Skywatcher EQ-AL55i Pro Mount

[@mschmalenbach]

Thanks for the video Andy - love your work. Nice to hear a Brit accent in the AP world! I'm not sure that the £779 asking price is worth it. It's £300 more than the GTi, and whilst that gets you 10Kg payload vs 5Kg, Sky Watcher's own EQM 35 Synscan Pro for £120 less than this new mount seems to be a much better deal on paper. What am I missing?

[@stephenwebber3850]

It looks like a slightly more chunky staradventuer GTi esp with 2 positions for extender bolt of the counter weights and the worm gear for the altitiude adjustment. the AZ bolts seem to be from the heq5 pro The app too seems to be evolutin of the star adventuer 2i and the Az GTi Tripod seems sound and better than the eq3 pro Its more in my price bracket as the heq5 pro is an excellent mount but getting a bit expensive and the strain wave are still too expensive for me. My HEQ5 pro has been upgraded to rowan belts which makes it MUCH quieter and better tracking and I guess this wont have belts but gears which will have the issue of backlash you gets what you pay for i guess Look forward to seeing it at an astronomy show next year

[@cliveroberts415]

Thanks for bringing this to our attention but I am struggling to see where this mount fits in.

[@Tony-Elliott]

Thanks for the information Andy

[@christophfrommen9734]

It looks like a motorized version of the EQ-AL 55 fitted with WiFi which was already announced in 2019/2020.

[@dumpydalekobservatory]

Very interesting Andy I am somewhat surprised that they are using servo motors as steppers are much better in my opinion & more reliable to. Maybe it's a costing thing I really can't say but it would be interesting to see how it performs imaging at a guess I'd say similar to a Celestron AVX mount.

[@AndyofAstro]

It's unusual to not have stepper motors. I am not sure of their reasons, I like the look of the mount, it is a nice looking design. I guess some real world testing will show the performance. Cheers!

[@gathrik]

Nearly 800 quid!! pft.. no way!

[@ronm6585]

Thank you.

[@karonja83]

Does it run in alt/az mode, as i am on the market for an affordable up 10kg al az with goto. So far only candidate is the azeq5 which is double the price.

[@MrIzmirli35]

Can this mount connected with RJ45 controll cabel to the zwo asiair plus like the GTI WIFI GoTo mount?

[@AndyofAstro]

I think it is a usb from the mount to an asi air, but I could be wrong.

[@MrIzmirli35]

@@AndyofAstro i want to connect that mount with asiair plus to use the skyatlas in asiair plus that's why i ask because Sky Advanturer GTI wifi to Go has max 5kg payload and this new mount has 10 kg. It will be more usefull

[@Room-180]

It can not be that new as it is already in sale. I can find it in German astro shops for 929 Euros with 24h delivery time in Germany.

[@ArdsleyAstro]

@AndyofAstro I've bought one of these

[@grandmasteryoda9893]

looks like skywatcher is heading the low quality brand to avoid at this point