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Old 14-07-2010, 09:04 PM
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Screwdriverone (Chris)
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First Light: HEQ5Pro and N200 BD: Taking the new Beast for a Spin

Hi All,

If you dont already know, I have recently purchased an HEQ5 with a BD N200 (8 Inch) reflector package which after much deliberation here I took off yesterday and bought. I assembled and tinkered with it last night but due to the clouds, I had to wait till tonight for first light.

But TONIGHT! - Yeehah! clear skies (must be a record)!!!

Went out today and bought myself a little 600A Power tank from Super Cheap for only $39.95, has a light and a meter for the battery level and drives the mount sweetly! Cool.

Took the beast out the back around 7pm, started the learning process and found out a few things;

1) The polar scope is pretty much useless, the only thing I can see when I rotate the scope so the hole is lined up is still the bright red patterns of Polaris and Octans etc, NO stars as its just a wall of red, am I missing something here? Can you turn off the light, or do you have to turn of the mount to see anything through it?

2) Knowing what the SCP looks like helped a lot (see my excellent article ) to get a rough polar alignment sorted. I adjusted the Alt scale and shuffled it around to where it was close enough.

3) REMEMBER the star names - sheeesh!, pointed the scope to the wrong stars a number of times (Acrux for Alpha Cent, etc) - its been a while....and I have been using a DOB.

4) Once I figured out how to get a successful alignment (used stars in the same side of the sky - Antares, Alpha Cent and Acrux) the mount tracked pretty well, each object was within the 13mm eyepiece (76X mag)

5) Once aligned I then tried the Stellarium Scope program to drive the scope from the Laptop. Connected OK but then, DAMN, the program thought the scope was PARKED. Bugger, once EQmod control took over via Stellarium it screwed up my alignment as the scope was pointed at M4 and Stellarium thought it was on the SCP, oh well, rinse and repeat. I figured out the hard way that BEFORE you attempt Stellarium control, Align the mount successfully, then PARK the scope, then select the PC Direct from the menu, THEN connect up Stellarium Scope and VOILA! PC control of the HEQ5 - FUNKY . Had some fun showing the kids how to point and click and whiiiiirrrrrr, slew, look, COOL!

6) Disconnected all the techy stuff and went back to the handpiece to become familiarised with the controls and then took it for a spin around Scorpius using the TOUR function, saw Eagle, Swan and Trifid Nebulae quite easily with a far bit of skyglow, went to M57 the Ring Nebula for the first time - very nice... Even though the alignment worked, I still had to fine tune most things - EXCEPT all the objects near my alignment points (eg. Scorpius DSO's and Crux area)

7) The 8" has a surprising amount of reach for a relatively smaller scope than my 12" dob, I was surprised how similar the usual suspects appeared in the 13mm eyepiece (1000mm FL on the 8, 1500mm on the 12) Things werent THAT much dimmer either. Depending on my mood, I may offload the dob if this new toy takes over the Star Trek cool factor within me....

8) Bugger me, the mount is HEAVY! I used to pick up the EQ2 with the scope and the counterweights etc and take it up the backyard steps next to the pool no problem. Not this one, I took the tube off, the counterweights off and THEN carried the tripod and the head as one and reassembled. Awkward to take the whole thing as one...

9) No doubt I will have to bone up on learning the black art of drift aligning again. I had it sorted once or twice with a lot of stuffing around on the EQ2, but didnt really take advantage of it as I had no real proper tracking back then. Stuffing around trying to find the SCP visually is a pain in the butt, even if I do know what to look for. Unless the polar scope myth can be sorted, its the dark side sooner or later.

10) I literally had to STOP myself from running back inside and grabbing the webcam and the DSLR and whacking it all on the scope to try and get some photos. After I calmed down a bit, I realised that I need to get the fundamentals right with lining up the scope, the mount, the alignment etc and get really used to the tricks and traps before I attempt anything too fancy, otherwise disappointment might ensue. PLENTY of time for that later....

11) Clouds came over (AND it was a bit windy and cold) and ruined my fun, I was getting used to the funny angles the reflector focuser ended up in after slewing. Not so bad after a while, at least the beast is TALL and I dont have to do the old man crouch like I did on the dob.

