frankvstar1

  I found out that my polar alignment is off by a small amount between times I put my scope on  and off my mount inside my observatory even though the mount is on a permanent pier. Maybe it is due to expansion and contraction of the pier from temp changes. I am in South Carolina and it get to 100% then down to  72% or lower at nigh at this time. Makes sense to me that this might be the cause of a small change in polar alignment, so I check each time to make sure.

  I have also attached a pic of my mount in my homemade observatory  where I used a 12.35 ft old satellite dish as a dome, it works great and cost me less than $500 to make and its larger than one I could have bought from SkyShed or others. It has a concrete floor with carpeting now and later I might put up nicer inside walls.

  I am using an Evostar 72 and I tried  Sequator to get my stacked image. It was the first time I could clearly see the spiral bands and I was thrilled even though it no wheres as nice as your photo/ but it keeps me interested. BY the way your final image looks great to me, I would be happy beyond belief !!!!!!!!!!!

On 02/06/2019 at 22:35, LarsCar said:

Hi all , this is my first post here 

I am in dire need of some advice or input .

I recently purchased a used HEQ5 that came with a Skywatcher 200p telescope , a modified Canon camera and guide scope ( it was only the mount I wanted but the price was way , way too good considering it included the larger scope and camera /numerous accessories. I hoped it would future proof me and save me having to make large future purchases.

 I have really been trying to get to grips with it all but if I am honest , as awesome as the telescope is , it’s just extremely cumbersome and overwhelming to set up and use , precariously trying to adjust and balance it all .  Trying to hold on to it all and twiddling the little grub screws that grip it into place , the insane , convoluted software sequences to run through to set get it set up each time , it doesn’t help that the nights are so short this time of year but     the whole process just absorbs so much of the limited time available not to mention the spontaneously occurring clouds.

Before I purchased this deal I had picked up an old Tamron f3.8 200mm lens for my own camera for £30 on eBay and planned on using just that with the HEQ5 until I could afford a telescope at a later date and had a better idea of what I needed. 

Essentially I feel like I have inadvertently jumped in way too deep with software , drivers, cables and cameras etc etc so I decided to chill a bit and temporarily place the 200p to one side ( try to pretend it isn’t there mocking me ) and  return to my original plan of just using a compact, forgiving 200mm lens and image unguided with just the mount aligned via the polar scope  , go to controller for target acquisition and intervalometer for image sequencing . No laptops , no drivers , ascom , phd, Astro tortilla , sharp cap to worry about ..

The problem I have now though is that it seems my DSLR and 200mm lens are way too light to balance properly on the HEQ5 regardless of what I do with the weights . 

I really pushed the budget boat out thinking I had made a wise long term decision but I just feel a bit lost now. 

Maybe in winter when the nights are longer and less rushed it will all come together . I have managed to clamber up the learning curve so far but despite that , the actual process is far more tedious than my originally imagined concept of a minimal ‘ grab and go’ set up . Trying to use all this extra technology .

I am really pleased with the mount I just wanted something solid that will track stars and allow me to expand to larger lens and or scope  later . I think now I need to find a solution to get it balanced for just my SLR and photo lens. If anyone has any suggestions I would really appreciate it !

Sorry it’s a long , rambling post . I guess it’s the accumulation of a lot of thinking and pondering and I have no one around to talk to about this subject or bounce off. 

 

 

 

 

  I have the same HEQ5Pro mount and when polar aligned really good I can get a 4 to 5 minute with my Pentax KX and 200 mm lens fairly easily. I still going through the insane amount of garbage you have to go thru using a 8in Meade SCT on this mount, and I did finally have to get a small guide camera so I could use sharp cap to polar align well as the polar scope retical was out of whack  real bad with my mount.  Don't give up, as soon as you get your first quality photo that you like it makes it all worth while.  After years I just got a picture of the Andromeda galaxy that I was happy with and I am struggling to repeat it. I have  used a small Evostar refractor to get this pic. I am not good using photo enhancements yet such as Photo Shop to really pick put the dark space background and star colors, that's going to cost the price of a used Televue eyepiece and I am not ready for that. BUt the mount seemed to track well unguided for  2 minutes easy and this was about 7 frames, not many at all.Andromeda test 2 sequator enhanced.psdAndromeda test 2 sequator enhanced.psdAndromeda test 2 sequator enhanced.psdAndromeda test 2 sequator enhanced.psdAndromeda test 2 sequator enhanced.psd