G11 Equatorial Mount

The Losmandy G11 does not need any introduction: its popularity as a solid german equatorial mount makes it the most cost effective solution at this payload level.

Shown above is my deep space imaging configuration. The telescopes sit on the G11 fitted with the dual saddle plate. The mount itself is attached to a LeSueur steel pier, providing a very stable imaging platform. The C8 has an F/6.3 focal reducer in front of an Optec TCF-S focuser to which the SBIG ST8 XME is attached.

The Borg101ED is used as a guider in the above setup. Guiding is done by PHD and a DSI Pro.

While the ST8 comes with an internal guide chip, I have had enough issues with CCDSoft unable to find a guide star or calibrate that I have been using PHD and an external guider for some time. Since the G11 is new and this setup untried yet (early May 2008), I have yet to see if this applies.

My GM8 had wormblock issues and this G11 is likely to have the 76 second problem as well. Optique Vision has an improved single block worm holder available and it has been installed on this G11 in October 2008, resulting in a PE of ± 2.5 arc-sec. Quite good!