Did a Rowan Belt Mod to my HEQ5pro late Thursday afternoon and was testing it out on the planets that night. At 5000mm focal length there was a definite smoothness to the movement of the planet within the frame. With the previous cog drive, at this focal length, there was always a slight shimmer in the planet's movement. I don't know if this will have any great impact on my final planetary imaging results but it was nice to see some difference.
I had hoped to try it out on some deep sky object at a shorter focal length to see how good my subs looked but clouds rolled in and that will have to wait for another night. Not too sure if the GOTO was working as well though
Maybe I have to recalibrate the new drive system somehow. The good thing is it still works
it's also a lot quieter while slewing.
Saturn: Best 33% of 18000 frames @ 50fps, 3200iso, 5 X Powermate 1000mm f5 Newtonian, Canon 550d Crop mode.