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Skywatcher SolarQuest Automatic GOTO & Tracking Mount Head Only

Skywatcher SolarQuest Automatic GOTO & Tracking Mount Head Only
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Price:  £269.00(Inc. 20% VAT)
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Model:  20322
Brand:  Skywatcher

Availability  

  

Generally In Stock, Please Confirm Before Ordering



2 Year Warranty On All New Items
(Excluding Batteries & Globes)


  (1 Review)

SOLARQUEST MOUNT HEAD ONLY: Can be fitted to any tripod with 3/8" tripod thread

Solar observing has just been made incredibly easy!

Sky-Watcher's clever and technologically innovative SolarQuest™ mount is extremely user-friendly and provides a safe experience for automatically locating and observing the sun with your solar telescope.

Just roughly level the tripod and point your solar telescope anywhere to the left of the sun and let Sky-Watcher's revolutionary HelioFind™ Solar Alignment Technology automatically do the rest!! At the single push of a button, the telescope will be auto-levelled and the mount via GPS data fixing will calculate the altitude and azimuth of the sun based on the time and location. The telescope will then be pointed to the correct altitude and the mount will slew clockwise hunting for the sun. The Solar Sensor will detect the sun and lock onto it, and will silently track and keep it within the eyepiece's field of view indefinitely.

The SolarQuest™ mount can be used by educational establishments, beginners and experienced observers alike. When mated with your solar telescope it is a great companion when observing sunspots, solar eclipses, solar surface details & the transit of inner planets across the sun.

The SolarQuest™ mount is lightweight and portable, quiet in operation, has a payload capacity of up to 4kg and accepts telescopes with standard 45mm Dovetail Bars.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: The SolarQuest™ mount is designed to be used with solar telescopes only. Do not point any other type of optical device at the Sun. Looking directly at the Sun without verified-safe, professionally made solar filtering will cause immediate and irreversible damage to the eyes (blindness), damage to the telescope, and will be a fire risk.

MAIN FEATURES:

HelioFind™ Solar Alignment Technology: Solar Sensor with 4 x Photodiodes & built-in GPS data fixing to obtain time & location to calculate the sun's azimuth and altitude
Telescope Auto-levelling feature with the help of the built-in tilt sensor (3 x axis accelerometer in the sensor block).
Auto drift correction through feedback from Solar Sensor
Auto Pointing Offset Correcting Feature
8-Way Sliding Switch for Centring Sun in Field of View
Tracking Rates: Alignment-Free Solar Tracking
Pointing Accuracy: Up to 3 arc-minute (after customer calibration)
Resolution: 2073600 Counts/Rev., 0.625 arc-second
Slewing Speeds: 16x & 1200x
Tracking Mode: Dual Axis Tracking
Motor: DC Servo Motor, Gear Ratio 6480
Payload Capacity: 4kg
45mm Sky-Watcher/Vixen type dovetail saddle
3/8" Tripod Screw Fitting
Adjustable Aluminium Tripod with Accessory Tray
Mount Head Weight: 1.3kg
Low Power Consumption
Power Requirement: 8 AA Size Batteries (not supplied) or External Power Supply DC 12V, Tip Positive (via adaptor panel).

“The SolarQuest is elegant in its simplicity and works like a dream. For one of our review tests we fitted a small, white light-filtered telescope onto the mount head, powered the SolarQuest mount and waited for it to point at the Sun. Once done, we fine-tuned the Sun’s position via a high frame-rate camera and an on-screen reticule. We checked the alignment at regular intervals and, impressively, over a five-hour period the Sun’s disc remained within the central part of the reticule.” BBC SKY AT NIGHT MAGAZINE

Average Rating (1 Review):  
Write a Review and share your opinions!

Rating:  
One of the best bits of astro gear I've bought!
10 November 2020  | 

This makes solar observation so much easier. You don't need to look anywhere near the sun to find it - the mount does that for you. Once found it tracks the sun and keeps it centered. It means you can go inside, come back much later and the sun is still in the field of view. I put the dewcap on in the meantime to keep the scope cool. The slow motion controls make it easy to move to different parts of the sun's disk.

The maximum carrying capacity is given as 4kgs. However, on Skywatcher's US website it's given as 11lbs, which is 5 kilos. This is plenty for my 72mm refractor, but I'd like to see Skywatcher bring out a heavier version for bigger scopes.

Was this helpful to you?  Yes  /  No

2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Some items that are showing as in stock are in stock at our holding warehouses, not at the shop. To double check the stock levels at the shop, please contact us on 01909774369 or sales@rothervalleyoptics.co.uk.

The delivery times for most items is 1 - 2 days but again, please double check stock levels on important orders before placing an order via the website.

