Sky Watcher Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer GTI Mount Kit with Counterweight, CW bar, Tripod, and Pier Extension - Full GoTo EQ Tracking Mount for Portable and Lightweight Astrophotography

This go-to mount is incredible. Very easy to polar align with the SynScan app and built-in polar scope. App works flawlessly. Very easy to set up and get balanced. No issues with target aligning or tracking. Able to do 3 minute unguided images no problem. At on a guide camera and scope, and I can easy go 5+ minutes. This is a great travel scope, or for someone just starting out. Use this with both my DSLR and lenses, as well as ASI533MC Pro and RedCat 51 II scope. Highly recommend!

I'm not new to astrophotography but I am new to trackers and EQ mounts so there was definitely some nerves setting everything up the first time. The instructions were easy to follow and included pictures with all the pieces/knobs labeled. The app itself isn't the most user friendly to navigate, but connecting to the unit was a breeze and I was able to fumble my way through the app and navigate it to move from Polaris to the moon and back without needing instructions or tutorials. I'll update in the future with more thoughts once I get more experience with it but my initial impression is that it works very well, and the Go-To functionality is fantastic even if it's not perfect. Other notes: it had no issue holding my Nikon D850 with a normal telephoto lens. I also bought a Vevor 21x13x9 rolling hard case to store the unit and it's perfect. Highly recommend.

For the price point, it is a great go-to mount for compact set ups (max payload weight 11 lbs/4.98 kg). The tracking isnt bad once you have calibrated it, easy to set up and connect to the app. The weight is slightly heavier than what I was expecting, but definitely needed based on your set up. The legs can easily be upgraded down the road if you're looking for something more sturdy. Overall design is great but the cover for the sight lens is a tad bit flimsy and access to the batteries require a screw to be removed. Despite this, I would still recommend this product for anyone looking for a go-to set up.

Mixed feeling on this mount. I hoped and thought this go-to mount would make my life easier and this one showed some possibilities. I've had the mount for about a month now and I'm disappointed. Positives: Portable and good for travel Seems to track well unguided. Will run with batteries Solid and seems to be well made Negatives: SynScan App. The Windows version works sometimes. That Android Version does not work at all.... This was a prime reason I chose this mount. After three calls to customer service, they tell me its my phone. (It's a late model Samsung and it doesn't work on my daughters Android either. ) To make this problem worse the mount does not come with a hand controller so unless you drag out a computer, you can even use it.... The work flow in the app (when it's working) is awkward and not very intuitive. When using the go-to function, the mount will for some reason get stupid and go point at the ground and at times will not return to home position. This loses the alignment and forces you to do that all over again. Last night, for example, After setting everything up using a computer because the app doesn't work. The Synscan app for some reason can't find the database of stars. After and hour of trying to get it to work in 25 degree temps I gave up and went in with another great night of imaging ruined. Another pet peeve, all the advertising led me to believe Skywatcher is all American. The company may be but the product is stamped with made in China all over it. Conclusions: I gave this a 3 star rating only because what I have been able to get it working right it tracks well. If you are depending on the app and a phone to run it, don't! For the $800 price tag it should ship with a hand controller. The App is in my opinion garbage! Before you question my computer skills, I've been using them since the DOS command line days and owned a web development company.

This is a lite weight mount that is easy to carry out into the yard on clear nights, and I've been happy with it. Even so, there are some things one should consider before buying. 1) There is no tech support ... or rather Sky Watcher's tech support department seemingly consists of just one person, Alex, and he does not want to talk to you ... at all ... ever. Stop bothering him. I tried calling multiple times, hoping to get someone else, but got Alex every time. I tried sending emails, but again, Alex every time, and he had exactly zero interest helping me resolve the issue that I had. 2) The GOTO functionality is really GO(near)TO. The reason for this is that star alignment is nearly impossible unless you live out on the plains somewhere with zero obstructions on your horizon. What I found was that every time I tried to do a star alignment, I could pick any 1st star I wanted, but then was only given an option of 3 or 4 stars for the 2nd star ... every one of them right on the horizon. I have a fine view of the sky where I am, but not of the horizon. From the horizon up to 10°(ish) above the horizon, I can't see. The result of this is that I can only ever do a 1-star alignment, which means that I only have GO(near)TO functionality. 3) The leveling bubble is VERY poorly placed. You can only see it from the side, and not straight down. This makes leveling the mount a little bothersome. On the bright side, this mount works well with my battery pack jump starter that I got from the auto-parts store to jump start my mower. I didn't even have to buy a cable as the cable that came with the jump starter was the right size for the plug on the mount. Had I to do it over again, I would still buy this mount. The price is great for a GO(near)TO mount. It's easy to use, well built, lite weight, and it tracks just fine. It supports the weight of my 80mm refractor and camera without any issue.

