NEQ6 Pro First Impressions

[JamesF]

The sky looked like it was clearing around 9pm last night, so I took my new mount out onto the patio and mounted up the Mak to cool. The view is fairly restricted as it's very close to the house, but mostly I just wanted to play with the mount and get the hang of it. I did want to use the ST120, but I don't have a dovetail on that yet, so it will have to wait a few days.

The first thing I was struck by was its sheer size. I've not seen one in the flesh before and it completely dwarfs my EQ3-2. It's just on a completely different scale.

And it's heavy. Heavy in much the same way that the Pope may have leanings towards Catholicism. I can well believe that some people would find it completely unmanageable or just a plain obstacle to observing unless it was permanently on a pier in an obsy. Everything seems to fit together very solidly, though I used a fairly light touch with the adjustment bolts knowing what a reputation they have for bending.

I noticed the weight a fair bit as it happens, because by 10pm the cloud had really rolled in and I decided to call it a night, only for everything to clear up again by midnight, so I took it all out again.

First thing was to do the setup stuff on the handset. I could really do without the "don't look at the sun" stuff. I'm sure that's really not necessary. The only thing that initially caught me out was that they ask for longitude first followed by latitude to specify your location when I was expecting it the other way around.

With the moon starting to light up the sky to the south east and the sun still giving a hint of blue to the north west many of the dimmer stars just weren't visible and there was no chance of doing a polar alignment, so I decided to give a three-star alignment a go and work from there. Despite the fact that I rarely use anything but an equatorial mount, it's a different ball game when you have to align everything using the buttons on the handset. Picturing how to move the scope in the RA and DEC axes to get to the star you're after is far more difficult than unlocking the clutches and swinging the scope around by hand. My lack of experience there was probably why initially it told me that the alignment had failed and I had to start again. it didn't really help that it was clearly after a star in the southern sky to align against, when they were all washed out by the moon. An illuminated reticle would probably help, too.

Anyhow, having been through the alignment process again the handset informed me it was all sorted, so I tried a few of the objects on the "tour", most of which I couldn't actually see due to the brightness of the sky. It's surprisingly noisy when slewing at high speed, and far from silent even when idle. M13 was easy to spot, but a shadow of itself in darker skies.

Eventually I decided to consult TLAO and asked it to find M57. It took off again and as soon as I looked through the eyepiece there it was, right in the middle. I know it's a GOTO, but I've spent hours in the past trying (and sometimes failing) to find DSOs and to be able to enter just a name and within seconds have an object there in the eyepiece is a bit of a revelation.

With the time sliding well past 1:30am I should have been well asleep, so I decided to have a quick look for Neptune before calling it a night. Unfortunately the view was still washed out by moonlight so that's something I'll have to save for another day.

There's loads I want to do with it yet -- sort out polar alignment, try out EQMOD, and there's probably lots of the handset functionality that I've not even been near yet,. but so far I'm very pleased with it. It's going to take a while to get used to -- I don't think it's likely to be anywhere near as easy to use from the off than an alt-az based GOTO might be, for instance, but that's not what I was after. There's a clear sky forecast for tonight, so I'll be out again tonight, muttering at the moon and trying to find a few more things to look at in the narrow patch of sky that's actually dark.

Oh, and did I mention that it's not exactly light?

James

[steppenwolf]

So, let me get this clear in my mind - is this mount quite heavy then .....?

[martin_h]

It will probably be as heavy as my NEQ6....I only had to lift it once...from box to pier...that was enough for me.

One thing tho...mine is almost silent when just tracking.

[hayju01]

bet mine's heavier than yours....well may be not :-)

I too have noticed the noise levels when slewing at full rate and infact questioned this with my supplier but was told that was normal. As for the noise when tracking I do get a 'squeek' as if one our little cheese eating friends was in there. I have to say as long as I set up early enough so there's the regualr drone of human noise about i don't really notice it until I switch off at 2am.

All I can say it wait till you hear the noise it makes if you're powertank is running low on juice. Boy!!! now that'll get your heart racing.

[Digz]

A great mount and yes it can be noisy when slewing. Mine is quite when tracking apart from, as hayju01 alludes to, a quite whine and squeak.

I take mine out every time i need to use it and it can be heavy, but heavy is good as I know it will be sturdy and dampen down quick.

I agree the initial warning on the handset can be annoying but you can skip it by pressing the enter key.