Best beginner telescope mount for astrophotography in 2020?

Do you have some trouble deciding what telescope mount would be best suited to start your astrophotography hobby? Then you have come to the right blog! I’ll compare seven beginner level mounts on seven criteria that I think are essential when taking your first steps into astrophotography.

There are at least four mounts which I would consider when starting my astrophotography hobby today; the Ioptron CEM25p, the Celestron Advanced VX, the SkyWatcher HEQ5 pro, and the Orion Sirius EQ-G. Note that the last two mounts are actually twins, as they are made in the same Chinese factory. Depending on your preferences and price range, you might choose the one over the other. Let’s get into some criteria I would look for in a beginner level mount and let’s compare seven beginner mounts that are available on the astronomy market today.

What is a beginner level mount?

Ah, yes, that’s a good question. Beginner mounts are entry level mounts that are relatively affordable in terms of price, but at the same time are stable and reliable enough to accurately track objects in the night sky with some beginner level astrophotography gear. With beginner level gear I mean a decent, not so heavy telescope, camera, and some tracking gear. In the first part of this blog, I’ll discuss seven requirements that I think are important when you’re looking for your first entry level astrophotography mount. In the second part of this blog, I’ll compare seven entry level mounts that are out there on the market today on the criteria that I’ve mentioned in the first part. Let’s dive right in!

1: Equatorial mount

If you are considering astrophotography as a hobby, you are probably aware that the earth is turning around its axis once every 24 hours. So you need a mount that can take the rotation of the earth into account and accurately track objects that are out there in deep space. There is only one type of mount that is able to accurately track Deep Sky Objects (DSO’s), and that’s a “German Equatorial Mount”, or “Equatorial mount” in short, or even shorter “EQ mount”.

EQ mounts can be aligned with either the north or south celestial pole, which will enable you to accurately track DSO’s from any location on earth. I will not get into polar alignment here, but if you are interested in this procedure I kindly refer you to this blog where I explain in detail what polar alignment is and how you can perform this procedure with your EQ mount. For now, just remember that you should look for an EQ mount.

2: Computerized (GoTo) system

Once upon a time, before the age of computers, astronomers used star charts to find objects in the night sky and they manually ‘tracked’ those objects themselves. Today, thanks to the miracles of modern technology, we have consumer level EQ mounts with computerized ‘GoTo’ systems. These mounts are usually equipped with a hand controller which you can use to tell your mount to ‘slew’ to the DSO or solar system object of your choice. Consequently, the mount automatically aligns the telescope on your mount with the object you want to image. After you have confirmed that the DSO in question is indeed visible in your ‘field of view’, the mount will automatically start tracking that object for you. In short, computerized ‘goto’ systems saves you a lot of hassle. Some ‘classic’ astronomers are enraged by the computerization of astronomy, as this leads to ignorant amateur astrophotographers (like me) who are unable to find objects in the night sky without the aid of a computerized system. It’s a bit like using GPS in your car to get from A to B. It may be a good thing to bring a map with you in case your GPS fails. But let’s be honest, it has made traveling so much easier. So in short, I would highly recommend you to look out for a computerized GOTO EQ mount when starting astrophotography.

3: Connectivity to PC/Laptop

I would also encourage you to look for a mount that can be connected to your laptop or PC. One reason is that this connectivity allows you to update the mount with the latest firmware. Also, it enables you to control your mount via your PC or laptop to via ‘ASCOM’. ASCOM drivers are used by many software tools that are especially developed to aid you as an amateur astronomer in finding, guiding, and capturing your favorite DSO’s. One thing to look out for is the type of connection that is offered. Most beginner level mounts still use an RS232 serial output on their hand controller which needs to be converted to a USB output with an RS232 to USB adapter, as most PC’s or laptops nowadays have USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 connections. In short, you first connect your hand controller to the designated port on your EQ mount. Next, you will run a cable from the output of your hand controller to a USB port on your PC or Laptop. You also need to download and install the correct ASCOM driver of your mount on your PC or Laptop which enables you to control your mount remotely. That it! You are ready to explore the world of online astrophotography tools :-).

