Skywatcher NEQ6

vinculum · #1 19-09-2009, 02:00 PM

Howdy all,

I just bought a brand spanking new mount at Bintel, it's a Skywatcher NEQ6 Wide, to replace my LXD 55 EQ4.

I've mounted my 10" f/4 Schmidt Newtonian on top with a Losmandy dovetail plate. Also purchased another counter weight to balance the beast out.

Set her up last night out in the common area at townhouse, did a rough align to the SCP & levelled pretty precisely & then booted up Synscan controller entered in all relevant information then did a three Star alignment. Deepsky objects were slightly out but I need to tweak the latitude bolts & my polar alignment would of been off but with PAE it recalibrated for that area of the sky! it was amazing!

What can I say WoW!...she runs like a dream extremely happy with the stability & slew movement on both R.A. & Dec they slew smoothly with no hiccups, she's a tad noisy only thing I did notice was initial slew & I get a slight clicking sound & tiny vibration, it does this as it slews as well, in the tripod leg in R.A. but it doesn't affect slew at all & looking through the eyepiece I see no vibration at all.

So what are you hints/tips if any, I've read some great posts on how to align the axis's with the OTA on this forum, great stuff!

Eventually I'll get a guide scope & digital SLR delve into some serious Astrophotography, just need to save some more cash up for that. I've been in amateur Astronomy for a long time also a member of SASI.

Thanks great forums by the way!

stephenb (Stephen) · #2 19-09-2009, 10:58 PM

Welcome, vincilim. Sounds like another happy EQ6 customer (and a happy BinTel customer also). Whilst I cannot offer you any tips, I wish you well and look forward to seeing some first images from your setup.

vinculum · #3 20-09-2009, 10:04 AM

Thanks mate,

Well I setup the "beast" last night at our monthly SASI Star party.

I levelled tripod, aligned mount to SCP close as I could with a compass via the mount knob & put her all together...What a task didn't take as long second time round. Waited till it got to astronomical twilight then I could see enough Stars to proceed with a three Star alignment.

Powered up the mount which is currently running off a 12V 14ah battery, entered the correct latitude & longitude, date & time e.t.c. After all that info was entered I started three Star alignment on Alpha Centauri, Acrux last Star Achenar. Alignment successful!

It was a good start so then I went into catalogue objects ==> NGC & entered in NGC 5139 (Omega Centauri) the mount slewed in R.A. & Dec, smooth as to Omega Cen. Came into the 8mm Vixen eyepiece dead centre okay...I thought this is a good start! Then I tried something on the other side if the celestial equator over to M57 (Ring Nebula) she slewed across to the North, centring the planetary nebula in the eyepiece...This is how it went all night, very impressed. Tracking seemed okay only having to tweak the R.A. every 20min or so in 8mm eyepiece.

Eventually I'll get into imaging again with this new mount. So far I'm very happy with it!

madwayne (Wayne) · #4 20-09-2009, 11:31 AM

Good write up and impressive first couple of lights Matty, lucky you were able to get in to the oval last night. I went up to the oval yesterday morning and the padlock hadn't been changed and we were locked out.

Good to see you mastered the beast and the next time we catch up I'll bring my 20D and QHY5 for you if you can get a guide scope to get your feet wet.

Enjoy!

Wayne

dpastern (Dave Pastern) · #5 20-09-2009, 12:08 PM

I've got the older EQ6PRO mount, and agree - providing you do good star aligns, she points pretty damn well. Have fun!

Dave

bmitchell82 (Brendan) · #6 22-09-2009, 04:50 PM

Hook your PC up with the EQmod software and shes even more accurate! i can drop targets as small as Antenna Galaxies in the dead set middle of the 40d from the other side of the sky.

they track very well when utilized with guiding!

vinculum · #7 23-09-2009, 07:10 PM

Yes I'll give it a shot I have EDMOD on my Lappy, Wayne Madsen uses it often & so will I soon. But my plans to get a guide scope & cam will be put on hold after paying $800 getting my car fixed/rego

No worries I'll learn this beast of a mount for the next few months, having it interface with Starry Night so easily I'm very happy.

Mitchell I used your recent post on levelling the mount correctly with a spirit level sitting it inside my dovetail mount head & rotating the R.A. axis on the side getting her level with the spirit level on the top & made the setting circle read 6hrs. Did the same with the Dec but in Degrees.

Think that made a major improvement in its OTA to mount alignment so no cone error far as I can see!

Thanks.

bmitchell82 (Brendan) · #8 24-09-2009, 11:23 AM

Im glad it gave you a good heads up, do remember though a 3 star alignment will adjust for Cone error.

Cone error comes from the telescope not being parallel to the mount head.

what the proceedure you have done, does set your Home position, that is having everything at zero when you start the mount as when you start the mount it assumes everything is at the home position (zero) before heading off.

try it sometime put the scope on a obvious tilt in the RA, turn the mount on, move it with the paddle, then in the synscan hand paddle select Park Scope, the scope will move back to where you had it initially.

Once you have levelled the tripod out and then done this proceedure for home position use a permanent marker to mark the spot as the rings i have found to move around on you. be careful