Skywatcher announce new EQ8R and EQ8Rh mounts

[Startrek]

Just saw Dylan O’Donnell announce the new Skywatcher EQ8R and EQ8Rh mounts
They look like a quality upgrade from the old EQ8, plenty of good features
I’d love to own one but more suited to a observatory not really a set up put away option in the backyard or remote site, a bit to heavy for me , my EQ6R is my limit and very happy with its performance
Anyone one else see the announcement ?

[The_bluester]

I saw it shortly after. While they are pretty costly it does cover one of my EQ8 gripes, in that the looked like a pretty decent thing aside from the balance issues with motor placement, but suffered from the same score of zero for cable management as almost everything else on the market.


I assume with internal cabling in a GEM they must have physical axis limit stop to keep from destroying the internal cabling.

[Nikolas]

Saw the launch, I love Dylan's work but far out they are expensive!
Do they come with built in GPS? Also there is nowhere to mount a polar scope or polemaster so you'd need to improvise. For something that expensive one would think they would come up with a polar alignment camera or even built in guiding somehow. Yes they are more designed for observatories but even so.

[The_bluester]

There is a bolt on polarscope bracket for the EQ8, presumably that carries over to the new version.



I think for the price I would want to see a few other early adopters before I bought one. I would not need the payload of the EQ8 and can still hear a CEM60EC calling my name I think. I might still look at the new EQ8 but I would want to see one in action and get my hands on it myself for a play.

[RobF]

And the Skywatcher CQ350 is lurking in the wings for next year too, supposedly placed between EQ6 and EQ8 performance and size wise:

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/338819-the-new-skywatcher-cq350-pro/

[Merlin66]

Nick,
I know it doesn’t come with the encoders....could be the same for the GPS.

[glend]

I admit I am cautious about these sort of launches. It hasn't been too long ago that Dylan was spuiking Celestron products, the CGX and CGX/L were heavily promoted by him. Do your own research and don't be an early adopter.

[RugbyRene]

I went to the launch at Bintel. I can say that the mount is a beast. Managed to have a play and it is very well built. If I had an obs I'd be buying one. Alas it's not for the nightly set-up/tear-down.

And for what it is, I'd say the pricing is very competitive.

[The_bluester]

I am a little of two minds. I like the CEM60EC, but the new design of the EQ8 overcomes a lot of the compromises that had me looking toward the ioptron, with a much bigger payload to boot. I presume the EQ8 still has manually adjusted worm mesh which would count against it to a degree.

I am not buying another mount until at least some time next year, plenty of time for the early adopters to find the issues that did not turn up in pre release testing.

Regards Dylan and promoting Celestron stuff. Dylan is officially part of "Team Celestron" but it also pretty heavily involved with Bintel so it does not surprise me that he was involved in this launch, Celestron don't quite have anything in this payload weight class anyway.


https://www.celestron.com/blogs/team-celestron/dylan-odonnell

[codemonkey]

Interesting products... definitely headed in the right direction.

I'm not entirely convinced I'd want a gear-driven mount with a high res encoder on RA but not declination. When you're imaging at 0.5"/px like I am, very small amounts of backlash become very big problems. When you guide at < 1x sidereal on RA backlash isn't a problem, but for declination it can be a serious problem.

I'd be of a mind to stick the encoder on the declination axis instead of RA and rely on modelling to solve for repeatable errors in RA.

I've owned a few mounts now, some driven entirely by belts, some entirely by gears and some using a combination. I don't think I'll ever buy another gear driven mount without a high quality encoder on DEC.

Personally if I needed a high capacity mount in that rough price range I'd be leaning towards a Mesu over this latest offering from SW, although I do worry about those friction drives in our climate...

[atalas]

I've got one question....is anybody going to be stupid enough to pay prices like their asking for these low quality built china mounts?no really It's an honest question...and the BS continues.

[CeratodusDuck]

Probably. Most didn’t learn from the dreadful EQ8. The cycle of “Gotta have more junk” will continue, because maybe they can hang 8 scopes off it simultaneously rather than 6. Win win SMH

[atalas]

Yes,agreed....still,I do believe they play an important role in the low end market but,the prices for the EQ8-R and EQ8-RH :eyepop::screwy:are they sure they want sales?

