The advantages at a glance:
- Compact and lightweight (photo)mount, ideal for travelling
- Load capacity of up to 5kg, ideal for small apochromats, such as the William Optics RedCat or Sky-Watcher Evolux
- Built-in battery and external power supply
- Photo tripod attachment also possible
- Servomotors with optical encoders
In their SkyHunter mounts, iOptron has refined and perfected the former “cube” mount and started a trend towards portable camera mounts - lightweight, compact and easy-to-use, yet fitted with lots of technology.
The SkyHunter mounts are available in three versions and can be fully controlled using a smartphone or tablet running iOS or Android. ASCOM and INDI are also supported. Using the built-in WiFi adapter, ASCOM, iOptron Commander or Sky Safari can be used to control the mount. Thanks to its 3/8 connection, the SkyHunter mounts can also sit on any camera tripod if desired.
Built-in optical encoders and four different tracking modes provide precise tracking, that can be used in the northern or southern hemisphere.
Our expert comment:
The DEC motor has no buttons to control it. It can be operated manually using a sliding clutch. This is more precise via mobile phone, hand-held controls or a computer. There are solutions available for Mac, INDI and Raspberry Pi. The ‘Ioptron Commander’ software only provides very limited GoTo functionality. No stellar alignment is possible and target objects are slewed to directly from the park position. Precision is, therefore low but is sufficient for normal camera lenses. As well as the planets, 92 Deep Sky objects are stored. It is not possible to add further objects. SkySafari is a better alternative. This allows stellar alignment to take place and the mount can only start to be called a ‘GoTo mount’ once it has SkySafari. However, set-up can be a little tricky.
You can find tips on this topic at: https://www.ioptron.com/v/ASCOM/Connect_SkyHunter_to_Computer.pdf (page 7) and https://skysafariastronomy.com/support/manual/scope_setup.shtml
(Bernd Gährken)