4: Autoguiding

Autoguiding refers to the option to use guiding gear and software (most of us use PHD2) in combination with your mount to further increase the accuracy of your mount when it is tracking DSO’s. What does this mean exactly? Well, let’s start out with the idea that you have a telescope with a camera attached on your computerized equatorial mount. You have polar aligned and balanced your mount correctly, you kindly asked the hand controller to slew to your desired DSO for that night, and your mount is tracking that object with its computerized tracking system. Yes, you are ready to take your first image! Uhm, yes…go ahead. Or at least, this is also how I started using my EQ mount in combination with my DSLR camera. And I quickly found out that this method – also referred to by amateur astronomers as unguided tracking – will typically allow you to take 30 to 60 second exposures of a DSO. Longer exposures usually produce oval stars or, even worse, star trails in your picture. Why? Well, although many beginner level mounts are quite accurate in their tracking, you need pinpoint accurate tracking to take sharp, long exposure pictures of your DSO without artifacts such as star trails or oval stars in your picture. The computerized system and RA and DEC motors are simply not equipped to track objects with such accuracy, or at least, not without a bit of help.

This is where autoguiding saves the day (or night). Autoguiding means that you have a second, usually smaller telescope with a second camera attached – also referred to as your tracking gear – that you will put on your mount, together with your main telescope and main camera. You will then use your tracking gear for autoguiding by focussing your second camera and telescope on a star that is nearby the DSO that you want to capture with your main telescope and camera. Consequently, you can use software (most of us use PHD2) to automatically track a nearby star during your imaging session. When the star wobbles a bit (i.e. moving up or down, left or right), PHD2 will send corrections to your EQ mount which will reposition the star to its original location. Autoguiding will enable you to take multi minute exposures of a DSO, even with a beginner level EQ mount. Note that tracking gear doesn’t have to be very expensive. At the time I’m writing this blog, I’m using a 50mm Orion guidescope (about $80) and a ZWO ASI120MC camera (about $140) as my tracking gear. Most likely, you will not start using tracking gear until you have mastered some of the basics on how to work with your EQ mount. Still, I would highly recommend you to look for an EQ mount that supports autoguiding so that you can use it in the future. I promise you won’t regret it.

5: Payload Capacity

Payload capacity refers to the maximum weight your EQ mount can carry. There is an unwritten astrophotography rule that you don’t want to push those mounts to their maximum payload capacity. Instead, you should take about 50% of that weight as the upper weight limit for astrophotography purposes. For example, if you have a mount that can support up to 10 kg’s (22 lbs) as its maximum payload, all of your astrophotography gear such as your telescope, camera, and tracking gear, should not weigh more than 50% of that weight, so aobut 5 kg (11 lbs). My experience is that a lightweight telescope, camera, and some tracking gear quickly add up in terms of weight. Note that the mount will still be able to carry your gear and track objects in the night sky under its maximum payload capacity. However, the tracking and guiding accuracy of the mount will likely suffer under this maximum weight. So my advice would be to look for an EQ mount that can support at minimum 10 kg (22 lbs) as its maximum payload capacity or higher.

6: Affordability

When you start your astrophotography hobby, you are probably in unfamiliar territory. The best thing I can think of when talking about this hobby is that you should compare it more to preparing and running a marathon than a sprint. There are many things that you have to learn. For example, how to setup and polar align the EQ mount; how to work with software tools that enable you to accurately track and photograph your DSO’s; how to post process your pictures and so on. Along the way, a lot of things can go wrong. Some clouds may ruin your night, your astrophotography equipment might not connect to your software, you think you are “in focus” but as it turns out your were not, or you may become frustrated during post processing when you are unable to get the final result you were looking for. Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to discourage you. Astrophotography is a wonderful hobby and you will be amazed by all the wonders which the universe has to offer, but it is not an easy hobby. You have to take it one step at the time. I can imagine that the time and effort required to learn all these steps can be a bit overwhelming, or perhaps you simply don’t have the time or energy to get the hang it. If that is the case, you’ll end up selling your astrophotography gear. Long story short, I would hate for you to buy very expensive gear that you may end up selling after a couple of months. This is why I will also take price into account and will focus on ‘beginner level’ mounts that are less than $1250. Of course, I understand that this entirely depends on your personal financial situation.

