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

Product Information

With its 5kg payload capacity, the Star Adventurer GTi is well-equipped to handle your DLSR or mirrorless camera sporting a wide-angle or telephoto lens plus accessories, a small aperture astrograph with a dedicated astronomy camera, or simply an OTA for visual use via its 45mm dovetail saddle. Unlike the original Star Adventurer, the GTi model also has the ability to find deep-sky objects in the night sky using the SynScan GoTo system. It includes a dedicated WiFi-connected smartphone app, and can be used with autoguiding.

Once upon a time, astrophotography was a thing for the “real” men and women, far from being mainstream. To connect the mount to the ASIAIR for mount control (and autoguiding) you need this cable. You may find a similar option available online through one of the many astrophotography equipment vendors, but this is the exact one I use. Interfaces: USB, autoguider (ST4), SynScan hand controller, and a SNAP port for DSLR shutter control programmable via free SynScan Pro app Don’t load the mount with more than what it’s designed to handle. An ideal companion is a fast 50mm to 60mm apo refractor. While I found it can handle a lightweight 76mm refractor, I feel that’s the practical limit, as per the mount’s specifications. Of course, if you are shooting with a wide angle of short telephoto lens (about 100mm), you’ll be fine with the Az-GTI and this kit or even with a laser pointer (although it gives very coarse alignment, can annoy other astrophotographers and may be illegal in your country or in that area).

Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer GTi Go-To Equatorial Mount

If you want to squeeze the most from a compact and lightweight setup, the Sky-Watcher Az-GTI is probably the best choice, as it allows you to grow a fair bit before you will feel the need to upgrade to a larger mount. Alt/Az mounts are great for observing the many wonders of the Universe with your telescope, as they are easy and intuitive to use. Guided solar astrophotography setup on the Star Adventurer GTi -- Borg 100ED, Player One Saturn-C camera, Hutech Hinode solar guider. Operation as a Go-To Equatorial Mount

But then the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer came out and it was a game-changer, bringing astrophotography to the mass. Affordable, capable, lightweight, and compact, it was the perfect instrument for wetting our feet in the astrophotography pool. Mount is so light and very sturdy that it was good enough to hold my RVO 60ED Refractor with RVO 32mm Guidescope with ZWO ASI120MM Guide camera, 0.8x FF/FR, Canon 600D, with Pegasus Astro Buddy power box with a total weight of 3.8Kg, the mount held superbly, with it's 5kg payload, it handled my set-up with ease.

The Mount Head

I read a bit online about how the counterweight was too heavy to balance a very light setup, to my surprise rather than a single 5lb counterweight this came with 1.5lb and a 3.5lb counterweights. Sky-Watcher must have realised this was an issue and fixed it Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer GTi Go-To Equatorial Mount Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer GTi: Lightweight, Portable Go-To Equatorial Mount, 5kg Load Capacity