The delivery costs for courier next day are for mainland UK only. If you live in the Scottish Highlands/Islands, Channel Islands or Northern Ireland, then a shipping surchage will apply. please contact us for prices. Smaller items can still go 1st class via Royal Mail.

Please note that if you are wanting to take advantage of our Saturday and Sunday timed services or next day pre 12 or pre 10:30 services, you MUST check that the stock is here at the shop before placing orders. Also, orders using the Saturday and Sunday services must be placed before 1pm the previous working day. Also, please remember to check that the stock is here at the shop before placing orders. If the stock is not at the shop, we won't be able to ship on any of the timed services. 

Please note International customers will need to contact us for a shipping price prior to ordering via the website. We don't ship all items internationally. It is at our discretion what we ship outside of the UK. This all depends on the size and weight of the items. Please get in touch with us for any postage costs. Please note we do NOT ship telescopes or heavy items outside of the UK. This is due to massive postage costs and problems regarding returns.

If you have any questions regarding stock levels or delivery, please get in touch.

Zygo Interferometer Testing For ED Refractor Telescopes!

We are extremely pleased to announce our Zygo Interferometer is now installed and ready for use! Our experienced staff can test refractor lenses up to 120mm aperture and provide a comprehensive 2 page report showing the optical quality and Strehl ratio, plus much more information. We are using the very latest Zygo MX software to provide a more detailed report compared to other standard reports.

 

The interferometer is essentially a measuring instrument. Within the interferometer is a calibrated laser that is pointed through the optical test surface, then onto a high quality reference sphere, then back through the test subject then to an internal camera which gives us the measurement on the screen. From this, we can adjust the position of the test optic and the reference sphere to obtain a perfectly calibrated system. The more central the laser to the test optic and then on return, the better and more accurate reading and measurement we can take. This takes a lot of adjustment to get the best results from the optical surface. Once the measurement has been taken, we are provided with a series of results that show the optical quality of the surface plus other information. Continue reading for an explanation of the individual values and you can also see a test report that was done on one of our RVO Horizon 60 OTAs. 

We are offering certain telescopes with a Zygo test at an extra cost. Mainly ED doublets and triplets. All available telescopes with a Zygo test report are listed here. Just select Zygo Test Report from the drop down box at the top of the listing and we will test the optics in house and provide a full 2 page report with your scope. This will show you the optical quality of your telescope optics. We can also offer this service on your refractor telescope. Please get in touch for more details about this. 

At Rother Valley Optics, one thing we pride ourselves on is customer service and quality of our equipment. When we test your telescope, we will ensure that it is of the highest quality otherwise, we will reject the scope under our strict quality control and test another model for your peace of mind. One of the main values to look at when testing a refractor is the Strehl ratio. The higher this number, the higher quality lens you have. At Rother Valley Optics, we will guarantee the highest possible Strehl ratio for your telescope.  We will aim to provide 0.95 Strehl or higher on Takahashi, RVO Horizon, William Optics and many more! Generally, the higher the Strehl ratio, the lower the Astigmatism and Coma meaning a better image quality from your instrument. 

Other measurements such as the PV and RMS are important too. With these measurements, the lower the number the better as it shows less curvature on the lens. The flatter an optical lens, the better it will perform. The PV rating (Peak To Valley) is a measurement from the highest point (Peak) to the lowest point (Valley). From this we get the RMS (Root, Mean, Square). This is a similar figure to the PV and measured exactly the same way. The RMS is basically an average height difference from the PV so again, the lower the better. As you can see form the example below, we measured an RMS of just 0.027 wave which is a very good value.

We also measure the Power with our systems which is essentially the error from the reference sphere to the test optic. The reference sphere we use on our system is a very high quality sphere so the closer to zero the Power, the less error between the 2 elements thus ensuring a higher quality optical surface. 

You will also see some more values such as Astigmatism and Coma. Again, these are measured by the interferometer when we take measurements of the optical surface after adjustment. These are values which ideally would be at 0 but as our test optics are all curved lenses, there will always be astigmatism and coma present. The lower the number, the less of these aberations you will effectively see but with most refractors, you can buy field flatteners which will compensate for the coma anyway. The astigmatisms value is explaining the error between the symmetrical curvature of the lens. Basically, no lens will be perfectly symmetrical, the lower the astigmatism, the more symmetrical the lens surface is. 

Once the Zygo test report has been completed, the optical alignment is thoroughly tested and tuned to ensure they are spot on before they leave us. 

All available telescopes are on the website at the link below and ones we've tested already that are available straight away are also listed.

https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/zygo-tested-refractors.html

Here is an example of the test what we provide. This was a test on one of our Horizon 60 ED OTA's.

For any questions about this amazing new service, please either call 01909774369 or email sales@rothervalleyoptics.co.uk.

 


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