|
Im a big fan of the HEQ5 Pro... I have one, and whilst I've not loaded it up with a C8 or similar, I have had 10kgs on it and it tracked and guided perfectly... with my small APO on it, 30 minute exposures come out looking great, I ran a 45 minute exposure once without a problem also, though I'm too impatient to run them regularly... The EQ6 Pro is also a great mount... As Peter said, they are heavy..
I use computer control of the HEQ5 sometimes, sometimes not. It all depends on what I am planning to image.. If its not in the database of the hand controller, then I'll use computer control...
Goto accuracy, well.. with a good polar alignment I can do a 2 star alignment and land targets smack bang in the centre of my CCD every time. even if I do a 2 star alignment on two stars in the west, then slew to a target in the east, provided the polar alignment is accurate, it will centre the target every time.
As Peter said, the manual claims 17kg capacity... Robin (Tandum) on the forums used to image on a HEQ5 with 17kgs load on the mount and he always got nice results, however I have had a maximum of 10kgs on mine, and regularly image with about 8.5kgs on it.
The EQ6 manual claims a 24kg capacity.. I had one with 22.5kgs on it and results were flaky at best.. some nights it would perform, some nights it wouldnt... it is a big mount, but easily portable..
I have no experience with the EQ5 or CG5, so I can't offer an opinion on those...
Alex.
|