I remember quite a few years back now ioptron releasing some big mount which was priced so high you could buy an AP 900 for the same price :screwy:never did hear or read of anyone buying one....wonder why :lol:

Oh well,I guess the price of slave labour has increased.....I'm sure the middle man's not trying to screw us.:thumbsup:

[lazjen]

Why would you design a mount to have the hand controller plugged into the moving part of the mount?

[atalas]

Cheaper to manufacture that way.

Still,doesn't beat the stupidity of designing a telescope with the focuser attached to the mirror cell.....bet they thought they were clever with that one :lol:

[CeratodusDuck]

Come now sir, noone ever accused Celestron or Meade of being clever.

[atalas]

:lol:good one.

[vlazg]

[QUOTE=The_bluester;1450708]I am a little of two minds. I like the CEM60EC, but the new design of the EQ8 overcomes a lot of the compromises that had me looking toward the ioptron, with a much bigger payload to boot.




i am also looking at a mount with a heavier payload, the CEM 60 EC was one i was considering but lots of problems seem to occur with guiding and for longer exposures it appears better to turn off the encoder so maybe the non encoder mount might be a better option. ( see Lee's comments )
The new Losmandy G11GT might be worth considering.

[The_bluester]

Well, it will be at least sometime next year so hopefully I can let someone else be the new EQ8 guinea pigs.

[xthestreams]

I decided to swap out my EQ6-R for the EQ8-R for a number of reasons, mainly to do with giving me a long-term option for looking at a RASA11 in the hope that I could one day be as cool as Dylan :-)

But seriously, 25kg doesn't go far, especially when you want some headroom for things like long FL work, so made the decision and sought help from the folks at Sidereal Trading who were able to hook me up right out of stock as well as put me in touch with someone who happened to be looking for a lightly used "new" mount, which was a great bonus (those guys are amazing).

There's no doubt that the EQ8-R is a huge step up not just in terms of load capacity and stability;
- good ergonomics in terms of handles for lifting up onto the pier (or heaven forbid a field tripod)
- whisper quiet motors and belt drive train - quite than the high-pitch whine of the EQ6-R
- "decent" adjustment controls for polar alignment, I managed to get to within 2 arc seconds after 3-4 iterations, with none of the jumpiness you get with the EQ6-R's alt control screw
- AUTOHOME! as a remote observatory (outside and three flights of stairs away at night) I never realised I'd be so happy to watch a scope automatically home itself without the hassle of losing accuracy due to additional encoders. Great feature, every scope should have it - I just wish it worked with INDI/EKOS (see below)

While it's a well thought through design - there are a few issues with it no doubt;
- WHY put the power input on the moving part of the counterweight shaft when you've got a set of ports at the rear of the mount?
- same for, well actually all of them - ST4, handset and the mount control USB control ports are all on the moving RA lobe/shaft, just seems daft or perhaps there were other constraints I haven't thought about (such as wear and tear/repair)
- the dovetail plate clamp for the scope is sturdy but unless I've done something wrong, the power and USB ports are of the wrong end (at least to my thinking), so you're routing cables back along the OTA - better than dragging but it's not exactly clever when you consider the plate's rear end has AUX ports that I don't even use going empty - flip that!)
- the clutch locks aren't confidence inspiring and both axis have a tendency to slip with even a moderate nudge of the OTA, surprising given teh big deal they made about them. Having said that I am locking them down a bit harder now in the hopes that maybe I am just being too tentative in activating them
- as noted above, the Autohome feature does not work with the current INDI drivers, which expect to see the Aux encoders for that function to work, logged the bug report today

Tracking stability seems to be decent, but to be transparent - unlike the skies recently here in Melbourne - it saw first light last night and other than a really lovely PA, I have not had a chance to optimise or run PPEC so my "out of the box" +/- 1.5 arc second average tracking feels pretty good to me and certainly exceeds the result I was getting from (what was a relatively lightly loaded most days) EQ6-R

What I am not able to comment on is how much of a difference the pier tripod vs. bundled tripod of the EQ6-R makes, my sense is that it is contributing at least 0.5 arcsecs of that stability.

