It's arrived!

[EdF_uk]

Evening everyone.

Well my first scope arrived today. It's a skywaycher 200p on a HEQ5 syntrek mount. My first impressions were that it was a lot bigger than I thought. They look much smaller in shops don't they. Also, the mount is really heavy which is a good thing of course. I can't imagine how much the EQ6 weighs in at. I am very impressed with the quality of the mount and the tube, they really do seem well made and thought through. I can't wait to really get stuck in this weekend.

I'll let you know how things go

Ed

[kris h]

Congrats on the scope & mount Ed ,

Hope you get clear skies this weekend

[NickK]

Good stuff.

I know it sounds daft but set it up in your living room and get all the power connected etc. It will get you used to the way the mount fits together without being in the dark. I'd leave the scope end caps on (protect against dust/hair/pets/small fingers).

[Albireo380]

Congratulations on the new kit Ed. The HEQ is a good mount and should hold your 200p rock steady.

As Nickk suggested, set it all up and test it inside, in the light. Then Practice setting up and taking it all down a few times. Once you have done it in the light a couple of times, it will be much easier in the dark on a cold Winter's night.

Tom

[EdF_uk]

Thanks guys,

Yes the first thing I did was to set it up (minus the eyepieces and finder scope) in my lounge. It looked huge compared to the size of the room but I'm assured that bigger is better. ;-)

I'm taking it up to my girlfriends this weekend who lives just south of Kings Lynn. I'm hoping for some clear skies but the forecast doesn't look great.

Regarding the scope - I noticed that the balance point of the scope is offset from the longitudinal centre of the tube (due to the heavy primary mirror). Therefore to balance the scope on the mount the scope rings are more towards the primary mirror end of the tube. In the pictures in the manual they show the scope more centrally held between the rings. I take it that I should be balancing as best i can?

Regarding the mount - I have gone for the Syntrek variant of the mount and therefore it is currently not a fully Goto scope. However, I've been reading about how to control the mount directly from a PC, Laptop or even my iphone. The EQMod website suggests a few methods of doing this, one of them is to buy a RS232-TTL converter. I don't want to spend lots of money so I'm going to make one myself. My question relates to to the cable - Is it possible to use a cable that goes straight from the laptop to the mount, i.e. a USB to RJ45 connection? All the threads I've seen on here relating to this mod seem to indicate that you make a USB to Serial cable which then plugs into the Serial to RJ45 lead supplied with scope.

Can anyone help?

Thanks

Ed

[RikM]

Balance the scope as best you can and never mind about the pictures. Remember that the finder scope and a eyepieces will affect the balance point, so put everything in place before balancing it.

[EdF_uk]

Rik,

Yes I will do. As I mentioned, I'm taking the kit up to my girfriends tonight so hopefully I can fully assemble it there. She's really going to love me this weekend! :-)

Last night i got as far as putting the tripod and mount together and loading the scope onto the mount. I didn't open the box with all the accessories and eyepieces etc.

I haven't found a power supply yet. Do they supply a power supply or is that something that I will need to buy?

Ed

[chrisshillito]

You can't use just a cable, you need to build a a USB-TTL (EQDirect ttl) converter. Full details are on the EQMOD website - really simple to make and comes in a around half the price of the commercial equivalents.

Chris.

[EdF_uk]

Hi Chris,

Yes I understand that I have to use a serial to TTL converter which I can get from FTDI or Farnell. Can I just join a RJ45 connection to the end so that the cable will go from a USB port on the laptop straight into the controller socket on the HEQ5 mount?

Many thanks

Ed

[chrisshillito]

Yes, connection details for the RJ45 are EQMOD website. Only thing to watch out for is cable length - keep it reasonably short (say 2m or so) ttl isn't designed for driving any distance.

Chris.

[Crunchard]

Congrats on the new scope ...

[Moon monkey]

Hi Ed, You have to supply your own power supply :-/

One tip I will give you (i am only a beginner) put the scope in the home possition and then remove the counter weights..... before removing the scope from the mount !! (dont ask me how i know) .... Im still limping now ;O)

[EdF_uk]

Yes it is very heavy. I'm sure you could do a lot of damage if you dropped it on your foot.

I was working my way through the manual and trying to orient the polar scope reticule however it didn't seem to reflect what was happening on the mount. It said to tighten the RA setting scale screw and then turn the RA axis so that the setting scale says 1 h 0m. When the screw is locked my the setting circle scale doesn't move. Any ideas?

Is there a good tutorial for polar alignment that someone can recommend?

Many thanks

Ed

[RikM]

Astro-Baby's web site has loads of useful stuff.

[EdF_uk]

Thanks for the advice. I've briefly checked out the Astro baby site and it looks very good. I'll give it a go this afternoon.

Many thanks

Ed