount!  It worked exactly as it should from start to finish.  There were no unpleasant surprises nor any frustrations with the mount itself whatsoever.  

Whenever I used my old mount, my focus seemed to be more on the mount and its quirkiness rather than the object I was trying to view or image.  These quirky traits could easily be justified as truly being faults and poorly written code.  The term quirkiness is just a bit kinder and gentler.  Really though, that old mount has always had many frustrating faults most of which I discussed previously.  

Today, I was able to focus on the views through the telescope and not fuss around with getting the mount to do what I need it to do and continue doing what I need it to do.  I didn't need to decipher poorly translated text on my hand controller.  I really had no major difficulties at all.  This was a welcome and much needed relief.

It was such an incredible joy to use this new mount today that it made it easy for me to decide to disassemble and convert my old mount to a fully manual mount.  I am now convinced that it would be best to remove the electronics and the motors from the old mount so I can convert it into a fully manual mount.  Maybe, someday, I might install better electronics and better motors in that old mount so it could at least track on its own but, for now, it will be converted into a fully manual mount with slow motion control knobs.  That being said, if I ever needed another heavy duty tracking mount, it would probably be best to keep this old mount as a manual mount and just purchase a new tracking mount.  I am confident now that this old mount will be best as a manual mount.  

The only outward physical differences between my old mount and my new mount are the color and the new mount comes with a separate control box instead of the old hand controller.  My old mount was white while this new mount is black.  The physical housing of the mount is identical.  

The housing of this mount is a design of the old Vixen GPDX which then became the Meade LXD75.  Then this mount became the Bresser EXOS2-GT which Explore Scientific has rebranded as the Explore Scientific EXOS2-GT.  So, the housing of this new mount is the same as those old mounts.  Everything inside is new though and especially the electronics that are housed in the separate small box (seen sitting on the little table in the photo at right.  Other significant improvements include better bearings, stepper motors instead of servo motors and belt drives on each axis.  The biggest difference between the older mounts and the new EXOS2 PMC8 is the integration of an app to be used on wireless devices in place of the old hand controller.  

Rather than controlling the mount by the use of a hand controller, instead, this new mount is controlled by an app on one of my tablets.  I had a choice of using my Windows tablet or one of my Android tablets.  I chose to use my Kindle Fire today.  Next time I might use my Lenovo Android tablet as well as my Windows tablet.  The app has a really nice graphical interface and is easy to navigate.  

This app is much easier to use than the old hand controllers due to its really slick graphical user interface.  All the Messier Objects and Solar System Objects include photos.  The stars are also in a photo depicting the star among all the major stars around it.  There are descriptions of each object as well.  The app also clearly shows whether the object is currently in the sky or below the horizon.  The mount's control box connects to your tablet or computer wirelessly for mount control while observing.  

If you plan to image, the mount also has an advanced ASCOM driver to be used with a serial connection to your computer.  This ASCOM driver will allow you to use many different third party programs to control your mount as well as any other ASCOM compliant components you may have such as focusers, domes, imaging cameras and guide cameras.  

Another pleasant surprise was finding that this mount was shipped with two 11lb counterweights, a polar scope and an AC power supply.  That is about $200 worth of new accessories that did not come with my old EXOS2-GT nor are these items usually included with other mounts.  I was quite relieved to see these item because that meant I wouldn't need to be making additional purchases.    

So far, this mount has been a joy to use making my transition from my old broken mount to this new mount very smooth, easy and actually fun!  I was up and running literally within minutes of carrying the shipping box in my front door.  It was more difficult to move that heavy shipping box than it was to get up and running!