Sky Watcher EQM-35 – Fully Computerized GoTo German Equatorial Telescope Mount – Belt-driven, Astrophotography ready, Computerized Hand Controller with 42,900+ Celestial Object Database,White

I normally don't leave reviews anymore these days but figured I would leave one today because I am jazzed on Astrophotography and this mount! Why the EQM35? Well, it’s a good budget mount at $725, it can also handle up to 22 pounds of weight so if I ever outgrow the RedCat Telescope I can upgrade to a larger APO. Also, this mount offers a GOTO system so you can plug in the coordinates into the SynScan hand control unit and find 49,000 objects in the sky. Out of the box, it can track 30-60 seconds in the stars. I have been averaging about 30-40 seconds without guiding. Overall this is a great setup however there are some drawbacks. First, the setup requires power so you need a dedicated power supply for the EQM-3. Either you need a power cell that supports a 12V cigarette lighter or a dedicated power supply. Since I don’t plan on leaving my Bortles Class 4 backyard for the current time being, I purchased the Celestron AC Adapter – 5 Amp Continuous power, Black (18780) which was recommended by the Sky-Watcher customer service team whom I can say is darn right amazing! Next, it’s more complex so when you set this up not only do you need to polar align the mount you also need to configure either 1, 2, or 3-star alignment so you can easily move around the sky. So far the single star alignment was been working great for me! Finally, it’s bulkier than say an iOptron Sky-Guider Pro so it’s not as easy to just pick up and move, so if you do move it during a session you need polar align and star align again. Even with the few drawbacks, it’s a fantastic mount and so stable! I have been really pleased with the setup, instructions, and overall solid build quality even though it’s an entry mount. Also, solid customer service is a big plus! As long as I don’t keep going down the rabbit hole of buying more astrophotography equipment this setup should last me for multiple years. I also included an image of M11 the Wild Duck Cluster as well. -------- Issues / Solutions I have had with the mount #1 When star aligning the mount I could do a fine adjustment with the arrow pad after pointing to VEGA. I wasn't sure but suspected I needed to update the firmware which can be done with a USB Printer cable and software from the main SkyWatcher.com website. First, plug in the mount and USB cable to the SysScan hand unit and check in the device manager on Windows under ports. Mine was COM3. Next, turn off the mount and unplug the USB printer cable then while holding down 0 and 8 on the SysScan hand unit turn on the power. It will then boot into the boot loader mode, plug in the USB cable, and run the software to upgrade. The current version is 4.39.15 as of 5.10.2020. Once the process updates shut down the system and unplug the USB cable. #2 The SysScan holder unit slides around a lot and I dropped the handheld unit multiple times as the holder was sliding around when I grabbed the SysScan. I put two rubber bands on the leg in between the holder unit and it works great now without moving any more. I have a picture of it attached to the post.

It should probably have a 5 star review because I do have a limited view of the sky so a 3 star alignment is a bit tricky. With that being said, the polar scope and alignment is pretty easy and when doing a 2 or 3 star alignment it tells you how far off axis you are. When aligned properly the tracking is excellent. I have been able to take 2 minute exposures with very little or no drift. The tripod is solid and well built. The only issue that I did have was the goto function. I got in touch with Skywatcher support and they are very good. Basically the bubble level on the head isn't always accurate. So I did what they said and leveled it using a different bubble level and that increase the accuracy quite a bit. It still isn't perfect, but it is pretty good.

