Independent Reviews and Data

Here are some examples of what customers are saying and doing as they discover how good a DarkFrame StellarTune™, StellarDrive and StellarDrive™ ULTRA EQ mount is. We have logged PHD2 data too, and these are verifiable independent reviews and feedback of our mounts. 

We have hundreds and hundreds of them, here are a few. All the data your read on this site is customer supplied from real world use and their testing and usage. We've also won industry awards for the work we do on improving these mounts. Some of them end up in remote observatories, because of their dependability.

Some of our owners are, or go on to become highly accomplished astrophotographers, getting published in magazines, newspapers and online. That's because our mounts don't drop frames, so you get better images and more of them, every night.

Don't forget - they also paid to find out how good our mounts are, so they are scrutinised very heavily by our customers! You can test them yourself, so we do not need to make any claims on data. With over 80,000 hours of customer PHD2 data we can accurately predict what you should be getting performance wise, and how much more consistent our mounts are, once rebuilt.
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Dave Alger - Unguided Stellartuned HEQ5 Pro and Sky-Watcher 80ED Canon EOS DSLR

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"Just noticed another photo of Andromeda, I pushed the wrong button on the camera timer and it took a unguided photo of 652 seconds (nearly 11 minutes), estimate about 1 pixel movement, don't know what you have done to my mount but I'm amazed!"

5 minutes unguided -Dave Alger

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Mark Webster - Stellartuned (Gen2) AZ EQ6 GT Meade 10" LX200ACF 0.63x FR, Guided QHY10 2520mm focal length

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"Well I'm feeling excited forecast is looking good and I've got my AZ EQ6 GT mount back from David Woods after he's worked its magic on servicing it. I managed a quick go the other night before the clouds came in and managed 25 mins guided image of the bubble nebula with my 10inch Meade. To say I'm impressed is an understatement, I've never managed to get such round stars for such a long exposure. Can't wait to test it fully tonight. Here is the single 25 min unedited exposure I did the other night."

Mark Webster - "I know folk might be getting bored of me posting the bubble nebula all the time but I like to stay on a subject till I've got it all done. This was taken over the last couple of nights whilst the moon was up as well so a bit of a challenge as no narrowband filters were used. It consists of 31 X 15 min exposures taken with a colour QHY10 using a 10inch Meade with f6.3 focal reducer. I did have to crop the final image due to not getting the nebula in the same position each night.

I have never ever been able to take so many images and never lose one single image due to poor guiding. It's all down to the excellent job David http://www.darkframeoptics.com did on servicing my skywatcher AZ EQ6 GT mount. The best thing I have ever done thank you David!

I just want to also add this is in no way a dealer ad. I started astrophotography about 5 years ago and like most have had a nightmare trying to get my set up to perform well. I've spent a small fortune on trying this and that with no success . That's why I think it's important to give credit where it's due to something that actually works. Hence my praise for David Woods. For such a small amount of money he sorted my mount that now performs unbelievably well. I only came across his advert by accident earlier this year. Best money I ever spent"

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Martin Baker - Stellartuned (Gen2) NEQ6 WO FLT98 +SX694 CCD now StellarDrive 6 (v6.3x)

NEQ6 Tuning

NEQ6 Belt drive & tuning by Darkframe Optics I had decided to belt drive my NEQ6 earlier this year as it sounded like a washing machine full of spoons when starting to move. I had ordered the kit online from Rowan Astronomy. I met Dave Woods in early April who said he could carry out the mod & tune the mount to achieve more accurate tracking. + / - 2 arc seconds was his target. Well, Dave had the mount about 10 days. I think it was completed well within that time, I just couldn’t get down to collect it.

On viewing & hearing the mount running it was near silent by comparison to its previous state. Back home & re-installed in my observatory, holding an Altair 80EDT along with starlight Express SX694 & filter wheel, the mount ran beautifully, although I was getting oval star shapes & other errors. Mostly I must say down to my bad driving! Along with the weight of camera & filters on the focus tube. Some backlash in the dec axis became apparent after a couple of months. This was remedied with a visit from Dave in August when we had some better weather. We spent the evening adjusting (by Dave), running test images & getting better balance. Thank you Dave Woods. The results are quite amazing I must say, the mount will run guided using PHD2, between 1 & 1 ½ arc seconds depending on the sky conditions. The PHD2 graph now looks spiky if it goes over 2 arc sec! I can safely say Dave Woods’ skill has paid off & the result is an NEQ6 running sweet as a nut. He has also been available for questions & guidance in which his enthusiasm for the hobby & making things work correctly & well shine through. Yep! I’d highly recommend Dave Woods at Darkframe Optics if you need your mount overhauled or repaired. Thank you Dave.

HEQ5 First impressions Review from DyFi Astro - 
http://www.dyfiastro.co.uk/2016/11/21/everything-back-and-together-again/

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Rob Scoles - My Celestron AVX now runs much smoother and quieter since you've tuned it. It feels much better than before, and the stiffer DEC axis is now cured. Balance is easier, and I'm sure that helps. Can't wait to try it out with my C8 when we get some really dark skies, but I had it out and it tracked Jupiter really well all night without leaving the centre of the eyepiece. Thanks for the PHD guiding advice too. 

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Pete Voller - My AZEQ6GT rocked badly in RA. The rebuild you've has performed on my mount has transformed it. It just spins like there is no resistance in either axis, and the mount even sounds smoother! It has no movement or flex, and feels so solid it's bizarre, as you think nothing that tight can move with such fluidity when unlocked. You can tell when it runs, that this mount has had magic applied. There's no other way to explain it, and I was an Aviation Engineer. Can't wait for the weather to clear. Thank you for the time you spent going through what you did to my mount. It makes all the difference when someone actually cares about what they do, because it shows in their products. I won't be selling my mount because this build quality is impressive, unless DarkFrame ends up building their own. Then I'll be your first customer for sure! 

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Peter Biddell -  StellarDrive 6 (then ULTRA prorotype) The performance of the mount I have observed so far in PHD2 is amazing compared to how I remember from last time when I was guiding in the program, [now] virtually flat lines in Dec and RA. Just looking forward to the next spell of imaging. Kind Regards

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Matt Walker - Dave, the StellarDrive 6 Upgrade on my mount is impressive. I'm getting 0.3 arcecs RMS with my ED80 and 0.4 arcsec with my Meade LX200 10". It just sits there. The RA just glides, and it seems quieter. Rock solid 20 minute images, and perfect stars. I was looking at a Mesu 200 but this now does the job. Thanks for the help with PHD, really helpful. Can't wait to see what you can do to my EQ5.

Mr. S Neil - Thank you for your advice today. Honest service. Superb knowledge.

Mr S. Dunbar - Dave is knowledgeable and enthusiastic, and has done a great job on my HEQ5 mount. Can't wait to see what it will do now. Great Service happy to recommend, and will no doubt be returning for more goodies including a new guide camera. If the wife lets me!

Mr S. Norman - The best person to buy astronomy equipment from is someone who actually does astronomy. I will always go to DarkFrame for all my telescope equipment and servicing.

Peter Jenkins - StellarDrive EQ8 (sidewinder) Image Gallery

Emil Andronic - StellarTune EQ6 & StellarDrive 6GT  Image Gallery

Tim Jackson  -  StellarDrive EQ5  Image Gallery

Fakhri Al-Alami - StellarDrive 5   Instagram

André Vihena - StellarDrive 6R   AstroBin Gallery