Lots more learning to do - the skies look like being relatively clear again tonight, the high level cloud and Mr Moon won't be helping with testing guiding and tracking but might be enough time there to switch on PPEC training and see what gives.

Happy to answer any questions other than from my partner asking "is this new?" :-S

[codemonkey]

To be clear, do you mean tracking or guiding?

[Startrek]

Hi Paul
I have 2 questions for you regarding the new EQ8-R pro mount -
1/ what is the distance in mm between the extended tripod feet once levelled
2/ What is the height in mm from the tripod base to the ground once levelled before you plonk the mount head on

Reason - I have 2 off EQ6-R Mounts , one at my home in Sydney and one at my weekender south coast. I’m considering putting in a Nexdome Obs at my weekender later in the year and want to make provisions for a larger mount like the EQ8-R pro Initially as a tripod mount and maybe pier mount later on in the future. I will make provisions for concrete footings etc for my EQ6-R ( distance between tripod feet is 970mm ) and hopefully the EQ8- R pro will have a similar distance between the tripod feet

Await your advice

Thanks in advance

[The_bluester]

I would assume that is tracking, On a good night I get around 0.6 arcsec guided out of my Orion Atlas (AZEQ6) which more or less shares the mechanics of the EQ6R.

[xthestreams]

Ah, sorry yes sloppy with terminology - tracking yes, guided I found the RMS down around 0.5 on DEC, 0.8 on RA, so something's obviously slightly out of whack somewhere.

As mentioned there was a lot of high level haze around too, so the seeing wasn't that crash hot, was using a guide scope vs. OAG and again, no PPEC training done yet.

It's all been pretty rough and ready here - I hate being "that guy" but as soon as I saw clear skies it was a bit of a race to get it all up and running. Yesterday and today spent some time tuning the levelling of the pier tripod and getting the balance biased more "weights down", oddly it was a little too balanced and I think I was seeing artefacts associated with that - ran some 300 second subs (at an optimistic 2000mm FL - I know...) and for certain some oval stars, how much of that is down to the image train vs. the mount itself - in my hurry I changed more than one variable at the same time, you would think I would know better....

Summary - it's no Paramount, but not too shabby for the price and I hope will only improve with tuning.

Tonight is a bust but tomorrow promises some decent skies, minus that amazing moon...

[xthestreams]

First up, thanks for your reply - I've shown it to the missus and now I can at least say "but I've only got ONE tripod now dear" :-)

1. roughly 900mm centre to centre
2. roughly 910mm in my setup, you can raise or lower the centre column according to the manual, I've mine set so that the hinged stabilisers are roughly parallel to the ground.

Pier itself is solid, rumour is that it's Russian designed, from what I can see, by a former tank designer.

Mines inside a Nexdome, happy to send whatever measures and photos you need.

[Startrek]

Paul
Thanks so much for your information
I was hoping the distance between Tripod feet was around 900mm , so I can design my 250mm diameter concrete pads to be 1000mm apart , that would satisfy my existing EQ6-R and a proposed EQ8-R pro mount

A few photos of inside your Nexdome would be greatly appreciated !

Martin

Cheers

PS: My Nexdome will sit on a 2600mm x 3100mm timber deck about 350mm off ground level with free standing 250 dia concrete pads , 3 for the tripod feet and one in the centre for a possible future pier mount

[xthestreams]

NOTE: Edited as I think I figured out what I've done wrong, will test tonight.

Despite having a 6AM start today I used the little bit of cloud free sky last night to get a couple of hours in with the EQ8-R and it's not all great news.

For clarity, my anti-Windows stance gets me into trouble as it limits be to INDI based drivers and some of the issues described MIGHT be attributable to that, but I suspect there's something deeper going on.