Tl;dr: This is a fantastic, solid, stable, highly capable, mount. The tripod alone is almost worth the price, it makes most tripods for mounts in this category look like they were made out of fly-fishing poles. The 'modular' design is a bit weird, but the mount controller has a usb-b port, making computer control straightforward - if you have a phd in computer science (luckily, I do - nothing is 'straightforward' in astrophotography!). It is heavy though, probably not one for a camping trip or frequent 'dark site' trips unless you are much younger than me (78). Now for the rant: This mount has bushings, rather than ball or roller bearings, on both RA and DEC axis. (Minor peeve - 'bushings' ARE 'bearings'. They aren't ball or roller bearings, but beware of any online advice saying this mount doesn't have 'bearings'. The writer has already revealed how little s/he knows.) The bushings often come from the factory extremely tight and stiff. Perhaps the factory assumes they will loosen as they 'work in'. In any case, this can result in poor, erratic (jerky) tracking. Ok for visual use, maybe, horrible for astrophotography. There are simple fixes for this. See esp 'Sky-Watcher EQM-35 - making it work properly (BELOW 1" RMS GUIDING) in 3 simple steps!' by Kamil Pekala on YT. 'Simple' - well, maybe. I bought mine from Amazon resale for a nice discount. Perfect condition, except the previous buyer obviously attempted an overhaul similar to what Kamil describes, and failed. The DEC locking collar was extremely stiff, and the previous owner was unable to loosen it, creating minor damage in the process. Luckily, nothing I couldn't work around. So. Do I recommend this mount: ABSOLUTELY, if you are comfortable around mechanicals and parts that can bind and be a bear to get to release. HOWEVER, If you just want something plug-and-play, and have never played with engines, axles, grease, and that sort of stuff, well, maybe this isn't the mount for you.

This mount could have been great. It was designed well but looks like someone made an out of spec part or its missing a bushing. Where the head mounts to the base there, both parts are tapered. The problem is that they are different sizes. So the tapered fit fails its design goal. The solution is a custom plastic thin tapered spacer that eliminates the mismatch. To me it looks as though someone either built the parts out of spec or forgot to include a spacer. The result is the base does not hold the head effectively. No amount of tightening can resolve the issue. My mount also had a serious misalignment of the gears on the dec axis. They meshed at an angle causing terrible noise. The backlash is best described as slop. Luckily it is adjustable. If you are mechanically minded, have access to a lathe and have the skills to make thin tapered bushings, you can make this a good mount. As it us however, its pretty bad. If they spent that last 10% effort in quality control, by actually understanding how its meant to work, it would be a great product. Its like buying a good car but the steering wheel swings 90 degrees before engaging. The user frustration being the same for both.

I am fairly new to this hobby, but I've owned this mount for about 5 months. Unfortunately I have only had a handful of decent clear nights to use it. I'm using a small 80mm scope on it with a DSLR attached at this time. It tracks perfectly fine for my needs, which is amateur level astrophotography. I am not autoguiding, so I can't speak to that. Pros: It is lightweight and easy to move around. Setup from leveling to tracking is about 20 minutes, depending on how quickly I can zero in on Polaris. The quality of all of the components is quite good. It's nice that it comes with a polar scope. Many entry-level mounts do not. I did have to disassemble the reticle in the PA scope, as the "clock" face in the reticle was not aligned to the Home position. I use a PA app to determine the proper location of Polaris, so aligning the reticle with 12 o'clock hour at the top made things a lot easier. You will also need to align the PA scope with the mount itself. There are plenty of video tutorials on this, and I highly recommend doing that first, before doing anything else. This is required with any EQ mount, but you should only need to do it once and then maybe check it occasionally. Once that is fine-tuned and you get polar alignment, as well as synscan alignment, the system tracks perfectly and will hold your target for hours, probably all night. GoTo is generally very good, but relies heavily on Synscan alignment of course. It is very quiet, nearly silent when tracking. Slewing won't wake up the neighbors, as the stepper motors will only generate a slight whine. There is some backlash, which I haven't tried to fine tune yet. Included counterweights are actually quite heavy, and too much for my lighter equipment, so I had to find some collar clamps at the hardware store to hold some smaller counterweights (2.5lb barbell weights). I could easily run with heavier equipment. Skywatcher says up to 100mm refractor or 127mm Maks. You'll need a 12V power supply as it does not ship with an AC adapter. I use a jump starter PS from HF with the car socket plugin. There are other solutions but that one is easiest for me. Cons: Reticle not aligned or illuminated Tiny black marks on green aluminum are difficult/impossible to read in red light. The RA and DEC motors have external wiring which can sometimes get in the way. A minor nuisance. Would be nice if it also came with small counterweights, especially since you can use it with the L-bracket to only hold a DSLR. No AC adapter I give 5 stars for being what says it is-- a very good entry level EQ mount for a lightweight AP rig. If you're in this market, you won't be disappointed.