7: Ease of use

The seventh and final requirement I’ll write about is a bit general, namely “ease of use”. One thing I always look for is the weight of the mount head and tripod. If this is your first mount, you probably do not yet have a dedicated spot like an observatory to perform your astrophotography. Or you might consider going to remote locations to perform your astrophotography. If this is the case, you don’t want to end up with a mount that breaks your back every time you have to set it up and tear it down after your imaging session. So the weight of the mount is important when talking about ease of use. Other things to look for are whether mounts are easy to setup and polar align. For example, EQ mounts come with altitude and azimuth bolts that you will use to polar align your mount with the north (or south) celestial pole. It is important that these bolts are comfortable and easy to use. Also, the mount may have different connectivity options (Vixen, Losmandy) for your astrophotography gear. You also want to look for a mount that has been proven reliable and durable over the years. These are some of the aspects I would look for in a beginner level EQ mount for astrophotography. Now, let’s compare some beginner level EQ mounts that are actually on the market today.

Comparing 7 beginner level EQ Mounts for astrophotography

I specifically searched for EQ mounts on two well-known astroshops, namely optcorp.com (USA) and astroshop.eu (Europe). As many mounts were available, I decided to only include mounts that adhere to at least four of the seven requirements I just mentioned in the first part of this blog. Specifically, the mounts discussed below already meet the following requirements:

• German Equatorial mount
• Computerized (GoTo) system
• Minimum Payload capacity > 10kg/22lbs
• Price < $/€ 1250

So, all mounts in this comparison are German Equatorial Mounts with computerized (GoTo) systems. Moreover, they can carry at least a payload of 10kg/22lbs or higher, and they are available for less than $/€ 1250. I specifically selected this price, because above this range you’ll be able to get advanced EQ mounts with higher payload capacities and more options. If you are interested in such ‘advanced’ equatorial mounts, I recommend you to read this blog where I compare such mounts. After this preselection, I ended up with the seven beginner mounts you can see on the images below.

Affordability, Payload Capacity and Connectivity

The first table below shows the names of the seven mounts, their maximum payload capacities, prices, their specific computerized (GoTo) system, and details on their PC/laptop connectivity. You can check out the most recent prices in either dollars or euros by clicking on the price for each of the mount. This will link you either to optcorp.com (USA, dollar prices) or astroshop.eu (Europe, euro prices).

When looking at payload capacity there is a clear winner, the Meade LX85. This mount supports up to 15kg/33lbs. It is said that I have to mention that Meade has filed for bankruptcy in december 2019. The company does mention it will continue to provide support for their customers. Hopefully, this will not be the end of Meade, who have been in business on the amateur astrophotography market since 1972. The SkyWatcher EQM-35 has the lowest payload capacity with just 10kg/22lbs of maximum payload capacity. The Ioptron CEM25p supports up to 12kg/27 lbs of payload whereas the Celestron Advanced VX (AVX), the Orion Sirius EQ-G, the SkyWatcher HEQ5 pro and the Ioptron iEQ30 pro support up to 15kg/30lbs.

Please note that prices are always changing and you can check out the latest prices by clicking on either the dollar or euro price. This will bring you to either optcorp.com (USA) or astroshop.eu (EU) where you can find the latest price. Both webshops are well-known and reliable amatuer astronomy shops in the U.S. and Europe. At the time of writing, the SkyWatcher EQM-35 is the most affordable of the seven mounts at $725/€669. The Meade LX85 is also surprisingly low in price at $799/€899, especially since it also has the highest payload capacity of all mounts. It is interesting to see that in the U.S., there is about a $100 dollar price difference between the Celestron AVX at $899, the Ioptron CEM25p at $998, and the Orion Sirius EQ-G and the SkyWatcher HEQ5 both at $1099 and $1150. In Europe, the Celestron AVX at €998, the Ioptron CEM25p at €990, and the SkyWatcher HEQ5 pro at €999 are all at a comparable price range. However, the Orion Sirius EQ-G is a bit more expensive at €1100. The most expensive mount in the table is the Ioptron iEQ30 pro at $1198/ €1290.