First up, the Autohome feature and API is almost certainly different between the EQ8 and EQ8-R due to the lack of Freedom Find Aux encoders on the EQ8-R with the new home sensors being in place instead. Logged a bug report with teh INDI developers and have gone to SkyWatcher to see if they can shed any light, but from what I can see this might also be a problem for the ASCOM drivers - if anyone has a different experience, would love to know.

Then there's PPEC - it all started with trying to diagnose the tracking and guiding challenges I was having.

Again to be clear this is with a local FL scope (2000+mm) and the seeing during my first attempt at tracking/guiding wasn't great - how much of this has to do with the mount versus my still poor grasp of EKOS is up for debate, I am sure at least 50% of this is me.

Anyways, last night I set EKOS to guide but disabled the sending pulse commands to the mount to see how well it would track without guiding. The answer was pretty well on the E/W axis but terribly (+/- 5arcsecs) on the N/S - I am guessing the scope is too symmetrically balanced, something that will hopefully be less of an issue when the new motorised Moonlite arrives to add some ballast East-side down, until now I might try a small weight on the left hand side of the dovetail.

So, I decided to play with PPEC - did that through the INDI control panel, started training first the Dec and then the RA axis - took about 4 minutes a piece and here's where the fun started.

I enabled PPEC after training and the mount started slewing the RA axis rapidly, like it was tracking at a custom (faster than sidereal) rate to the point that it exceeded my horizon limits. I left it go as long as my heart-rate could bear and then had to switch off PPEC at which point the mount appears to be behaving normally.

Then I took at look at my OAG images and noticed it wasn't holding stars at all - it appeared that the DEC axis was going something similar albeit at a much slower rate.

So, long story short - if you're using INDI EQMOD and an EQ8-R I'd love to know if I'm the only one having this problem and if so, how are others using the PPEC feature?

I guess the same question applies for EQMOD on ASCOM.

Even shorter story, EQ8-R may still have some teething issues when it comes to direct control via USB (vs. handset)

P.S. I thought I would play around with teh handset controller and see if there was anything obvious and of course as I looked at the PEC training function I think I realised my mistake, with guiding "on" but inactive (not sending pulses) there was nothing correcting the scope and so the training was erroneous. Hopefully I can clear the training back to factory and start again tonight.

[The_bluester]

What is the worm period on the EQ8-R (If that is any different to the older EQ8) You would need to train the PEC for at least a full worm cycle. The EQMOD PEC trains over at least four worm cycles to average out the corrections (Might be 5) And yes, you will need guide commands to the mount to train it.

That said, there would not normally be PEC on the Dec axis, that should only be getting guide pulses to deal with the PA not being quite right or a bit of wind moving the scope off target and similar errors, it does not run continuously at a theoretically fixed rate like the RA, so periodic error is not as important.

[xthestreams]

Belt drive on both (and I can confirm that as I removed the cowl that covers teh belt and motor system today to ensure that it was there and in good working order).

Had a really long session with the mount last night, gave it a few hours of guiding in what were reasonable skies compared to the thick cloud of the last few days.

I'm guiding internally to EKOS, not PHD2 (yet) so feeling my way compared the volumes of docs available for PHD2 - last night's session with an 8" SCT and a ED72 guide scope gave me about 0.8arcsecs RMS on RA and 0.4 on DEC which is far better than my first night.

I then moved to the OAG (ASI290mm) and after opening up the window to 128pixels had far more success in finding and keeping the star in frame this time. Got a good 90 minutes of imaging in and saw 0.6 RMS on RA and 0.2 DEC - I'm not sure about everyone else here, but I was pretty pleased - I would even theorise that I was seeing limited last night vs. the mount but I'm not the best judge of these things yet.

Moving swiftly onto the PPEC training problem. Well.....

Initiated the training again through the EKOS control panel, WHILE guiding was running (providing the feedback pulses) and again, shortly after enabling the RA PPEC in EKOS the mount goes into what looks like 50x sidereal tracking speed (from the meridian to the bump stops in 60-90 seconds - terrifying to watch even with horizon limits switched on!)

Not entirely sure how I solve for that problem other than for now, avoiding the "feature" altogether.

If anyone has any experience or thoughts with this feature with ASCOM or going the the SkyWatcher app, I'd love to hear about it.

