iOPTRON - Astronomy Technology Today

THE LITTLE MOUNT THAT COULD
light. I’m able to one-hand it easily, and
it was mine! Never underestimate the
power of ownership. (Images 2 and 3)
The pier idea is kinda cool, too. The
legs and tension rods of the pier fit into
the tube itself – all neat and tidy – with
a bolt that keeps it all in place. It took me
a moment or two to realize that bolt was
not needed to set up the pier, just to store
it (the old “one piece left over” syndrome).
The first free summer weekend after
I got it, I took it over to a friend’s highly-light-polluted
backyard (there is
nowhere near my apartment to set up
anything) and after much vodka (never
to be done again, as it can make one very
fumble-fingered), I did a rough polar
align with a compass, then a polar align
with the hand control (HC) and polar
scope (more on this later), synched a star,
then did a two-star align, and off I went.
The entire first night, my targets were
always within the field of view of a 14-
mm 82 degree eyepiece. In fact, I
jumped from globular to globular to diffuse
nebula to my personal fave planetary,
M57, so rapidly, that by the end of
the evening, I’d seen more objects in five
hours than in a month of viewing when
I was a kid. It was spectacular!
Plus, as my buddy said, the mount
sounds like something from a Sci-Fi
movie, maybe Aliens – barely audible
when tracking (although, since then, my
ear has become more attuned to it) and
sort of elevator-background noise when
moving from point to point on high/9.
Nothing to wake the baby with, but you
can hear it whirring.
Image 3 - The iOptron iEQ30 was nicely packaged and delivered in excellent condition.
pieces in an Orion soft-sided bag. No big
thing, and it is a coolidea, but not for
me.
The polar scope and HC routine are
great. Very accurate – I will get into it
more in the AP section – but for visual,
with this routine, you’re very good to go,
and it’s simple with no guesswork. The
If you want something
visual that’s not abysmal
Easy-peasy to set up. The pier is simple
to level, though I quickly found that
the store-it-all-inside-the-unit idea is not
conducive to late night packing. Trying
to stuff everything back in the metalpier
tube at 3 a.m. in the cold can be a hassle,
and I don’t like hassle. I now keep the
Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY 31