Clarkey

I would agree that the ED80 is a good choice for AP and visual. For around £500 you should be able to get one second hand with a field flattener. (One sold yesterday on Astro B&S for £510). The colour correction is good but you will get some CA on brighter objects. I think for £500 you will be pushed to get a triplet or true APO, even second hand. Looking at your signature you have 'planetary' cameras, whereas the ED80 is a wider field scope. If you are thinking for planetary imaging you could consider a Mak. Maybe clarify your viewing and imaging priorities and it would help with the guidance.

I have not used the Lindy cables but I have used a couple of cheaper versions. The cables gave me no issues but the hub I used was temperamental so I moved to a mini PC on the scope.

Fair enough. I shall bow to the superior knowledge of @Carbon Brushand @wulfrun. As a chemist I shall crawl back in my hole🤣

I appreciate that it is not steady state current, but to draw more than 5 amps even at start up still seems excessive. Without any other demand the mount takes very little and I'm not sure what would take it above 5A. Having said this, the quality of SW soldering leaves a lot to be desired so who knows what "special" load they have added😂

To be honest you shouldn't get close to 5 amp from the HEQ5. My total imaging rig only draws about 3 amps. I have run my heq5 on this power pack without issue so there is no reason why it shouldn't work. Was it the fuse in the power pack or the cable?

I am NOT a planetary imager, but from my limited experience I would say ignore the histogram and keep the exposures very short to reduce the effects of the seeing - I think for Jupiter something like 5 milli sceonds. You can increase the gain to compensate for the short exposure. Other than this I will let one of the planetary imaging experts to give you some guidance.

how about one of these? U.K. Astronomy Buy & Sell (astrobuysell.com) Small and light but also very good for AP. Should be just about small enough to sit on a star tracker.

As I have now got some astro darkness 😀 I managed to get a few hours on the Iris Nebula over a couple of nights. It's been on my 'to-do' list for a while. Given the limited integration time, I am not too unhappy with the outcome. Shot with the StellaMira 90mm triplet and ASI1600mm with 6 hours of luminance and an hour each of RGB. I've tried to keep it 'natural' with stars and no colour enhancements other than a bit of saturation. Processed in APP and Affinity as I have not got to grips with PI yet. Comments / suggestions welcome as always.

Yes I should have been more specific. The RMS in arc secs was around 0.4" and a bit more for the HEQ5. However, for 'cheap', portable mounts I still think this is pretty good. The seeing was quite good which would also help. Ultimately it was the 50%+ reduction in RMS that was the most surprising. Not only this, but the guided peak to peak errors gave even better improvements. I think the use of quality grease instead of toffee made the difference.😆

Looks about right but maybe a couple of extra bits that are not needed. There is a guide here that might help: https://astronomy-imaging-camera.com/tutorials/best-back-focus-length-solutions-55mm.html

The alignment should not matter. However, as you have all the parts screwed in place (if I read it correctly) you will need to rotate the scope in the rings for framing subjects.

As long as you are systematic it is ok. I laid everything out on newspaper in the order it was removed so putting it back together was pretty straightforward. The only real issue is removing the RA lock nut. I made a tool out of a piece of metal bar and a couple of bolts which worked fine.

Yes - I used this one which was pretty good. I have amended the original very slightly as a critical step was missed - but this is included in the attachment. AZEQ6 Stripdown guide final.pdf

I thought I would drop this on the forum as an encouragement to anyone thinking about servicing their Skywatcher mount. Over there summer I stripped down an rebuilt my HEQ5 and AZ-EQ6 too. I replaced all the bearings in the HEQ5 but kept the original bearings in the other mount. Other than a good degrease and re-grease I did nothing more, other than careful setting of the worm gears. Now the important bit - the difference in performance is STAGGERING! Both mounts were ok before, but the improvement in guiding and tracking has been phenomenal. Last night the total RMS for the AZ-EQ6 was 0.11. Previously it was never less than 0.3. The HEQ5 is not quite so good, but still twice as good as before. The backlash is also much better. All I can say is that if you are considering a mount strip down, DO IT!

Just had a quick look on line and apparently there is a 'goto home position' command which will park the mount before shutting down.

If there is not a park option, could you get the mount to goto another target somewhere near the east and track from there?

I would second the idea of a zoom eyepiece. Although I am primarily an imager I do observe too. I have a Baader Hyperion zoom with the Barlow and I find it to be pretty good. Not cheap, but worth the investment in my opinion. I do have a cheaper zoom which is ok, but the Baader is much better.

The rain sensor I have is one of these: https://cpc.farnell.com/kemo-electronic/m152/module-rain-sensor-12vdc/dp/HK01173?mckv=s_dt|pcrid|605262956794|kword||match||plid||slid||product|HK01173|pgrid|138313687175|ptaid|pla-1871612868872|&CMP=KNC-GUK-CPC-SHOPPING&s_kwcid=AL!5616!3!605262956794!!!network}!1871612868872!&gclid=CjwKCAjwgaeYBhBAEiwAvMgp2s1ELkOQMPGTnOtGGC-UaO3S_kjF7aL4OvWyqvVpyFoTaTVwFOXkpxoCsFEQAvD_BwE I have wired it to a buzzer that goes off if it trips. I did find I need to use a bit of salt on the sensor to increase the sensitivity as rain water alone takes too long to set it off. By drying a bit of salt water on the sensor plate it will set it off with only a few drops of rain. I did try some of the cheaper sensors from ebay but I found them to be pretty poor and they kept frying. For the app, the one I use is actually called 'rain alarm'. It costs a few pounds per year but it is worth it for the early warning. I would add that the app is great for heavy rain which shows up on radar, but for drizzle it is less effective. This is why I use both systems. But for a total outlay of about £50 I get a good night's sleep and peace of mind.

My garden is pretty secure so I don't worry too much about theft. I leave my gear all night normally and pack up in the morning. I do use a rain alarm app and I also have a rain sensor which alerts me if the alarm warning fails. If I am leaving it out due to a good forecast over multiple nights I do cover it with a converted BBQ cover.

Having used a 200p on an EQ mount, I completely disagree. Newtonians for visual on an EQ mount are a real pain. The eyepiece and finder ends up in all manner of weird positions.

I don't know the minimum to run it, but you definitely don't need a GPU. I have Stanett run on a very basic laptop without issue.

As @SthBohemia suggests there are loads of similar questions on the forum. I would suggest you need to consider what you want to view and/or image to help in your decisions as this will affect your choices.

As it is meant to measure changes in the tube I connect mine to the OTA with an elastic band or cable tie. To be honest I don't really use it as I refocus on increases in FWHM.

Just another thought...... There is a Stella Mira 0.6 reducer / flattener that you could use with the 72 ed. Not sure how good the correction would be compared with a purpose built flattener but optically it would be running at f4 so fast.

No reason why you can't. If you dither you might need to adjust the settings and I don't know how big a sensor the evoguide can illuminate. But there is no reason why it should not work. Edit - just checked and it should illuminate the sensor OK.