EQ6 owners

[frogman (Anthony Lord)]

Guys ... and Girls

Who owns an EQ6 and whats wrong with them ??? what goes (bang,crunch) and what issues would i have using a 12" GSO Deluxe 12" X 1500 ???

Anthony

[slice of heaven]

Mines perfect ,never had a problem with it.
Its still in the box

Hook up with the EQ6 yahoo site and youll get a good idea how they perform.
I've been following that forum for 4 months and they seem to be excellent value. The Synscan upgrade makes them a better unit but the standard unit seems OK.
Their is a couple of guys with 12" newts riding on them there as well, and their opinion is there as well. I wont repeat their report as its heresay, but Mark Hodson had his 12 riding on one so wait for his reply.

I wouldnt mind slipping one of the 12's on the Eq6 later on but I'm in no hurry. Good luck with it Anthony

[Jonathan]

I have an EQ6 with SkyScan and it is currently in Sydney for warranty repairs. I only got it a couple of weeks ago and it has never worked so I can't even tell you what was wrong with it other than the hand controller cable was only one of the faults. To me that says there are serious quality control issues if they aren't even checking the cables that leave the factory. That said there seems to be many happy EQ6 users out there so they can't all be that bad.

[iceman (Mike)]

Do you want it for visual or photography Anthony?

[Astroman (Andrew Wall)]

I have heard that there have been quite a few people with cable problems, usually solved by making a complete new one. Now that Synta and Celestron have merged the QC problems should be minimised. BTW there is a PRO version of the scope out now, pretty much the same as the older eq6 but it's white and the QC is a little more strict.

BTW Jonathan, do you goto the starparties of observing nights with the ASSA? Would like to look at a c11 on an eq6 in person before leaping into the big pond.

[Jonathan]

Originally Posted by Astroman

BTW Jonathan, do you goto the starparties of observing nights with the ASSA? Would like to look at a c11 on an eq6 in person before leaping into the big pond.

I haven't been to one yet, but I will one day.

[mch62 (Mark)]

OK i will jump in here with some first hand experiences with the EQ6 .
I have had mine since they first came to OZ and that's a couple of years now.

First off , back then Q.C. was a hit and miss thing.

Mine would not motor very well in RA tracking was poor and fast slew worked when it wanted to.
At this time there was not a great deal of info on the subject so i explored the fault my self.
It was relatively simple.
Q.C.

When the motor was fitted a spacer was fitted under neath instead of on top and hence the gear sprocket instead of being in mesh was just riding like a clutch against the face.
slipping most of the time.
Once this was rectified and the grease changed out to something more like real grease it performed very well .

Once polar aligned I am able to keep an object centred in the small field of a ToUcam for 15-30mins .

There is PE error of coarse but have never measured it.

Now as to what the mount is capable of handling.

I originally had a 6"f8 refractor on the scope with a guide scope camera ect ect .No problems here well within it's limits.

When I finished my 12.5" f6 newt I used the EQ6 to try it out.
This was only temporary as I intended to get a bigger mount.
I used it like this for about 6 months.

The 12.5"is a truss tube with a light weight conical mirror and the total weight was 16kg's with out any eyepieces or other accessories and has an OTA length of 2000mm.

The eq6 handled the weight no problems there .
It was the back lash and small gears and gear meshing that caused the problems with a long tube.

The torque generated by a long tube was to much for the EQ6 .
It was OK for general viewing but slewing was a hit and miss affair.

Just to long for the little gears used in the mount.

May be if they were like 7-9" it would be fine but 5.6" gears are a bit on the small size for larger long scopes.

A 12" SCT would be fine as would a ***light weight***12" f 4.5 Newt.
I think f5 1500mm would be the absolute max and that is for visual only and a light weight tube assemble.

Having used (not owned) a 12" f5 GSO it would be to heavy in the ends for the EQ6.
Possible making an ultra light truss tube and keeping the focuser cage light it might work.

My EQ6 is now my grab and go mount for my ED80 and one day will upgrade to Go-to as I think it is to good a value mount for the price to part with if you don't want to fit too large a scope .

I have included a couple of pics for a 10" f6 Newtonian that rides on an EQ6 and works very well , but it is again a light weight conical mirror and a truss tube.This would be more realistic as far as a Newtonian goes.Also my 12.5"f6 .
Notice the counter weights required in each.
Mine required the 2 original +15kgs bar bell weight.

I later used one 15 and 5kg BB weight to lessen the load extended out on the counter weight shaft.
The shaft is only small and bends if to much is placed out along the full length. Eg better to have one heavy weight further out then 4 along the length of the bar.
I was able to use less over all weight.

Mark

[frogman (Anthony Lord)]

Ummm i was looking at the EQ6 for photography but by the sounds of it my little girl needs something a little bigger than the EQ......

i might just have to try a newt base.

Anthony