As for connectivity, all mounts can be connected to a laptop/PC via an output on the hand controller. There are two main things to take into account here. First of all, each of the brand supports its own computerized ‘GoTto’ system. SkyWatcher and Orion mounts both work with a SynScan hand controller that has over 42900 objects in its database; the Meade LX85 comes with its own ‘audiostar’ system with 30000 objects in its database; the Celestron AVX has a ‘Nexstar’ system with 40000 objects, and the Ioptron mounts have their own ‘gotonova’ system with 59000 objects. Needless to say that all systems support plenty of deepsky and solar system objects in their databases. Secondly, it is important to mention that all mounts can be connected to your PC/laptop. Unfortunately, almost all hand controllers support a somewhat dated RS232 serial output. As there are almost no PC/laptops available that still have such serial ports, you would need a RS232 to USB converter in order to connect the hand controller to a USB input on your PC or laptop. A pleasant exception is the Celestron Advanced VX. From 2019 onwards, these mounts are sold with a new NexStar hand controller that has a mini USB output.

Autoguiding, weight of the mount and other stuff

The second table shows whether the mount supports autoguiding, the weight of the heads and tripods of each mount and some additional information.

We don’t have to spend a lot of words on autoguiding, as all mounts support it. In addition, all mounts also include Periodic Error Correction (PEC) as an additional tool to optimize tracking. PEC checks if there are any predictable variations in tracking that are caused by inaccuracies in the gears of the RA and DEC motors of the mount. PEC will record such inaccuracies during one full turn of the worm gear. It then plays back any predictable inaccuracies to the mount so that those inaccuracies are accounted for. Please note that only using PEC does not lead to accurate multi minute guiding on these beginner level mounts. You would have to use PEC in combination with autoguiding to get your mount to track accurately enough to take sharp, multi minute exposures of your DSO. When using both autoguiding and PEC, the guiding accuracy of those mounts tend to be in between one and two arcseconds. This is accurate enough to get sharp, long exposure pictures of your DSO when using a relatively ‘widefield’ setup. With widefield I mean that you would at least have 1.5 to 2 degrees of sky in your field of view. As this is a bit technical, I refer you to this video if you are interested to learn more about calculating your field of view and why this is important.

Let’s move on to the weight of each of the mounts. The SkyWatcher EQM-35 and the Ioptron CEM25p are the lightest mounts, with only 10kg/22lbs in total for the mount head and tripod. Note that the Ioptron CEM25p can carry a higher maximum payload as compared to the SkyWatcher EQM-35 (see Table 1). The second lightest mount is the Ioptron iEQ30 with a mount head weighing 7kg/15lbs, and the tripod 5kg/11lbs. In general, I’ve come to notice that the Ioptron mount are very favorable when it comes to weight. This is due to their Z-shaped mount heads which – according to Ioptron – leads to stable tracking on lighter mounts. The Meade LX85, Orion Sirius EQ-G and the SkyWatcher HEQ5 pro all weigh about 15kg/33lbs in total, whereas the Celestron Advanced VX is the heaviest mount in the list with a total weight of 16kg/36lbs.

