EQ6 goto views

[IanL]

Hi folks i am looking at going for a EQ6 fully goto in the next few weeks.
I see a few of the members here have them. Does any of the members have any views on this mount before i purchase. From what i have seen so far its seems to be a great mount. But i thought i would pose the question to the members that use them aposed to sales staff.

Feedback regarding this mount would be most welcome

Many thanks
Ian Law
Brisbane

[garymck]

As a current owner of an eq-6, I would say avoid the current bunch like the plague if you plan on imaging. In the last 6 months I have had experience of 5 of them (a looooooooong story) only the first was any good. It was an black one that I had to sell due to financial difficulties (another member of iis bought it) it was wonderful 12 arc sec total pe!! Soon after I was able to buy a version 3 white eq-6 "pro". This mount could be described as a piece of crap (55 arc sec pe!!!). I don't want to go into details of the problems and attempted resolutions of them but the current one has 35 arc secs pe, and is unable to take GUIDED images at 1200mm focal length without trailing stars. (and yes - I've tried PHD, Guidedog and Maxim). 2 arc sec rms guiding is the BEST I can get..........sucks if your image scale is 1.5 arc secs/pixel................

I've just finished another night fruitlessly trying a variety of settings to get the thing working. I've used the handcontroller, and EQ-Mod .

If you are strictly visual, then the pointing is good.

Ask yourself why have a pile of version 3 eq-6's been up for sale on IIS since the beginning of January. I wonder if they had similar problems?

Forgive the rant - I just don't want anyone else to waste their money....

cheers
gary

[h0ughy]

simple you get what you pay for, a nice goto mount with its own inherent problems, just like any goto, setup is king!!

I recommend you get the mount doctored from the start, to help free it up and get the drive gears meshed properly and the goo excised. I have had all three mounts I have owned done by Roger Davis, but being up in sunny brizzy I am sure that Lex from Star Optics will be able to help in that department.

[EzyStyles]

i would of think v3 white EQ6 version will be better than the old black EQ6? i was leaning to upgrade to the new v3 white version.

[garymck]

I've had 3 of them in the last 3 months, plus have a friend with a fourth, they all have terrible pe, the black ones from 18 months ago or so, were MUCH better when they had the drives upgraded.........the white ones are just the same mount painted a different color with worse tracking........

cheers
Gary

[EzyStyles]

Cheers gary. thanks for the heads up. i stick to my black one then :P

[h0ughy]

DId you consider to get them cleaned up and relapping the worm drives?

[garymck]

I can take one apart blindfolded!!! The mounts were cleaned and adjusted as well as they can be, and no Roger Davis couldn't do it any better - I used to work for him doing this stuff.....There are issues with these mounts- take one apart and measure the worm gears with a dial guage and you'll see what I mean..............

cheers
Gary

PS you can't re lap the gears

[h0ughy]

Well I would dare say that you would have the most educated answer then. I agree that the mass produced components would be questionable.

[IanL]

Folks thanks for the feed back. I think i will waite a couple of months and save some more money and go for something else.

Many thanks
Ian

[wasyoungonce]

Yes thanks for the feed back as well. It is making me re-evaluate when looking for a mount.

No use spending that amount for questionable performance.

[acropolite]

Hmm.... could be interesting. I recently bought a second hand EQ6pro. If what you say is correct, then from what I've read, a new worm and replacement bearings on the worm shaft would go a long way to remedy the problem. I found this site (http://www.deepsky.de/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=308)mentioning replacement worms (Gierlinger) but unfortunately it's in german so I can't translate. I think there was a mention somewhere of a translator for web pages, I'll see if I can find and post.

[DobDobDob]

http://translation2.paralink.com/ :thumbsup:

[Portmac]

Or Babel: http://babelfish.altavista.com/

[acropolite]

Shot off an email to Richard Gierlinger FWIW here is his reply. Reports indicate big improvements using his gears (and replacing some bearings) albiet at a cost.
It's worth noting that 333 euros only buys one pair of gears (worm & worm wheel) as it's considered that RA only is required.

