iOptron SkyHunter EQ/AZ mobile GoTo mount for astrophotography with iPolar

iOptron SkyHunter - GoTo Travel Mount for Astrophotography and Observation

Weighing only 1.3 kg (mount head without tripod and without counterweight), the SkyHunter is also suitable for air travel. The mount is designed for compact telescopes and telephoto lenses up to 5 kg (with camera). High-quality servo motors with optical encoders guarantee a clean tracking, as it is also required for good astrophotography.

GoTo saves the tedious locating of the objects

The SkyHunter already offers automatic object positioning (GoTo). It is operated via smartphone or tablet using iOS and Adroid operating systems. ASCOM and INDI are also supported. With the built-in WiFi adapter, control can be realized via ASCOM, iOptron Commander or Sky Safari. Those who want to be independent from the smartphone but still want the GoTo function can achieve this with the optional # 8410 handheld controller.

Versatile use

The SkyHunter comes with a sturdy stainless steel tripod and a pier extension. This allows the mount to show its full potential in terms of stability. However, the mount can also be mounted on good photo tripods without any problems. The fine adjustment in the azimuth for the exact polar alignment remains available. This is ideal for air travel.

The instruments are attached via a practical Vixen/EQ5 style quick coupling. Suitable dovetail bars, e.g. also for 1/4" photo connection, can be found in the accessories section.

iPolar, the electronic polar finder

The electronic polar finder replaces optical polar finders and allows accurate northing or southing. The image is created via a small lens that projects the celestial region onto a high-speed CMOS sensor. An intelligent software then evaluates it and displays the polar region for example on the screen of your laptop or PC. A large field of view of 13° guarantees that the celestial pole is already on the sensor, even if it is not precisely positioned.

Test report from a customer

Our customer Marcus Wienecke has tried the mount in the field. Here is his report:

""The day before yesterday I was finally able to try out my new iOptron Skyhunter Goto travel mount. Unfortunately clouds kept coming in at night. But yesterday it went then to some extent, even if the nearly full moon brightened up properly. Well, for testing it should be enough. I had connected the Samyang 135 mm with the ASI294MM Pro with Baader narrowband filters. Since the small Skyhunter has no ST-4 port and also no polar finder, it went then with laptop and Nina, which is so wanted anyway. 130mm Guidecam with ASI462MC was also mounted. With the iPolar, the polar alignment went well and quickly at the first go as well as back-friendly and was done in 2 min. The Skyhunter comes like also the Skyguider Pro with integrated rechargeable battery and one saves in the field a separate power supply. Power only for the ASI camera and USB power for the dew shield heater. If you have tightened everything well, nothing wobbles on the small mount. The control via Commander over PC is flawless with the new version 8.0. All functions as with the large iOptrons. One does not need to change. Set the Zeropoint once and off you go. The procedure in the GoTo runs with smooth startup, as you know it with iOptron. It can also do a meridian flip, but it doesn´t have to, since it doesn´t have a blockage and can go well above the meridian. The platesolve with Nina runs spot on and the parking at the end of the session also ran as usual. The tracking in PHD2 ran flawlessly. The average value was at the end with light cirrus and passing small clouds in between at 0.44 px for Ra/Dec. I stopped down the Samyang to f/3.5 to be able to use the full 48 MP of the ASI294MM Pro. Guiding went absolutely perfect and smooth, no waste. All images showed clean circular stars. I am absolutely satisfied with the result. Keep in mind that it is only taken with 135 mm. A top performance for such a small mount, which will also carry larger telescopes like 60 or 72 mm apos well.

Here therefore also the 100% version in AstroBin, link:
https://www.astrobin.com/full/bwa2du/B/"

Here are three pictures for illustration:

Guiding based on a star


Guiding on the objects to be photographed


The convincing result!

Thank you for this informative test report.

Question:
Is it normal that when I loosen the R.A. axis, everything starts to tilt, or if I open it further, the dovetail bar at the bottom can loosen completely??

Answer from Teleskop-Service:
If you loosen the R.A. (or Az) clamp a little too much, the short dovetail bar at the bottom will fall out. This means that when everything is mounted, the mount head with the telescope will fall down. The R.A. clamp must therefore only be loosened slightly (max. 1 turn).