First night out EQ6 Pro

[vash (Ashley)]

Well, I just bought myself an EQ6 Pro and managed to get it out on the Second Night of owning it!, I would have thought it would have been raining or something for the next couple of weeks.

I must say though this is a big step from the Heq5, (Requires a bit more then put it down load it up and go). I'm really impressed at how it all works, Very tech.

I had a few hurdles to overcome, When I was doing the star alignment I thought Antares was a good candidate choose it from the list and away the scope went, only to find the scope was aiming in the exact opposite direction, Took me a little time to work out, first I thought, I put the wrong GPS co-ordinents in, they where right, time was right, oh, wait a minute, the bloody date is round the wrong way, lets try that alignment again, success.

After that I wounder what sought of exposure time I can get, with out drift aligning I got 2 minutes no trails with the ed80, I was happy with that.

I put the 10" on it later on in the night but couldn't get it balanced, tried everything but I figured out the the weight of the focuser camera and finder scope kept pulling it to one side, so with that worked out I just need a solution, Maybe put some weight on the other side or something.

Anyway, It's cloudy today so It looks as though it maybe sometime for my next night out.

[sejanus (Gavin)]

2mins unguided is awesome, I could only get a minute out of mine when i had it

[Astroman (Andrew Wall)]

good stuff, I usually get 2mins out of my standard eq6 which is good, gets better with PEC. Glad you had success.

[h0ughy (David)]

top stuff, another satisfied EQ6 owner. If you understand its limitations you will have a ball

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Great news Vash.

Yeah, you can tell it's made for the American market by the way the date entry is done!!! Month-Day-Year instead of the way us Aussies are taught Day-Month-Year.

While you have lousy weather it might be a good time to work out the balance problem. That way when the sky clears up you aren't wasting valuable sky time trying to balance.

[vash (Ashley)]

Yeah, I absolutley Love what I have seen it can do so far. The more I learn the better i will get I'm Sure.

The problem with the balance is the weight of the camera on one side pulls it down only about 20 or so degree's to that Side, Being a DOB OTA I can't rotate the tube around so the camera is facing down due to this.

I do how-ever have a handy little thread(where the dob handles screw in) available on the other side, If I put a bit of weight into it It should balance it all (once I find the right weight), or I can put a little weight down the opposite side of the couter weights which could work too, I'll find a solution sooner or latter. (could borrow my brothers 350D and duct tape it to the otherside of the scope, Hey then I can do Wide feilds at the same time)

Ah well, Next night out I will drift allign and PEC train and see what I can get out of it.