Got my HEQ5 Pro goto today

[cometcatcher]

The lady that delivered it in two boxes was quite strong!

I haven't bought a mount since 1987 and this is my first goto mount. Eagerly waited for nightfall and remarkably it was relatively cloud free. Did a quick polar alignment and accidentally nailed it first go. Took the SW120 off that's in the photo and put on the ED80. Had a bit of a play with 1 star alignment.

Then out of curiosity I put in a reticle eyepiece to see how good the drive motors were at tracking. OMG the drive motors on this thing are accurate! I centered a star and the R.A. motor tracked a perfect bulls eye for 32 minutes! That's without PEC training! Is that normal for a HEQ5? At this rate I'm not going to need to use a guidescope, at least not for the ED80. Actually I still will since I'm sure my next PA will be terrible. I'm still dumbfounded by the accuracy of the R.A. drive though. My last mount would be lucky to track for 30 seconds without correction.

So very happy with this mount and will be learning the features for a bit yet.

[2stroke]

There pretty sweet and love mine to, get yourself eqmod and a eqdirect cable and you will be blown away totally. You must have done one nice drift alignment lol, i ussauly go to about 3mins using backyard eos and then guide after that.

[alistairsam]

Good stuff Kevin, they are good mounts. As Jay mentions, use eqmod with a usb cable and you'll not need the hand controller.
Also get a wireless game controller and that helps with centering stars for alignment or goto's.
btw, what did they say about max payload when you bought it? is it 10kg max?
Cheers

[Barrykgerdes]

Yes the HEQ5 Pro is a very good little GEM but don't overload it. I have one that I bought just to experiment with. It included the Synscan controller of course. I have used it with EQMOD, EQdir and with its own Synscan controller. I even wrote a program with inbuilt catalogues to drive it.

I found that the Synscan controller was far easier to use than the EQMOD even when connected to a computer program. EQMOD has quite a few extras that can be accessed from a computer than the Synscan controller does but the computer interface I have used only needs the readouts of its position, the ability to set a position and then initiate a goto, and for normal field use the synscan controller avoids any necessity for a separate computer.

Barry

[rolls05]

Very nice Kevin. I dont spose perchance you have the total weight of the packages.( shipping purposes)

[cometcatcher]

Rolls, according to the sticker the total weight of the packages was 32kg. But several astronomy shops are offering free freight for orders over $100 at the moment so freight was free.

Alistairsam, I believe the max payload of this HEQ5 is 14kg, but if doing photography I think it's recommended to only go 2/3 of that.

[Karls48]

I have tried EQMod and I did not like it. You are better off by using Chartes du Ciel or as I'm using SkyMap. Universal Celestron driver have a Synta driver included and small window will pop up allowing you to nudge telescope to centre the star you had slew to. By loading various star catalogues you have an information about the star of interest on your screen in instant.
At present my HEQ5 is loaded with SW 150mm F5 scope, Celestron 100mm F5 guider scope and guider camera GS right angle finder scope, Atik 14L+ camera and Quantum 7x 1.25 filer wheel. I guess about 15 kg. I got extra 4kg contra-weight on it. Mind you - longest exposure I do is 220 sec and I don't do meridian flip as my view is SW to NW. The mount has been working without any problems for last four years being left in the backyard covered with couple rubbish bags and plastic sheet when not in use.
I must add that I'm not imagining pretty pictures, just doing photometry. For nice looking stars colour stars images my setup would most likely fail miserably.

[cometcatcher]

Thanks for the info Karl.

This mount is such a big step up from what I'm used to, I'm happy to use it manually, or with the hand controller for the time being. It's so good to have dual axis control at my fingertips. All the old mounts were single axis.

At first it will just carry the ED80, but I have some 6 inch reflectors that I'll try at a later date. And of course your SW120. ;)

[cometcatcher]

Now that I have moved the mount around and messed up my perfect fluke alignment, how does one go about leveling the HEQ5? There's no convenient bubble level, and I don't really see a place to put one. Any suggestions?

[Sarge]

Kevin,
I use a small 6" carpenter's bubble level on the top of the tripod before attaching the mount head, take three readings, one in each direction of the legs. I also have a digital level, but prefer the bubble.

Clear skies

Rod
:D:D

[cometcatcher]

Thanks Rod. That's how I did it the first time. But just to be difficult I want to level it with all the gear attached. I hope the underside is just as level as the top because I've attached a level there.

[ew]

The same, a small round builders bubble level on the lens holder plate seems to be ok to level it, I use one star alignment for viewing or two star alignment when imaging with a DSLR and Orion Starshoot tracking on a Losmandy plate or just the C11 with DSLR attached. I am over the weight limit but expecting a extension shaft (Thanks to Trevor) for the HEQ5 which hopefully will allow using the Hyperion lenes with the DSLR (60Da) The C11 plus DSLR 13.6kg + counter weights 18.5 kg = 32.1kg The HEQ5 came with two 5kg weights It wouldn't take much to add 5kg of scope and camera so even the HEQ6 is under the weight recommended unless I'm reading the specs wrong. Bottom line I like the mount it handles what I throw at it...One word of warning, my hand controller failed, it was a very humid night but still I'd expect better, that said I have read some people put there controllers in a plastic glad bag, I think I was unlucky it is rare worse case the board goes in the mount which can be easily replaced.
I have gone on but it's all good, a great mount easy to use takes my abuse without complaining in my opinion :)

[cometcatcher]

Thanks for the info Eric.

I have attached the level and seems to be a great help.

This mount has really spoiled me. Instead of star hopping for half an hour to some comet I can't see, I just move the mount to the correct RA and DEC and there it is right in the middle of the viewfinder when I take a frame.

[RobF]

A digital level is a good investment too Colin. Let's you set quite a close angle for SCP once you know what it is for your site that is reproducible. I put mine on the OTA as a final check when setting up. Drift aligning is of course the ultimate if you'll be doing astrophotography.

Glad your enjoying your mount. I still get a smile everytime my mount slews to a target. Luxury! :)