Telescope Mount Buying Guide

Choosing The Right Mount For You

Alt-Azimuth mounts provide an incredible platform for visual astronomy and live view photography/videography (EAA). While they are not designed for the dedicated astro imager in mind, these are very versatile in the right hands! Celestron’s Nexstar SE, Evolution, and CPC series of alt-azimuth mounts are among the most popular options that we offer. For more information on the differences between alt-azimuth and equatorial mounts, please visit our explanatory article here: Alt-Azimuth VS Equatorial Mounts.

In regards to astrophotography, your equatorial mount is the foundation on which your telescope, cameras, lenses, and all other accessories sit. It is a very critical piece of astrophotography equipment and deciding on one can be overwhelming!

The chart and key that we have created below is a simplistic approach to help you choose an equatorial mount that will best suit your astrophotography needs! The mounts listed in the chart below are some of the most popular and reliable mounts on the market such as Sky-Watcher, Celestron, Software Bisque, Losmandy, and iOptron. We believe that weight capacity and price are two of the most important factors at play when choosing an equatorial mount so these are the two variables that we used within this chart.

The features that a mount offers are another important factor in the decision making process, so we have color coated the chart in a way that displays how feature rich a mount may be. Based on a quick glance, you can see that the higher the weight capacity and the higher the price, the more feature rich an equatorial mount typically becomes. There are some outliers of course, but this does not mean that these mounts are automatically discredited, and those outliers may still be the perfect option for you. For example, the Celestron CGX-L mount sits at the bottom right, indicating it has minimal included features, yet has a tremendous weight capacity. This mount is an absolute powerhouse for reliability and performance for the dollar figure compared to others in the similar weight capacity class. In this respect, this mount may be the perfect option for your needs.

Celestron's Alt-Az Evolution Series

Celestron's CGX-L Equatorial mount

The Feature Rich iOptron CEM70

By cross referencing price and weight capacity, you will see a list of equatorial mounts that we recommend that fall within this intersection. When considering the price of a mount, please keep in mind the class that it falls under. We may consider the price of some mounts to be on the lower side when compared to other mounts in its class.

This chart is created with the budding astrophotographer in mind. Intermediate and advanced astrophotographers may also find this to be useful if looking for an upgrade.


Mount Buying Chart

Mount Buying Chart 1
Mount Buying Chart 2

Features

Every equatorial mount that we recommend in the chart above has full GoTo capabilities along with a hand controller offering several thousands of objects in their catalogues. A majority of these mounts also offer additional features which we have labeled in our “Features” chart below as high and low priority. Some of the features that we consider high priority offer high functionality and convenience. These are features that are very useful if you are looking for a dedicated astro imaging system. The features that we consider to be of “lower priority” aren't as convenient for complex astro imaging systems as the high priority features are. Low priority features do come in handy in many instances with simpler astro imaging or live view setups.

Celestron SkySync GPS

Telescope Wi-Fi Control

Losmandy HD Tripod

Many manufacturers offer additional accessories that you can purchase in addition to the stock features that your mount offers. Wi-Fi dongles, USB hubs, GPS units, upgraded tripods or pier extensions are just a few examples. These are fantastic upgrades to consider if your equatorial mount lacks these features directly from the manufacturer. We recommend you look into these accessories if your equatorial mount has a lot of “lower priority” features. Additionally, knowing that you can purchase these accessories at a later time may provide you with some comfort should you choose to purchase a more basic equatorial mount. This is a perfect option for those who aren't sure how much time they may want to dedicate into this hobby.

Higher priority features that some of our recommended mounts offer include electronic polar scopes, USB ports/powered USB hubs, 12v outputs, GPS units, and ports for direct computer control. These features are highly recommended if you plan to use several cameras or accessories. USB hubs and 12v outputs keep your cables short and manageable. Electronic polar scopes allow for extremely precise polar alignment and features like GPS save time and help eliminate cables. As mentioned above, Powered USB Hubs and Mini PCs can be bought as accessories as well. ZWO, PrimaLuceLab, and Pegasus Astro manufacture some of the most reliable USB hubs and Mini PCs on the market.

Lower Priority features such as Wi-Fi, mount-integrated guidescopes/guide cameras and dedicated software can be useful but these aren’t typically required to use your mount. For instance, Wi-Fi capabilities that come standard with some mounts allow you to control the mount via a tablet or smartphone. This can be useful for visual astronomy but if you want to control your camera, accessories and mount from a single unit, you will need an on board computer system that provides a Wi-Fi signal itself. These are NOT the same things.

Some mounts offer integrated guide cameras and guide scopes as well. We consider these to be of low priority as the focal length of your guide scope needs to be carefully paired with the focal length of your main imaging scope. The guide scopes that are integrated into some of these mounts have fixed focal lengths, therefore limiting you to a small range of shorter focal length scopes!

PrimaLuceLab EAGLE 4 Mini Computer

Pegasus Astro Pocket Powerbox Advance

Software Bisque's Feature-Full MyT Mount

Another feature that nearly all mounts offer is the ST4 Port. These can be used to attach your guide camera to your mount in order to send corrections from your mount to your laptop. We consider these to be of low priority because they are becoming rather obsolete. ASCOM pulse guiding via a USB cable is more reliable and provides more accurate results. Lastly, we included “dedicated software” within the lower priority category as many of these mounts can be operated and controlled with free third-party software such as:


Features and Accessories Chart

It is important to note that each mount differs in their features! As seen in the Buying Guide Chart above, the trend shows that higher class mounts tend to be more feature rich than their lower class counterparts. Please take a look at this chart for a deeper look into our list of high and low priority features as well as our recommended accessories for mounts that need that extra push!


To help gauge where you may sit in the mount buying process, consider some of these scenarios:

  • You have an iOptron Sky-Guider Pro and a nice DSLR with a 135mm lens for wide field imaging. You’ve become passionate and enthralled by the hobby and now you want to upgrade to a larger mount because you're thinking about switching from a camera lens to a longer focal length telescope! A mount like the Celestron Advanced VX or Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro would be a great option! These have 33 and 44 pound weight capacities respectively and are great mounts for medium focal length telescopes.
  • You’ve been using a Celestron Nexstar 8SE for visual astronomy and basic astrophotography with a planetary camera and a DSLR. You really like the idea of being able to increase your exposure time by upgrading to an equatorial mount. The Celestron Advanced VX or Sky-Watcher HEQ5 would be great mounts to put your DSLR to the test with a nice wide field refractor. There are many accessories you could buy for these mounts to improve your entire experience and they would provide you with a more simple introduction into dedicated deep space astrophotography.
  • You have a Sky-Watcher EQ6 that you’ve been using for nearly three years with a 120mm refractor. You want to upgrade to something much larger like a 10” Newtonian or an 11” SCT. You are ready to dedicate time into creating a completely automated imaging rig. A mount with a larger weight cap is going to be necessary. The Software Bisque MyT or the iOptron CEM70 could handle a scope of this size!

Any Questions? Contact Us!

In writing this article, our aim is to make your job just a bit easier! We hope that through these charts, you are able to narrow down your options and ultimately choose a mount to perfectly suit your astrophotography needs. If you have any additional questions about which mount may be the best option for you, our non-commissioned product advisors here at High Point Scientific are always available to help.