Product Review of - Supatrak Auto Tracking Motorised Alt Azimuth Mount & Tripod - Ovl147

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SupaTrak Auto tracking Motorised Alt Azimuth Mount & Tripod
[OVL147]

£179.00

by Ken (CameraKen)

Date Added: Saturday 01 December, 2007

© 2007 Ade Ashford & ScopeTest.com

If you read my piece on the Orion TeleTrack in Astronomy Now's February
2007 issue, or saw my online précis here, you'll know that motorised
altazimuth mounts are becoming increasingly popular. It's not surprising,
then, that the TeleTrack's developer — Taiwanese optical giant Synta —
should employ the same technology in something rather more suited to
larger astronomical/terrestrial telescopes.
Launched under the Sky-Watcher brand, the new SupaTrak mount shares
more than a passing resemblance to the Celestron SLT, but the somewhat
quieter and heavier duty SupaTrak sports a more robust Vixen-style
dovetail clamp. Unlike the SLT, however, the SupaTrak dispenses with
internal AA batteries in favour of an exclusively external 12V DC power
source and the computerised hand controller is exchanged for a far simpler
nine-button version.
So, how does it work? The modus operandi
is essentially identical to that of the
TeleTrack. A simple one-time setup procedure
requires you to establish your latitude
by setting an index mark against a built-in
degree scale on the altitude axis. Pressing
the Slow (2) and Fast (3) buttons together
saves this setting which is remembered
between sessions. So provided that you don't travel too far, power up with the
telescope tube level and facing north (a compass is provided) with the azimuth
axis vertical, you're ready to track on demand by pressing the Guide (1) and
Slow (2) buttons simultaneously.
This method of initialising and aligning an auto-tracking mount may not have the
refinement of the 2- to 3-star alignments commonly encountered with GoTo
mounts, but it's far faster and more inviting for the technophobe to perform. I
found that the SupaTrak was capable of following a celestial object at high magnifications
for tens of minutes before slowly drifting out of the field of view, which
is perfectly adequate for visual use or simple webcam imaging. At low powers the mount will track an object
for up to an hour or more. As for high-speed slewing, I found that the SupaTrak could traverse 90° in close to
30 seconds.
© 2007 Ade Ashford & ScopeTest.com

Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!]

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SKY-WATCHER ASTRONOMICAL TELESCOPES

Ade Ashford Says...

"Having tested and reviewed a wide range of astronomical telescopes over the last couple of decades, for me there is one manufacturer that's risen above the rest in terms of delivering a coherent range of uncompromising, well-conceived designs, embodying consistently good optics and sensibly engineered mounts at very competitive prices ...that's Sky-Watcher!!"
Ade Ashford BSc

Ade Ashford has tested and reviewed astronomical equipment in a professional capacity for several publications, including Sky & Telescope, Astronomy Now & BBC Sky At Night Magazine. He is currently living in New Zealand and is an astronomer at Mt John Observatory, Lake Tekapo.

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