Hi
I'm waiting for my HEQ5-Pro and have a question about balancing it with my DSLR and telephoto lenses. I'll not be using a scope for some time and am interested if anyone can offer any tips regarding balancing with a full frame dslr and 150 2.0 prime and 200mm 2.8 lenses?
Can it be done with no counterweights or 1 counterweight high up or do I need a lighter counterweight than the 5Kg units supplied?
Any and all advice appreciated as I've only used the Ioptron SkyTracker for long exposures before and this is a bit of a learning curve for me. Done plenty of study and watched video's on balancing with a scope but cannot find anything for balancing with DSLR and telephoto lens only!
Regards
GarP
The plate that I have my DSLR connected to is reasonably heavy (not sure what you're using) but I found that if I use the 5.1kg weight up as high as possible with the weight shaft also drawn in, it was a good place to start. Worked fine for me.
Just a quick mention, keeping the majority of the weight up close is better than a light weight at the end of the shaft. Even though the rig will balance out, the extended lever arm could cause undue wear on the bearings when it is out perpendicular to the mount. It doesn't sound like much but a 1Kg weight at 50 cm out from center will put slightly more pressure on the bearings than a 5Kg weight 10 cm out from center. A good set of bearings probably won't suffer too much as long as there is no play what so ever. But mass produced mechanics typically have some play and it may take a couple of years but the wear would start to show in PEC and tracking reliability.
Terry Cuttle shared a pic last week, that showed how he solved that problem.
He fills a juice bottle with sand, shoves the bar into the bottle, then gaffer tapes it in place.
Definitely not an elegant solution , but one that works for him.