Astrophotography with the iEXOS 100 Mount
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ส.ค. 2024
- The Explore Scientific iEXOS 100 mount has been on the market for a few years but it does not get the recognition compared to its competition. This mount is sold as a budget astrophotography friendly mount capable of handling big lenses and small telescopes to take photos of the night sky. We put it to the test to see what it can do and how well it will track the night sky for us unguided. Using the ASIAIR, a ZWO camera and the mount, we find out quickly how this capable mount performs for the real world astrophotographer.
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#telescope #astrophotography #explorescientific #telescopereview
Amazing mount at such a low price. Has great features and fully functional.
I have used the iexos-100 with an RC6 (0.67x reducer) + ASI533 + guide SV165+ASI178 on the ST3 tripod and additional counterweights, it does produce elongated stars only because of the intrinsic pulsed tracking mechanisms, not because of the weight of the load (about 9 kg). Overall, it is a good cheap mount for telephoto lenses and refractors of about 500 mm of focal length.
Complete newbie here. Starting the journey. I am giving it a try as my first mount while I try to decide on something else. Specially since they are liquidating these at 299.99. This should hold me while I learn... then need to decide on a Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro or iOptron HAE43...
You're right, it's a mount that gets over looked but fits nicely between star-trackers and larger mounts like Celestron's Advanced VX, especially when you add the better tripod and azimuth adjuster.
I purchased mine on sale on the ES website and I think that's a regular occurrence.
Also BH Photo has them on sale occasionally and has used ones more often.
Last year, I put my C6 on it, used the app to follow Jupiter and it kept it locked in frame for 1.5 hours, just by using the go-to.
Anyway, thanks for sharing this and the other iExos videos.
I'm looking forward to more!
I noticed that, it track planets well, but not DSO's, when I click on for ex Andromeda Galaxy, it crashez, I tried with a tablet as well and it's the same thing...do you have the same issue?
@@arpadjakab-peter5431 Unfortunately, I've been neglecting using it this summer. So I can't give a very honest answer to that. I need to get back to it more.
What little I have done seemed to highlight the app as being clunky (or maybe it's me), so I'm going to try to integrate an ASIair to manage the drive soon. I'm hoping that improves my results.
@@therealremo Yes.that is what I'm going to do as well, need to decide between the asiair v1 and the asiair mini first! Thanks
What tripod do you use? I need a more stable one
Explore Scientific makes some great OTA, wy not a mount as well? Great video.
using my iExos-100, a TSED80 Apo (with reducer+flattener), an omegon 50mm guidescope + an omegon guide 1200m cam, i pushed this mount to a 32 minute exposure using PHD2. Stars were pin-point-perfect even tho my PHD2 values werent all that good. At this point im convinced that a 1 hour exposure is not a problem at all for this mount.
HOWEVER... The "polar tunnel" on this mount is completely unusable for accurate polar alignment, same goes for the seperately sold polar scope... that is always sold out everywhere and heavily overpriced.
I solved this in this way: I bought a cheap polarscope for an EQ5 mount, cut a 10cm long piece of 5x4cm wood, carefully adjusted my drillpress to be as square as possible and then vertically drilled a hole through the 5x4. Then i just glued the polar scope into the hole. Now whenever i polar align, i just clamp the polar scope block into the dovetail of the mount and start aligning.
In my case this was 75% cheaper and only took around 5-10 minutes to make.
Hi @Sharpless2, I realize this is an old comment, but I have a question: when you say that you clamp the polar scope block into the dovetail of the mount you mean the clamp that would hold the telescope? If so, isn't that subject to how parallel the clamp is to the polar axis?
did you ver have an issue connecting? i got a *please wait* signal only😢 frustrating
I just got the ixos100 and as with yours has some backlash. Which 2 screws , I really don't want to loosen the wrong screws. I little help would be greatly appreciated.
Just following up on your comment about backlash. How did you measure it and how did you correct it? What two screws? I have the same unit and there is nothing in the user guide about this.
