EQ3-2 upgrade

[Megalot]

Hi

I'm new to astronomy with a telescope, I have dabbled over the years with bios & spotting scopes.  I currently have a skywatcher 150P with an EQ3-2 mount.   I want to upgrade to something motorised and Harrison Telescopes have said they the only way using this mount is with the Skywatcher Synscan Pro GoTo mount @ £295.00.  Does anyone have any experience of this upgrade, is it worthwhile and is it very involved.

Thanks in advance

Ken.

[Dave Lloyd]

Hi welcome, I think others more knowledgeable than me would tell you your scope is probably over the limit weightwise for an eq3. Your money might he better spent upgrading the mount

[Pete Presland]

Seems a lot of money to spend upgrading a EQ3 to be honest, are you thinking of imaging in the future. If not I fitted non goto motors to my EQ5 and I don't think they were that expensive.

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk

[Megalot]

Thanks.  Yes I am considering imaging at some point in time.  What are non go to motors?

[Joseki]

Agree with the above, but if you've had the 150p on the eq3-2 for a while now I guess you know how it performs.  If you want goto then there's one kit available - that one. If you only want motors, you can get just the motor upgrade and handset, £110. http://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-mounts/enhanced-dual-axis-dc-motor-drive-for-eq3-2.html 

which comes with a ST4 port, so there might be an easy way of connecting it to your laptop with EQMOD (or not - I don't know).

[Joseki]

What are non go to motors?

just motors that allow the mount to track/move at a constant rate.  Goto is pretty useful though.

Yes I am considering imaging at some point in time

then you should probably start saving up for a bigger mount.  For £400-£500 you could maybe pick up a 2nd hand HEQ5 - goto.

[bambuko]

There are people here who manage miracles with EQ3-2   but afaic it is so heavily overloaded when used with 150 (6") newtonian that it is a waste of time and money trying to "improve" it.

YMMV...

[Purplehayze104]

Hi There I fell foul to the upgrade kit for the eq3-2 bought the manual mount first, then bout 5 months later I bought the upgrade kit, its self assembly but easy enuff to do, was a bit pants when come to imaging as never very precise an well it is a bit overwhelmed with the 150 and camera gear hence I upgraded to a second hand HEQ5, all in all sell the EQ3-2 an save the 300 quid for the upgrade get a better mount or else you mite be left wanting later on.

hope this helped

john

ps also upgraded the legs as they are pretty shocking when mount moving around an trying to image.

[Megalot]

Thanks everyone, saving up it is then.

[goose35]

I use a 150p on an eq3-2 for visual. I think it performs fine with the scope and Imo it not overloaded but close to max. I have even used the 150pl at around 9kg which I found wobbly but still useable.

I got the enhanced motor set from flo for £110 which has a st4 guide port.

Its very easy to fit and For visual tracking it does the job brilliant

But

I have tried guiding my dslr with a st80 guide scope and found it lacking and unable to even calibrate. The Dec motor has a lot of delay on reversing direction.

So your options are

If you want to do AP then go for a new mount eq 5 goto upwards

If you are happy with visual but want tracking then go for the cheaper non guiding motors for around £90 from flo

[Pete Presland]

Just to give an idea of the difference between the mounts I upgraded from an EQ3 to an EQ5 a couple of years back for planetary imaging.