Telescope-Equatorial Mounts-iOptron CEM26 Equatorial Mount with 1.75″ LiteRoc Tripod and Hard Case

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1. Nicholas Verified Buyer – 15 October 2021

   This is my second mount, coming from the popular Heq5-Pro. I paired this with 12 lbs of payload using a Meade 70mm quadruplet refractor fully loaded with an auto focuser, 50mm guide scope and a pegasus powerbox advance on top.

   I love the weight of the mount and the literoc tripod is very stable, I like the vibration suppression pads buil

   t in but this isn’t good for those using it on grass or dirt since it won’t dig in.

   Ipolar doesn’t give me the best results but It’s good enough for visual or planetary work.

   Pros:
   Very accurate RA with smooth PE curve +-16″ which is slightly out of spec but not bad at all , tight timing belts in both axis. Spring loaded worm meshing after disassembly which is great for temperature variations. VERY Smooth bearings for easy balancing.
   The altitude adjustment is much better than on the heq5 pro, uses a worm gear to move the mount up and down.
   Very quiet mount when slewing.

   Cons:
   Polar alignment in azimuth. I really dislike Ioptron’s approach to locking down the mount head to the tripod. The two screws can be hard to fumble with in the dark using the provided allen key and they can move the polar alignment once you’re dialed in. Still finding ways to get my polar alignment done quickly and keep it locked in.

   When using the wifi mode, it operates in ad hoc mode which makes a direct connection to your computer which means you can’t use teamviewer to monitor things from indoors.

   Overall, this mount is quite the performer for the price. If ioptron opted to lock the mount head to the tripod in a different fashion I’d give this 5 stars instead of 4.
   Spend a couple hundred more compared to an AVX and you won’t regret it!