12) Found out the hard way this afternoon when I got around to the collimation of the tube that the PRIMARY mirror is screwed all the way down the bottom of the tube for transport. Could not for the life of me figure out why the freaking secondary would not look centred in the focuser and the primary spot was off to one side when looking in the focuser (had to fix that too as the silly factory workers decided to pack two washers on one side of the screws and therefore had to skew the focuser using the adjustment allen keys which screwed up the aligment of the focuser. Took it apart and found and rectified that). Once I unscrewed the primary so it went up the tube more, the secondary all worked out properly and I had the laser sorted as well as the concentric circles looking in the focuser - collimation KING I am now!

13) Overall I am very happy with the purchase. Love the look and feel of the whole thing. A bit disappointed I didnt buy this before the dob, considering it ended up being cheaper than the dob was, but hey, story of my life... I will definitely be back out there soon to have some more fun and get more familiar with the alignments and drifting etc and then once I have all that sorted will dabble in the Astrophotography which is the main reason for buying the new toy. I will also have a GOOD LONG read of the posts here concerning all things related to my gear to shortcut some of the inevitable hurdles which I keep banging my shins into.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my essay, sorry if it was a bit long.

Cheers for now

Chris

Last edited by Screwdriverone; 14-07-2010 at 09:38 PM. Reason: Hadnt finished
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Old 14-07-2010, 09:09 PM
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Brian W (Brian)
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what can I say but thanks for reminding me why I do not have a computerized scope.
Brian
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Old 15-07-2010, 10:10 AM
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mldee (Mike)
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Good stuff Chris!

If you intend to primarily do your imaging from your house, and you have room out back, why not consider putting a 3-4" pipe in the ground (cemented) to make a simple pier, and keep the basic HEQ5 on that, so it can sit there parked at SCP. Easy to take the scope inside each night, make a litle removable weatherproof fabric/plastic cover for the mount on the pier, and you could even run a cable out to it so you can use your lappy from inside. No more mozzies or alignments!

I'm fortunate to have built a simple obs, and now do all my imaging from inside, but I always thought even a simple fixed pipe-pier in the back yard would be a very cost effective way of not having to lug the mount out and drift align each night.

Don't forget my sermonette on Barlow-laser collimation. Like you, I thought a straight laser would be fine. No, it lies, by being just a point source. You need a nice set of parallel rays to get your primary correctly aligned. A cheap no-name used Barlow in reverse does that for you. Google is your friend.

As they say; trust me, been there, done that
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Old 15-07-2010, 02:04 PM
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Screwdriverone (Chris)
I have detailed files....

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Hi Mike,

Great idea for the pier, I was always thinking big and worrying about the full on observatory, however, I could probably get away with that and maybe disguise the top with a bird feeder or such to satisfy the missus Nah, too much mess.

I have thought about barlowing the laser, mine isnt a proper dot anyway (more of a line) and rather than stuff around collimating the laser, I was going to barlow it and see how that went.

All great ideas, thanks.

Chris
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Old 15-07-2010, 04:16 PM
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Congrats on the new scope Chris.
Oh, the fun and games setting up ..... and good to hear others do silly things re getting the stars mixed up. Doh .... you know Acrux isnt Alpha Centauri, but we still do it.
It will be great though, when you have mastered the beast!!
I wouldnt have the patience, which is why I have a dob.
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Old 16-07-2010, 02:50 PM
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Screwdriverone (Chris)
I have detailed files....

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Thanks Liz,

Bit cold last night (yes, I am a woos) so no playtime, may have a go tonight after boning up on my drift alignment techniques and playing with the polarscope and the DSLT T ring on the focuser....

Fingers crossed.

Cheers

Chris
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Old 16-07-2010, 07:58 PM
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Paddy (Patrick)
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Congratulations on the new gear and the entree into a whole new world of technical challenges! Look forward to further news as it comes to hand.
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Old 16-07-2010, 08:19 PM
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Congrats on the new mount Chris. Sounds like your having fun with it already. Can't wait to see some of your pics.
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Old 17-07-2010, 07:34 PM
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Screwdriverone (Chris)
I have detailed files....

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Thanks Patrick and Rex,

I have managed to try a few different AP's from last night on some Sagittarius M objects which I have posted in the beginner's Astrophotography forum.

Cheers

Chris
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