This mount is very good for "beginners", but not really easy to work with if you don't know what you're doing. I'm going to start with my setup: - Mount: EQM-35 - Telescope: Celestron Nexstar 6SE - Control: Laptop connected via software - Software: Stellarium & Starry Night 8 (got if free with my 6SE) So basically this is a very sturdy mount for my telescope, if you go with a similar or smaller scope go for it. Set up was a little complicated as I was reading the wrong part of the manual (user error). But after I figured it out it was pretty straight foward. One small issue is that the aligning scope came 270° shifted to the side, which I had to manually correct by disassembling it; something that should come perfect from factory as the mount simply won't align properly especially if you get the manual version. But that was it. Now for software setup. The best way to get this working properly as I've read in forums and found out myself through trial and error is to have the following softwares installed. First you're going to need ASCOM as well as the ASCOM EQMOD (both are needed to work properly) connected via an USB type B directly on the controller of the mount. Second you'll need a stargazing app, I recommend Stellarium for first timers as it is the easiest to learn and there are plenty of tutorials on YouTube on how to use it and it is also a great base for any future apps you might want to get later on. Just make sure you get the Qt5 version of Stellarium as the Qt6 does not support ASCOM and won't work connect to the mount. For connecting to the mount and alignment, just go with a tutorial on YT, it's very simple and works wonders; it just takes a little bit of time and some getting used to. The manual also has some instructions if you decide to use the hand controller instead, which is actually a lot simpler and easier to use but won't have as many stargazing and deep sky options compared to a specialized software. If you do all of this correctly it should all work fine. Good luck and have fun with your new toy :)

I've has this mount for almost two years and have had nothing but problems. I think it's the electronics that are screwed up. I've never been able to get the scope to track at all. The hand controller read out indicates it is slewing but nothing happens with the motors. It will slew with sometimes with Stellarium to some random place but then it always disconnects. I've used three different laptops and it's the same problem. Popular astro software doesn't work with this mount either. I've updated the firmware, sought advice and nobody can figure it out. I've thought about buying a new hand controller/computer, but I'm reluctant to sink anymore money into this mount. The good part is it is a solid stable mount, but that's is useless if the electronics don't work. I guess it would make a great boat anchor.

I do think it’s a good budget tripod, however I definitely wish I would have bought the eq6 or something A little more expensive that has more modification options. I’m currently using an evostar 100ed on this tripod and I find that because of my tubes length (36inch) plus my camera, whenever I’m attempting to image something high in the sky I can’t get much time with it because the camera/telescope ends up hitting the tripod leg, completely ruining the tracking and I have to realign and start over or just call it for the night. They do NOT make a pier extension (a rod that raises the mount off the tripod legs for more room) for this mount and it’s very unfortunate because i do really enjoy the ease of use and portability of this thing. It would go great with smaller scopes. Do note though that tracking is NOT perfect, but it’s quite good for what you are paying for. There will be some drift in your final stacked images that you will have to crop out (it’s really not as bad as it sounds), but you could also spend $150-300 on a guide camera+scope and get much more accurate tracking as the tripod does support this way of operation. All in all, 4/5 stars only because there really isn’t much room to grow with this tripod, if you end up getting bigger or heavier scopes you will need to upgrade to avoid the problems in running into. If you’re just a beginner, and are going to take your time learning and probably not go too crazy with the upgrades and stuff, this tripod could be for you.

Items delivered in good time from US with all custom clearance sorted by Amazon hassle free. The tripods are strong and sturdy with no wobbles. Once learnt to set up, very easy to use. Even with 1 star alignment after pilot scope polar alignment with Polaris, it goes to target accurately and tracks well. Use with a Sony A7 mirrorless camera and a Alkar AClL 200mm lens, balanced with just one counter weight, 5 mins exposed picture show round and sharp stars. Without guiding scope, the target object stays at the centre of the frame after 2 hrs of shooting. Very happy for my equipment setting.

Works well with a DSLR or a Celestron 8SE M CASS telescope. Excellent performance. Arrived from supplier in NJ in record time.

La montura es realmente robusta , fue fácil el ensamblarla , venia muy bien empacada y protegida, trae dos manuales uno de ellos para la Guía automática, estoy muy satisfecho con la compra .

Excelente calidad del producto, muy precisa en su funcionamiento, realmente estoy contento en haber adquirido esta marca de montura ecuatorial, altamente recomendable para visual, fotografía de campo amplio, planetario y cielo profundo, únicamente cambiando las características de los telescopios y uso de la cámara DRLS.