[Merlin66]

Paul,
with the guiding performance you're seeing, why bother with PEC corrections?????

[The_bluester]

I think I would agree with that. I spent some time training the EQMOD PEC, but I could not make out any discernible difference in the guiding quality. I have had nights without it when I have had 0.6 arcsec total guiding errors and sometimes minutes between corrections, and nights with it like that but jumpy, jittery nights too. I had a power outage which zeroed out the EQMOD PEC and didn't bother to retrain it after that given it means giving up on the best part of an hours good imaging time to train it.

[xthestreams]

Bloody good question! Mainly because I figured if it was there then “why not see if there’s any more gas left in the tank?” From an optimisation standpoint and the other being that RMS and absolute jumps are not the same thing, and it still seems to swing pretty wide, the average only tells part of the story.

But truthfully, now that it appears to be a bug, and one that’s potentially damaging to real world objects and gear, it’s turning into a slight obsession as I’ve gotten further into plans to go long distance remote it’s nightmare scenarios like a mount going off to crash into a pier and/or not recovering to a home position after a power failure that do my head in) (Don’t panic, this will not be the mount for that, there’s an ME lined up for that task but I am using it to shake down other parts of my workflow, Toadhall has inspired me, and scared the missus. :)

In other news, the controller was well behind on firmware despite being new, so assumption is that Tasso are probably sitting on original stock. Firmware update did nothing to address the bug.

Summary - lovely product but not without its teething problems as a remote ready device.

[xthestreams]

Makes perfect sense and now that I’m seeing much better numbers after a few nights I am more confident using the platform at the FL I’m targeting.

Interesting that the swings with guiding were so erratic first few nights and then settled down. I changed too many variables at once to be sure, but I am starting to think I’d set the box for my OAG too small and the guider/mount/scope started chasing the seeing and making it worse.

Such are the silly things I do. The downside of being a n00b.

[The_bluester]

I can't comment on Ekos and it's guiding performance, but if you switch to PHD2, the guiding assistant is a quite useful tool. I run it once on most nights. What that does is disable guide output and monitor the star position to nail down the seeing related movement of the star to recommend the minimum move settings, then unless you untick the box it measures the Dec backlash and calculates a suggested backlash compensation amount. It takes about 5 minutes and I have found it handy to dial it in to decent starting settings fairly quickly. Depending on the focal length of the imaging scope, I have generally found less active guiding to be better than more. IMO, if the guiding RMS is markedly less than your pixel scale all you are likely to achieve by trying to tighten up the guiding with more aggressive corrections is blobby stars as you chase the seeing.

The RMS is really what matters if everything is functioning OK. Unless you have spikes in the tracking errors (Indicating a probable mount issue) or unless the bigger deviations are greater than your pixel scale or are common (In which case the RMS will suffer as well) I reckon the most likely thing is to go down a rabbit hole chasing what turns out to be seeing effects. It is why guiding can be superb one night and awful looking the next. That is what happened to me last month. One night I had a guiding graph that looked like my mates typical Tak mount graph (i.E. a "He's dead Jim" ECG plot) and the following night it was nothing like as good. I did not even physically touch the setup between nights, the only thing that changed was the sky.

[Startrek]

Paul,
The guiding numbers on your new EQ8-R are excellent, both my EQ6-R’s in Sydney and South Coast on an average night of seeing guide around 1 arc sec , down south on a good night 0.80 to 0.90 and under excellent seeing 0.75 to 0.85 and that’s with 15kg on board , 1000mm FL , a guide scope and no PEC
If your getting 0.6 arc sec and below out of the box on an average night of seeing then that is excellent , maybe on an excellent night you will get down to 0.4 to 0.2 arc sec which is ridiculously good. I too wouldn’t worry about PEC
I’m still getting round stars at 1 arc sec error pushing +5 minute subs for hours and hours at my focal length
2 weeks ago I imaged the keyhole with a 2 x Powermate which gave me a 2000mm FL and 15 kg on board pushing 5 minute subs for hours and stars were pinpoint. That EQ6-R out of the box is a proven performer as I’m pushing its limits with 15kg on board
Your EQ8-R is definitely in a class of its own
Cheers
Martin

[xthestreams]

Thanks Martin, agreed the EQ6-R is a lovely mount as I managed similar results with mine, if I had the money to keep both I would have - great for more portable requirements!

