At the end of the Nihon Seiko saga in 1999 Unitron launches a set of digital setting circles for the 3" equatorial telescope. A last action to compete with the Celestron and Meade computerized telescopes. Too late. The war is over. The computerized mounted SCT telescopes won the war.
Unitron made two different versions of the ImageTrac: an automatic version with motors for the RA and the dec and a manual, Push-to version. It's the manual version we're reviewing.
I don't think Unitron sold a lot of these ImageTrac kits. I was able to buy the rest of the sets.
Not many people know about this accessory. Some people find it a contradiction: equipping a manual mount with a computer. There can be a lot of discussion about this.
In my search to modernize the classic telescopes I was very interested in the setting circles. Would they work? Are they user friendly? Answer: yes, the ImageTrac is a great solution.
The 75mm Polarex Unitron refractor doesn't have the reputation of being a deep sky telescope. You'd be surprised what you can observe with this scope. I use the 75mm a lot for deep sky. It is installed as a guide scope on my 30cm Cassegrain.
The ImageTrac will make it easier to observe deep sky with the original Polarex mount.
About the hardware
Don't forget it's a set developed in 1999. The ImageTrac was developed by a Canadian company called Maestronix as the Eureka.
The kit has the following parts:
- the huge and well made keypad
- the connector box
- the cables
- the two digital setting circles
- 3 discs with the software
- installation guide
All the parts are professionally made.
The digital specifications from Unitron
| Dimensions: 9 1/4" x 5" x 1 1/4" |
| Display: Liquid crystal (LCD) 4 lines of 20 back lighted characters |
| Keypad: 21 backlit keys |
| Serial Por: RS-232C, 9600bps, 8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit (9600 8N1) |
| Power Supply: 24V DC, 600mA |
| Backup Cell: Lithium CR 2032 3V |
| Power Consumption: Less than 16W (when both motors are rotating at full velocity and automatic heating element is on) |
| Appropriate Use Temperature: -30°C to +40°C |
| Box: Superior quality ABS |
The digital setting circles are tailormade for the 3" mount. The housing is black aluminum and fit very well with the black mount.
The connection is obvious. Very user friendly.
Installing the digital setting circles
The digital setting circles replace the manual ones. The manual ones can easily be removed from the mount. The setting circles fit perfectly on the shafts.
One tricky thing is not to forget to remove the protecting foam inside the setting circle.
The software
In the box you find 3 floppy discs... Floppy discs? Don't forget the year 1999. The soft was developed for Windows 3.11. Couldn't find a computer still running this first version of Windows. Installed the soft on a computer running Windows 2K Professional and later on a computer running Windows XP. No problem.
The software is necessary to load and to manage the deepsky catalogs. In the keypad two catalogs are loaded: Messier and NGC. In the soft there are 5 different catalogs. Enough to observe for a couple of months...
Making the connection between the keypad and the computer is done with a serial cable. The original cable can't be used because it hasn't got the right serial connector. A simple serial cable will do the job.
You can filter the catalogs on a lot of parameters.
Using the Imagetrac
You can compare the ImageTrac with Argo Navis controller. It has the same functions but it isn't so user friendly as the Argo. Again we're in 1999.
First step is to initialize the ImageTrac with date, time and location, then point your telescope to a reference star and select the reference star in the keypad.
Next step is to select the object from the catalog you want to observe. Press GOTO and see the direction you have to turn the mount to to find the object. Push the mount until you hear a beep and get the message "Lock Axis". The object should be visible in your eyepiece.
Under the stars
The most important condition in using a GOTO system is polar alignment. The better the polar alignment the better the GOTO. I installed a polar scope on the mount and this makes life a lot easier.
Using the ImageTrac is very easy. After aligning the mount and selecting the reference star it's easy to find an object.
First I aligned on Alfa Cassiopeia and then selected M31 the Andromeda Nebula. No problem : the Nebula was in the center of view. Then the Blue Snowball Nebula. It's perfectly visible in the 75mm Polarex. First with a Nagler 25mm and then with the 7mm Nagler.
Conclusion
Love it. The ImageTrac is well made and works perfectly for a system developed in 1999.
If you want to get more out of your classic scope you should try the ImageTrac.
The ImageTrac is now permanently installed on my mount.
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