Altazimuth Mounts

Deciding which altazimuth mount is best for you? Check out our helpful Altazimuth Mount Guide below!

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Altazimuth Mount Guide

An altazimuth mount, or alt-az for short, moves the telescope up and down (altitude) and left and right (azimuth) using only two axes. Altazimuth telescope mounts are simple to use because they allow you to just point and observe while keeping the telescope upright. For that reason, we always recommend an alt-az mount for visual observing. If you're looking for a mount for deep sky astrophotography, an equatorial mount or hybrid mount is going to be a better choice.

A few different altazimuth telescope mounts for telescopesA few different altazimuth mounts, both manual and GoTo


Types of Altazimuth Mounts

Alt-azimuth mounts come in a variety of different types. Each one has its pros and cons, and will depend on your budget. Manual altazimuth mounts are inexpensive, but won't track the night sky. GoTo altazimuth mounts track the sky but are more expensive. Lastly, Dobsonian mount telescopes offer a convenient way to maneuver a large telescope.


Manual Altazimuth Mounts


The Vixen Porta II Manual Alt-Az Mount

Manual alt-az mounts are the most affordable type of telescope mount, and are great for both beginner and advanced visual astronomers. Most beginner telescopes designed for visual astronomy will come with a manual alt-az mount. This is usually just a tripod with an adjustable head that allows you to aim the telescope up, down, left, and right. The downside to manual alt-az mounts is that you will have to constantly readjust the telescope to keep your object centered. Due to the Earth's rotation, objects will drift out of view after a minute or two.


GoTo Altazimuth Mounts


Sky Watcher AZ GTi GoTo Alt-Az Mount

Many alt-az mounts are now computerized and include a feature called GoTo. This lets you enter an object into a hand controller or smartphone, and the alt-az mount will use motors to automatically locate and track targets. GoTo alt-az mounts are more expensive and require a little more time to set up, but most observers prefer them because they keep the objects centered. Look for the terms GoTo or Computerized when shopping for one of these.


The Dobsonian Mount

Dobsonian Telescopes use a swivel-style altazimuth mountA Dobsonian telescope uses a swivel-style alt-az mount to aim and point

In the 1960s amateur astronomer John Dobson created a new version of the alt-az mount. Instead of using a tripod, he took a Lazy Susan style base that swivels left and right. The balanced telescope, a Newtonian reflector, could then be aimed up or down. This allowed a much larger telescope to be mounted for a relatively low cost. 

This new type of mount became known as the Dobsonian. Nowadays, the term Dobsonian is broadly used to describe any telescope using a Dobsonian mount. Dobsonians are still excellent telescopes for visually observing. Perhaps the best part about the Dobsonian is that it is a highly-scalable design, so Dobsonians come in many sizes. Many expert visual astronomers swear by their large Dobsonians.



Who is the Altazimuth Mount best for?

The alt-az mount is best for beginners through expert level astronomers who visually observe through a telescope eyepiece, though they can be used for basic astrophotography. Alt-az mounts are easy to use and are usually more portable than an equatorial mount.

Can You Use an Altazimuth Mount for Astrophotography?

Yes, you can use an altazimuth mount for astrophotography, but it depends on what kind of astrophotography you wish to do. For simple, short exposure images of the Moon and planets with a smartphone, an alt-az mount is more than capable. For more complex deep sky images of galaxies and nebulae, an alt-az mount is going to be vastly inferior to an equatorial mount. The reason for this is alt-az mounts cannot account for field rotation. Even though they can keep objects centered, the field around them (like stars) will appear to rotate over the course of time.

That being said, if you are using a computerized alt-az mount with tracking, you may still be able to take medium length (around 15-30 second) exposures without star trailing. This is sometimes enough to capture brighter deep sky objects such as the Orion Nebula or the Andromeda Galaxy, especially when you stack hundreds of these individual exposures.

An equatorial wedge for Celestron NexStar SE altazimuth mountsAn equatorial wedge for Celestron NexStar SE altazimuth mounts

Another option is to use an equatorial wedge. This allows you to tilt your alt-az mount up to match your latitude, which then effectively turns your alt-az mount into an equatorial mount. These are not very popular, though, because they aren’t nearly as good as a true equatorial mount and the wedges are only available for select telescopes like the Celestron NexStar SE series.

Many don’t realize that a computerized alt-az mount with tracking is also a great choice for planetary astrophotography. The best planetary images also utilize stacking thousands of short exposures, which usually requires tracking the planet for minutes at a time. The best planetary images come from large aperture telescopes. For these reasons, many experienced planetary imagers often opt for a Dobsonian with tracking/GoTo, as a Dobsonian checks both of those boxes.

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