I've attached last night's plot for LOLs - Melbourne treated us to a lovely mix of scattered cloud, high level haze and generally the type of night that makes you wish you had a different hobby - there's almost no doubt in my mind I was chasing the seeing last night, so this one's more of a worst case situation. As soon as I have the time and patience to dial in PHD2 and connect it to EKOS I'll post something that it more familiar to the group and we can start to compare more meaningfully.

I *dream* of a "she's dead Jim" trace... (and a 16xxx series camera with a fully populated filter wheel attached to a 16" Planewave somewhere in the Coonabarabran area and a VERY understanding partner)

[The_bluester]

Just once, my guiding has looked like this with the AZEQ. Not the night before, not the night after and I didn't touch the gear after initial setup on the first night. 0.51 arcsec RMS.

There were times you could not see a correction on screen. 0.6 to 0.8 arcsec is more typical and 1ish is not that unusual. But that is still around half of my pixel scale.

[Startrek]

Paul ( The bluester )
I crunched some payload numbers on the Evostar 72 and your guide scope plus misc AP gear and ended up with around 7.5 to 8.0 kg on your AZEQ6 which is around 50% loaded on an AP payload rating. I think your AZEQ6 has a kilo or two of spare additional AP payload capacity compared to both my EQ6-R mounts
So it’s no wonder your getting superb guiding numbers at around 0.50 to 0.60 arc sec on your mount. I’m actually overloaded ( AP payload rating wise ) at 15kg on my EQ6-R Mount. Full load AP payload rating on my Mount would be in the order of 13kg to 14kg ( hence why I can never get below 0.80 arc sec on a night of excellent seeing )
NB: From numerous forums I’ve read, a figure of 60% of the maximum recommended payload rating of a mount is a good gauge for recommended AP payload rating

My assessment could way off base ?

Your thoughts on my numbers ?

Cheers

[The_bluester]

You mean with the SVX80 on there? That guide graph was with the SVX80 and the Evostar piggybacked on top as a guidescope while I was waiting for a new OAG assembly to arrive. I didn't ever weigh the whole kit but the SVX80 is about 5KG on it's dovetail and riser setup, plus odds and sods fittings and the Evostar on top. 8ish KG is probably about right.

I am not really sure if the AZEQ has any real world payload advantage over the EQ6 mounts, though the counterweight shaft is thicker (So more rigid) which would help to some degree I assume. I am looking at replacing mine with an EQ6-R to be honest as balancing the AZEQ type mounts for AP is a pain. I would love a bigger and heavier mount like the EQ8-R or a CEM60 but budget says no.

I did manage to get round stars out of my SCT with reducer at about 1500mm focal length on this mount for a couple of 20 minute test subs but I never noted down the guiding figures. I would bet they were not half arcsec, and the stars might have been round but they would probably have been a bit bloated.

[Startrek]

Yes sorry I meant the SVX80 scope
If your considering buying an EQ6-R Mount soon make sure it’s not old stock as the newer model has the additional USB2B port on the mount for EQ direct via Ascom. The handcontroller also has an additional USB2B connection just for firmware updates
I have both older and latest models but still using the old shoestring EQ direct cable for both to run EQMOD, StellariumScope and Stellarium. I might try out the newer mount with a USB cable soon as I found the procedures on CN a few months ago , haven’t been bothered to try it yet
Good luck with your future purchase !

[Merlin66]

Martin,
I use a C11 @f10 on a standard NEQ6pro mount.

I have an eFinder, flip mirror, spectroscope with three cameras, all up about 16-17Kg.
It needs 5 x 5Kg of counterweights
I don't do AP, but I can get a target star to sit in a slit gap of 20 micron almost indefinitely. Currently using 5 minute subs x 20 for spectral imaging.