I also have the Star Adventurer 2i Pro, here is a comparison to the Star Adventurer 2i Pro: Pros: + Easier to polar align: The crosshair is always up, unlike its predecessor, where you need to adjust it. + Built-in illuminator: Helps a lot with the alignment process. The predecessor had an extra part which may fall off or get blocked by your camera equipment. They solved this issue. + GoTo function: The biggest upgrade, directly ppints your camera to the sky object you want to image. + I found the overall quality to be a bit better. Cons: - A little heavier but it is still portable - Taken a bit more space but still, if you have a car, no problem. Overall, well worth the extra couple of hundreth dollars but you can also survive with the predecessor, just needs some extra work (therefore time). I will update the review with some results after experimenting with a couple of deep sky images.

I used this for the first time a couple of days ago after buying about 90 days ago (delay due to cloudy skies only). I don't have a telescope, but an 800mm/F11 prime lens and a 2x teleconverter on a 30MP Canon body, so 32x magnification from effectively 1600mm/F22. The lens field-of-view is about 1.5 degrees and once the Star Adventurer GTI was aligned it kept my target (Mars) centrally placed in the viewfinder for over two hours, the drift was probably about a half degree over two hours. I was using a bluetooth remote control shutter release and the camera display rather than the eyepiece as a viewfinder so could have sat in a garden chair while taking over 90 frames without touching camera or tripod the whole time. The individual shot are great given they are from a camera and slow prime lens. Stacked frames are even better, with the stacking software allowing me to compensate for what looks like over-exposure but the yellow/orange color could only be forced to be red so I left if as taken. I'll put that down as something learned for the next outing (don't use 30s/ISO800 shots for a magnitude 1.3 sky object). I'll probably switch to ISO 12800 (four stops faster) and 1/4s (seven stops slower shutter) or more. I used a long dovetail that attaches to aligned positions on the lens and camera and it all balanced easily with lots of room to spare on the counterweight bar. I had to use the high latitude counterweight position because even with the pier extension and at 40 degrees North the counterweight bar would contact the tripod on some object positions. The hardest thing is not a failure but it's worth knowing what a dovetail is and how it keeps your optical device on the mount because I admit it's a bit scary looking at over $4000 of camera gear almost hanging upside down from the mount at some viewing positions. It's definitely worth getting either the plug-in manual remote position adjustment device or the software for this because it has no built-in controls for correcting alignment beyond balancing the attached optical device and basic Polaris alignment, the controls on those are counter-intuitive but that's only a side-effect of the spherical alignment being performed. For the software I had lots (hundreds) of failures downloading the very large sized sky object databases on a good Internet connection. I wanted those given my 1.5 degree FOV lens combination. The first two pictures are 5 frame stacks of Mars and the third is a 300 pixel squared crop of Mars from a single 30 megapixel frame (less than 1% of the sensor frame). Over-exposure shows in the bright coloring, but I think there are still signs of surface relief on Mars given that the contrasting areas barely changes between frames or between different stacked frame combinations covering two hours of shooting.

So far, it works great. During the first outing, I had it aligned and autoguiding on the first try! I love the small size but it isn't light. Portable yes!

This mount is not the best, merely adequate. Trying to control it is like herding cats. I bought this intending to use it as a portable mount but I don't think I'll bother as it is too much hassle and I don't trust it. My iOpteron mount is in a different universe compared to this pathetic excuse.

Muy buen producto, algo difícil de entender pero como cualquier gyroscopio en el mercado, de ahí en fuera funciona perfecto

Aun la estoy probando, lo unico "malo" que puedo decir por el momento es que la iluminación de la retícula del introscopio no es muy util, ya que se ilumina por completo en rojo. Otra cosa es que por el precio, debería incluir el cable de alimentación. Fuera de esos detallitos, va muy bien. Actualizaré con el tiempo.

Por ahora excelente.solo la he montado, pero el cielo no dejo hacer nada aun

Fácil de orientar con su telescopio y luz interna, la opción de baterías es muy cómoda, muy frágil la tapa del telescopio interno ya que se cae con facilidad, la opción de tripié está bien, aunque si ya cuentas con un tripié estable con opción a adaptar esta montura , funciona igual o mejor, es poca la diferencia en precio. Es necesario usar el teléfono, computadora o el control para poder operarlo.