HEQ5 goto mount and ED80 imaging package

[Davros]

Selling my HEQ5 and accompanying ED80 including goto hand controller, Right angle diagonal and dew straps/ heater control. Its my basic imaging setup. I used it at Astrofest three years running but i just dont have the time to do anything with it anymore. It sits safely stored away in a cupboard. The mount was originally black but has been painted white and the scope was originally gold and has also been painted white. All are in great condition and it will be a great intro imaging set up for someone.
Pickup is from Caboolture Qld. Due to the weight postage is not feasible. Ive attached some images of it before the mount was painted. Its always worked well for me. It is a little noisy when it slews and i think it could really do with a small weight added to the extension to fine tune the balance to fix that.
Selling for $1000 complete.
cheers
Lauren

[vlazg]

Hi Lauren,
I am new to the forum and in fact i am totally new to astronomy, i have always been interested and now that i have retired i can now pursue my dream. Your equipment sounds like a great way to start and seems to be what i can afford. I am probably 50/50 observation and imaging, for photography, would i need anything else? i have a cannon 500d. I live in Darwin, 12 deg s, will the mount cope with this?Even though you said postage would not be advisable, can it be arranged if i purchase?
Regards
George

[Davros]

Hi George
If you are able to arrange a courier I could pack it at my end. The only thing you would need to be up and imaging is your camera. Everything else is included. I assume It would work fine at Darwin. I've never heard anything saying otherwise.
cheers
Lauren

[brian nordstrom]

Lauren and George I am sorry to say that an HEQ5 wont work at Darwins latitude, I know this as I lived in Palmerston for 6 years and have one. All is not lost as all you need is a pier extension . I will post a photo of mine set at 15 degrees the lowest these will go if you want.
Brian .

[vlazg]

Thanks Brian, could please show me and where is the pier extension available .
NT- why leave?
George

[astroboy]

I may be wrong but most mounts you can get around this by not having the counter weight over the tripod leg .
All you need to do is move the azmuth pin ( thats on top of the tripod ) 180 degrees .
Should work well as long as its not a very heavy load.

Thanks
Zane

[mithrandir]

You should always have the counterweight over a leg. It's not so important with a light load but a heavy set of counterweights can tip the tripod over while setting things up or tearing down.

Darwin is probably too far north to let you safely shorten the south facing leg to get the adjuster to be able to reach the correct angle.

Brian's suggestion of a pier extension with wedge is sensible, but it has to have an adjustment to let you get beyond the minimum latitude the mount supports.

[vlazg]

Thank you all, and thank you Davros, looks like the He q5 mount is not really suitable for my latitude, i guess i have to keep looking .

[rogerco]

I suspect that you will have problems with using a tripod at this latitude. The pier extension is not expensive whereas higher up mounts will be and will have much the same problem. If you want to get into astro photography there is a lot to be said for a permanent pier. This you can build yourself and use the top part of the tripod as the mounting plate for the mount. Alternatively there are portable piers that have three horizontal legs at the bottom.

This setup is a good buy, I have built up to this myself and I know how much more I have paid.

[Davros]

Package still for sale :)

[Ulric]

Hi,

Can you confirm the exact inclusions with this set up?
Does it include a finder scope or the standard eyepiece?

Also I would need to have it sent via a courier so I need to know the approximate weight to figure out what that may cost.

Paul.

[Davros]

Paul i have no idea as to weight (very very heavy) so i imagine it would cost a fortune to ship it. It does come with a finder scope and a couple of two inch eye pieces, as well as a drift alignment reticule.

[pcundell]

Lauren,

Im on the northside of brisbane and just getting into astrophotography
i am very interested, would an inspection be ok?

[PCH]

Hey Guys,

I can see people interested in this product, but needing shipping.

If it's of any help to potential buyers, many of us have used a mob called e-Go in the past and they are seriously well priced couriers.

Find them here .....

http://www.e-go.com.au/home.do

Hope it helps :)

[Ulric]

Hi,

Shipping via that service seems to be about twice what I managed to find elsewhere.

I think in this case it may be irrelevant anyway. I sent a PM last week and have heard nothing in reply so I assume the seller is not interested in my offer.

Paul.

[raymo]

Paul, The HEQ5 weighs approx. 25 kg all up. The scope and eyepieces
about 4kg, so work on 29kg plus 2 or 3kg for packaging.
raymo