[The_bluester]

Well I was thinking to go that way (A new EQ6-R) but just found out the lead time, they are not expecting new stock until September!

[Startrek]

It’s looking like a new era for the supply of major Astro gear to our big island , no more 4 to 6 weeks anymore more like 4 to 6 months !!

Ken,
In regard to your C11 , is your EQ6 pier mounted in an Obs or tripod in the yard
If it’s tripod mount out in the open , that’s truly amazing balance, tracking and guiding !!

[Merlin66]

Martin,
The C11/ NEQ6pro is mounted on a pier in a ROR Observatory.
I should also have said I use a Lodestar/ PHD2 (or AA7) with a reflective slit plate (on axis guiding)

[xelasnave]

Any new feed back on these new EQ8 mounts?

If I said I am thinking about getting one can anyone offer a good reason why not ...or...for about that money an alternative to carry up to a GSO 16 inch rc. (Or an alternative). I know I can't even run my 80mm and heq5 mount properly but the fact is I may as well learn on whatever scope and mount I consider the final set up...the positive is I am not demanding but I have always wanted a 16 inch, like one wants a sports car, ...it may be beyond me but if I don't do it I will always wonder...weight?...not a problem as I intend having a engine lift hoist, which is only $300, and a work bench...all will fit in this huge roll off so why not...

I have work to complete with the new observatory but I need to start thinking hard about what will go in it...it seems both the mount and the scope are unknowns as I can't find much really.. so any comments will be greatly appreciated.
Alex

[Camelopardalis]

Nothing wrong with a NEQ6 or AZ-EQ6...can't hurt to dream about something bigger :D

I've tested my 10+ year old NEQ6 with my Edge 11 on board and got 10 minute subs with round stars...carrying and guiding it wasn't the problem, it was fighting the seeing to get a noticeable improvement over a smaller refractor :shrug:

With the current breed of CMOS cameras, such long exposures just aren't necessary for pretty pictures... :thumbsup:

[xelasnave]

Lucky I did not get auto guiding working to my satisfaction, coupled with poor polar alignment because that forced me to go for short exposures first with the DSLR but latter with the mono zwo...I did not think there was any hope to get Ha until I got auto guiding sorted and long exposures but it has absolutely floored me what a short exposure and high gain will do..in fact the stuff I get with high gain is actually way past my expectations of when I got the auto guide working and gain settings as they should be...it is just so much easier than the old canon six leg and manual guiding for ten minutes...
My old eq6 needs a pull down but it really tracks very well, I have blue printed it and looked at the moving bits for hours, polished the gears with a tooth Bush even but I want a 16 inch and a big mount and a sports car and let the estate recover some value when I am dead.
I am a great believer in getting your mount as close to perfect before you auto guide...my heq5 needs slight counter weight movement during a session which surprised me..carrying more than it should but you would get frustrated with your guiding log ..it is the mount mate,..in my case.

Alex

[The_bluester]

I looked at the EQ8 longingly, then took a deep breath and ordered an Ioptron CEM70-G (Deep breath as they are new electronically even if the mechanics are an evolution of the CEM design)

I am imaging currently at 500mm and all the mounting of the scope I am using is quite chunky so the inbuilt guider in the 70-G should do OK (It is built in to the puck with a 120mm FL F4 guider and camera) and if it turns out to be a gimmick I can go back to an OAG later. I am really buying for the cable management of the CEM, with USB3 and in the case of the 70-G version, integration.

I am hopefully going to get away with no more than a single USB3 and single power connection to the mount. The USB3 G version (I presume G being for the inbuilt guidescope) has an internal USB hub obviously, with a FDTI USB to serial chipset to control the mount, the electronic polarscope and the guide cam all running off the hub internally too. The guider works with PHD2 so nothing new to learn there.

[Startrek]

I’m currently imaging at 1000mm and nearly 15kg on board and may increase to 1250mm and 20kg next year so the EQ8-R pro would be a nice mount to have considering I started with a HEQ5 and progressed to an EQ6-R Mount

[Camelopardalis]

I've given up trying to image anything at long focal length from along the east coast, the seeing is just too frustrating :shrug:

The appeal of the EQ8 is that it'd stand up to the wind a bit better :rofl:

[xthestreams]

As mentioned, I "loved" mine (loved because last week I managed to reverse polarity on the power supply in a freak Powerpole wiring accident involving a Pegasus UPBv2 that theoretically is polarity protected but oops I guess not), and now have a slightly dead mount whilst I wait for a replacement motor control board.