It’s not a hard process but if you’re struggling for guiding and accurate tracking, looking into this way be beneficial. If you can grab the RA axis and knock it back and forth a little bit without much resistant that means the gear and the worm are a little too far apart. You’ll need to disassemble the mount a little bit to get the cover plate off to be able to adjust. The motor itself has two screws that you can loosen and move the motor forward or backward. You’ll want to push it inward to lessen the space between the gear and the worm drive to increase accuracy. But not too tight or you’ll bind up.
Great video, I have the same setup except I've got the 533mc pro, having problems with back focus, did you have to use any spacers on your camera 👍
Oh yes I’m still struggling to achieve the right backfocus. I’m experimenting with different spacers and such since I’m not sure what the perfect number is since the regular 55mm is not correct.
@@MaximumAstronomy Canon lens are 44mm! Adjust your spacing as needed. For me, an 11mm spacer with the 26.5mm EOS filter drawer get you to 37.5mm. Add in another 6.5mm for the camera flange to sensor and that gets you right to the mark.
I used an tube extender. That shud do the trick
Questions? I'm looking at this mount Explore Scientific iEXOS-100-2 or the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer GTi I'm tossed between them. I see you have a single filter tray in front of the camera, which model? How do you like it? Any issues or complaints with the iEXOS mount or the filter tray?
Hello! The Skywatcher will have more of an ecosystem around it in terms of an optional hand controller, better tripod solutions, etc. BUT for the clearance price on the ES mount it’s hard to justify the SW since it’s like double the price right now. But both yield respectable results for really wide field rigs. As for my camera slider, I use the ZWO branded one that converts that Canon lens to the threads for their ZWO cooled cameras. They offer a variety if you have a Nikon, Sony, etc…..but it works fantastic and delivers the narrowband ability with my wider canon lens which is a sweet feature to have! My only complaint with the ES is you need to buy the AZ adapter for polar aligning which is ridiculous and sometimes you need to tweak the firmware to “enable” or “disable” certain features which again is a hassle.
@@MaximumAstronomy thanks for the reply, where do you see the ES clearance price at?
@@CountDorkula ES used to have them on clearance. They may have discontinued that sale since I looked last time. These are commonly found used though on cloudy nights and I’ve seen a few on eBay in recent times if you’re looking to get one on a stricter budget.
Can I reuse the HEQ5 Pro Tripod for this Mount ? Thanks for the excellent information !
You might be able to, as long as you can get it to mount firmly
So you do suggest this mount for astrophotography? Can i use it trought the Explore Stars app?
I would indeed! Yes you can use ExploreStars for just regular Goto without the full astro imaging rig.
@@MaximumAstronomy I dont understand why its so unpopular and overrated, i've talked about It with some people and they all said its not a good mount for a beginner, what do you Say?
@@langolinodiivan7320 I enjoy it. It’s accurate. It tracks well. It’s very lightweight. But it may not be for everyone with the WiFi only interface and such.
Hi, which is the exact model of tripod did you use? I would try it because the original one isn’t stable.Thanks!
ES sells an HD tripod on their website. That’s what this one is specifically
How reliable is this mount? I see on Amazon they have the iexos-100-2 PMC-Eight for $299. Thinking on pulling the trigger on it.
I’ve had good success with it for a year now and the motor are solidly built, but only time will tell since these aren’t old mounts yet….
@@MaximumAstronomy Well I did pull the trigger on this eq mount, but having problems with it being accurate on finding objects in the night sky after initial 3 star alignment. I leveled and used a laser through the polar peep hole to polar alignment it. I’m just stating to get into astrophotography and taking my time trying to know how the mount operates. Have not purchased no cameras or guide scope yet. Just using it for visual for now.
@@petelopez5826 Polar alignment is tricky without a polar scope or a camera assisted software to help you polar align like iPolar or similar others out there. For now you can look up methods like drift align to help you fine tune even for visual
No dithering?
Not for this review. I wanted to do the most simplified astrophotography testing of the mount. Nothing fancy. Nothing specialized. Just a test to see at the very basic level, what can one achieve!