[garymck]

It's worth noting that not everyne has had great success with Gerlinger gears:

http://www.bloomingstars.com/vega/articles/Astronomy/Reviews/Synta_EQ6_Tuning_Nightmare/english/

They actually have a gear form that makes ACCURATE set up essential or the results can be poor. They seem not to have been taken into widespread use. There was an initial flurry of interest a year or so ago, but never eventuated to much.

An alternative is Jim Eggars at Aeroquest Machining:

http://www.aeroquest-machining.com/

who does a new worm for US$95 that several people have reported good results with. I am currently awaiting a reply from him for a total price including postage.

Gary

[JohnH]

I was just beggining to believe I was the only one out there with issues trying to guide at long fl.

I had the EQ6 goto on my shortlist but having reviewed the feedback at the time - the non-upgradeable contoller, poor mechanical quality and the need to refurbish the (new!) mount before it could be used etc etc I sacrificed load carrying capacity for low PE and chose a Vixen Sphinx. I was under the impression that the new, white PRO versions had addressed the issues above. Now I am much happier I went for the Vixen - I could not afford a Losmandy/Gemini.

Now the Vixen mount is far from perfect - eg no PEC in the controller (supposed to be in the next firmware release) - but most issues are minor niggles and the new version the SXD has a higher load capacity and PEC so it may be an option for those who would previously have gone for an EQ6. The original SX does have quite high DEC backlash - mine is about 4s and it also suffers from some stiction so DEC guiding is really only possible in one direction but this is not really a problem.

PE is about 20" peak to peak.

BTW if you are getting 2" are you not at the limits anyway due to typical seeing?

[Dennis]

Don't worry John - you're in good company! I’m struggling to auto guide at 2350mm fl with my Tak EM200. With the F6.3 focal reducer at 1480mm fl the results are better, but still requires more work from me yet, in understanding all the variables and how they interact.

I made the mistake of thinking that throwing money at a good quality mount would magically allow me to auto guide at 2 meters plus, out of the box, with no user tweaking!

Cheers

Dennis

[danielsun]

I was also considering upgrading to an EQ6 but after reading and hearing of the bugs i will be giving it a miss until hopefully they release a new version with no hassles attached or i will save a little more and go for something else like a vixen or an SCT.

[garymck]

Hi,
if local seeing is 2 sec, you need to guide at 1 sec to get all the detail.

The eq-6 suffers from roughness in the worm that causes sharp unguidable RANDOM errors. The pe is only part of the problem, if it was smooth it could be guided.
Unfortunately these high frequency errors are not correctable. Also my 2 secs was RMS, peak errors are up to 5 secs. This causes marked elongation of stars along the ra axis. This is why most eq-6 stuff is done with short fl ed-80's etc - the tracking errors are hidden in the sampling rate - eg the sampling rate of my canon dslr is 1.1 arc sec pixel at 1200mm fl, thus 2 arc sec errors double the width of the star in ra axis, while an ed80 has a rate of 2.2 secs. Thus the elongation is hidden by the sampling rate, even then some frames will be spoiled by the larger random errors.

If I had my time over, I would buy a Vixen...............

cheers
Gary

[wasyoungonce]

Well at around $2400 for a full EQ6 goto plus around $300 to fix it's problems is starting to make other "more expensive" mounts look mighty attractive.

Have any of the owners approached Skywatcher/Sirus about these problems with their mounts? I would love to hear what the Mfgs have to say.

[toc]

I couldnt agree more. Its obviously very difficult to machine items to such a high degree needed - hopefully the Chinese will sort it out :)

[MortonH]

Do you really need GOTO? What about Argo Navis instead? Or Astro Optical are selling 'GotoStar', which I think replaces a number of the dodgy components in the EQ5/EQ6 type mounts. Maybe give them a call? I know nothing about the GotoStar so I can't vouch for it!

Morton