I've only had access to the 8-R version and can say that it's competent, strong as an ox and guides rather well WITH guiding enabled. I don't much like it for unguided work at longer focal lengths, that might have more to do with my polar alignment than anything else, will know more when I get it all back to life.

The through-mount power and signal cables are great and you can pump Cat-5, RJ12 and RJ11 cables through it, meaning that you can avoid a lot of the issues associated with cable snags, BUT with only three power points fed by one input, heater control is out of the question if you're also bussing camera power and motor focusers - so "nice try" but not perfect.

I would have preferred they made the panel plugs modular and encouraged a more DIY approach than attempting to guess what we needed and messing it up.

Otherwise, whisper quiet belt drive, quieter than an EQ6-R.

Recommended

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[The_bluester]

At the price point, I am surprised that they don't have reverse polarity protection built in. All it would need would be a diode and fuse (With the diode across the input leads and "off" when polarity is normal) so if you flipped the polarity the diode would effectively short the input and blow the fuse, it might cause some head scratching when you do it but it is better than a blown board.

[xelasnave]

Thanks to all the input I really do appreciate hearing all your views.

With my father passing and affairs near complete in Sydney I plan to return to the Bush full time and get a set up that I really could not indulge whilst back and forth to Sydney.
The only reason I gave it away over a decade ago was the need to go back and forth..I was about to go for a 12 inch astro graph set up but clearly my situation really prevented that..but finally I had to do something so hence my transportable gear.

As you may know if you look at the DIY Observatory section I now have a wonderful roll off roof observatory that is huge and I can house the set up I have dreamed about...for whatever reason I lean to a 16 inch GSO rc which is a worry firstly because of the long focal length and secondly that I can not find anyone posting images. On YouTube the best I get is one moving around on a mount in a dome, which looked great but there is no indication of how well it performs...and then you look at the top shelf and find a price tag of $36k you wonder for such a price difference will the GSO be disappointing. I don't want to spend $100k for scope camera and mount just for pretty pictures ...I would rather put that towards a Caterham sports car and a winch to get in it.

And the cost of a eq8 and a 16 inch GSO (And suitable camera) is just so far past where I ever expected...still at 73 one realises there is not much time left .. so I am going to go for it on the basis that if nothing else I will stop wondering what it would be like..but I feel like I am a bit of a pioneer for this set up...but you must think it will at least do some pretty pictures. I plan a focal reducer but it would be nice if the mount managed the native focal length...I hope to go for galaxies and just hope it is possible.


I mean they must sell GSO 16 inch...do folk not post images because they are disappointed? I suppose at worst it will be a pretty decent visual set up for Moon and planets.
Still waiting on an email as to cost and availability but plenty to tidy up with the new roll off observatory...
And I guess there is more to do with a 16 inch ..another focused at half the price of the scope seems mandatory...I am starting to think contracting out the set up to someone who knows what they are doing..well I would if there was someone who does that sort of thing..it would be money well spent I expect.
Thanks again..I will now ring my selected supplier and move things along a bit.
Alex

[xelasnave]

Spoke to Andrews and they have the scope but don't know when for a mount..prices for mount from $6000 to $12000 please tell me the $6000 one is ok for pretty pictures.
Alex

[xthestreams]

Agreed!

And here’s the kicker, 3 weeks wait for a replacement.

Ridiculous.

[xthestreams]

What scope and/or FL?

I’m doing okay at 2800mm, but I’d be concerned going longer without a better mount, better seeing might help too ;-)

[Xeteth]

Have you tried other places? Sidereal Trading might have one in stock, Paul is lovely too!

[xelasnave]

Luke got back to me yesterday to advise he has one, going to Sydney tomorrow and should do a deal very soon.
Alex