It seems that the only differencs are in the hand controller; the head itself remains exaclty the same. So, depending if you need the new astronomic features or not, you can buy the new one or the old one.

If you to to http://www.skywatcherusa.com/multifunct … 21300.html or http://www.telescopes.com/telescope-acc … nmount.cfm, you can get the old version (branded as the Sky-Watcher MultiFunction Mount) for $175.  If you get it from telescopes.com, you can use the coupon SG-5692 for $10 off, for a final cost of $165 with free shipping.  The downside is that telescopes.com, for some unfathomable reason, takes 15 working days to drop-ship it from the warehouse, which translates into 3 real weeks  

BTW - I got the coupon from http://www.retailmenot.com.  I always try to remember to check there before an online purchase - I have saved tons of money finding coupons there.  They are a sister site to http://www.bugmenot.com/, which is a sharing site for username/password combos for free sites (New York Times, for instance) where you want to avoid the hassle of registering and giving them your email.

Send it back,
it should look like this:
http://tinyurl.com/canlac

Hi Duke,

You can buy a new one here :

http://www.skywatcherusa.com/multifunct … 21300.html

This has a camera control but no Goto function (Goto is only for astrnomical use)

Last edited by claudevh (2009-02-13 01:10:49)

thanks Frank

Talked to Orion directly, they said it's not on the new system, but would not say why.  There is a new mother board, so it does not look like you can just "add" the port back.  I'll send the head back and order a Skywatcher head from telescope.com.

Just a quick thought: if needed, is the camera trigger something that could be done via a signal from Papywizard?

fma38 wrote:

Papywizard is able to send any signal needed; the main problem is to find some hardware using this signal to trigger the camera. If you can find a bluetooth module that have a relay output, or something like that...

Here's one - but I think it is rather too BIG!
http://www.relaycontrollers.com/mm5/mer … lay_Boards

Perhaps James Gentle could come up with something?:
http://www.gentles.ltd.uk/gentled/index.htm

Last edited by mediavets (2009-01-28 14:32:24)

Hi Duke and you all,

According the informations I have from my friends from astro, Skywatcher will not stop the production of the original Merlin/Orion Multi but they will only offer the Goto functionalities as an option and they will preserve the "inbuild remote triggering" for camera's (don't forget that the Merlin has been designed to serve the "Acuter camera" ...)

Those info's are not officially verified !
We should only buy the right one !