Some other aspects that may be important is that all mounts support a so called vixen style plate which allows you to attach telescopes on your mount that have a Vixen style dovetail. Unfortunately, none of the mounts support a losmandy style connection. This is understandable, as most telescopes with losmandy style connections are also heavier, and would be better off on an intermediate mount instead of the seven beginner level mounts discussed here. All mounts support ASCOM. This is important as many astronomy software tools use ASCOM to remotely control your mount. This being said, I could not yet find a dedicated ASCOM driver for the Meade LX85. Perhaps I missed it, but please check this out yourself to be sure. Another difference is that some mounts come with a polar scope whereas others do not. Polar scopes are useful as they will help you to polar align your mount to the north or south celestial pole. The Meade LX85 and the Celestron AVX mounts do not include a polar scope, you would have to buy it separately. The SkyWatcher mounts do include a polar scope, and the Ioptron and Orion mounts even come with an illuminated polar scope. An illuminated polar scope is very welcome, as you will polar align your mount in the dark :-). Finally, it is important to mention that both Ioptron mounts include an integrated GPS system. This saves you the hassle of having to enter your location and time on the hand controller when you setup your mount.

Conclusion

It is very nice to see that there are so many equatorial mounts available when starting your astrophotography hobby today. Each of the mounts have their pros and cons and ultimately you have to decide for yourself which of them you like the best. I highly recommend you do your own research. This being said, I do have some favorites. First, I like the Ioptron CEM25p. It has a very low weight which makes it extremely portable while still being able to carry up to 12kg/27lbs of payload. This would be enough to carry a lightweight astrophotography setup. Moreover, it includes GPS and it comes with an illuminated polar scope at a favorable price. I would also consider the more established mounts that have been on the market for a while. In particular, I have used my Celestron Advanced VX for multiple years now and it never let me down. If you are interested in my personal experiences with the AVX, click here. The 2019 version of the Celestron AVX includes a hand controller with a mini USB connection, something the other mounts still appear to lack. This saves you the trouble of having to buy an RS232 to USB adapter. The SkyWatcher HEQ5 pro and the Orion Sirius EQ-G mounts have also proven their worth. They are on the market for a considerable time now, and there are many users that are pleased with these mounts, also shown by the high user ratings these mounts get. The SynScan system can be connected to a software tool called EQMOD, which many users like. Note that the Orion Sirius and the SkyWatcher HEQ5 pro can be considered twin brothers, as both mounts are made in the same factory. You may also want to consider the fact that there are whole communities of users who own a the Celestron AVX, HEQ5pro, or the Sirius EQ-G who can help you to get started.

I would be more hesitant to recommend the Meade LX85, mainly because I cannot find many user experiences of fellow astrophotographers who have used this mount for astrophotography. I have to say that this mount has a very favorable price tag, and it checks all the boxes of a good beginner level mount. So if you own a Meade LX85, please let me know! I encourage you to write a review :-). The SkyWatcher EQM-35 only supports up to 10kg of payload capacity, so I would favor the Ioptron CEM25p over this mount. And as for the Ioptron iEQ30; this mount has actually very good qualities! It is lightweight, it supports 14kg/30lbs of payload, and it comes with a GPS and an illuminated polar scope. My main issue is that it is a relatively expensive mount. At about $1200 dollars, you almost enter the price range of some advanced level mounts which are able to handle a higher payload capacity. Also, most of these advanced mounts support both vixen and losmandy style telescope connections and some of them can be connected to a PC or laptop via a direct USB connection, as you can read in this blog. Given this fact, I would then consider to look for an advanced mount, or a lower priced beginner level mount. I’m curious to find out what your preferences and experiences are. If you want, you are more then welcome to leave a comment below this blog so we can get into a conversation. I highly welcome amateur astrophotographers who have real user experiences with any of these mounts to react so we can help each other out.

Thanks for reading this blog and clear skies!

Links to beginner mounts

• Sky-Watcher EQM-35 $725
• Meade LX85 $799
• Celestron Advanced VX $899
• Ioptron CEM25p $998
• Orion Sirius EQ-G $1099
• Sky-Watcher HEQ5 pro $1150
• Ioptron iEQ30 $1198

• Sky-Watcher EQM-35 €669
• Meade LX85 €899
• Ioptron CEM25p €990
• Celestron Advanced VX €998
• Sky-Watcher HEQ5 pro €999
• Orion Sirius EQ-G €1100
• Ioptron iEQ30 €1290