HEQ5 first light

[Davie]

I'll start by saying I was hoping to put up a more detailed post but it's late so this will be shorter than I'd thought.

I bought my HEQ5 second/third hand from DrRobin who also resides in SGL and firstly I'd like to say what a gent and easy person to deal with, also he managed to get a courier to get the mount to the NE of Scotland in a couple of days for £20 Staying where I do I see many nice bits of kit coming up for sale that are pick up only when with a bit for extra effort sellers would open up a lot more buyers. Anyway .....

The mount was in the house for over a week before I could get a play with it due to being away with work. Also waiting were a power supply from Maplins and a cable with a 2.1mm plug on the end that I fitted a couple of connectors onto so that it would power the mount.

Once everything was put together, in the living room before the boss could notice, my son and I had a quick play about, he was pointing the mount at objects whilst I had a play with the handset to see what values required setting and just generally watching the wee man have fun.

Next time I had a minute the alignment of the polarscope was checked and there were no complaints from me so next up was fitting the 130 and balancing the scope in the mount both RA and DEC were set up and a measurement taken as to where the dovetail sat in the mount and some masking tape stuck the the dovetail as an easy marker as to where it should sit back in the same place all the time.

Next thing was to read and try not to make my brain trickle out of my ears by learning about how to polar align the mount but thanks to the great guide on Astro-baby it was very easy and quicker than I thought it would be for my first use of the mount.

So everything was set up waiting for the first night that didn't involve clouds or rain or snow or all of them ..... this took 10 more nights at which point I don't mind telling you I was like a kid before Christmas.

Kids in bed - Check

House almost back to normality - sort of

Permission from the boss - Hurrah!!

So off I go to the garage to retrieve the mount. It was carted out in 3 bits but when I came to stick the weights in the clamp that had worked fine for the last few plays wasn't doing its job, A quick look reveiled that the little bit of plastic that I assume should have been there to clamp the weights in place was missing and a inspection of the garage floor turned up nothing of any use, a quick flash of insparation and a brown rawl plug and a pair of snips later and we were back in buisness

Frist part of the fun after levelling off the mount is to try and get polaris lined up after using a andriod app to figure out where Polaris should be I set up the date/time rings on the polar scope and set the alt at 57 which is where I am, pity it took until 64 to get polaris in view. Now I know these are not always accurate but 7 degrees out had me stumped for a little while.

Once this was done I thought I might as well go the whole hog and try a 3 star alignment, this was fairly easy but the handset kept throwing up stars that I couldn't see and this I would say is one small grumble about the GOTO set up was that the stars could be in alphabetical order to make it easier to browse for ones that you can actually see, although I have now spotted a post tonight that shows you the stars etc. and makes it easier to find them.

All in all I'd say this is a great bit of kit after my so far one and only outing with it. This was after learning how to input the values into the handset, playing about with the polar scope and reading up on polar alignment. Now I just need to have a few more shots to get used to it then I need to get my hands on a 200PDS

If you'll pardon the pun

things are looking up

Oh and I seem to have rambled on a bit

[Viv]

Davie - pleased then

Good to know it's so easy to kick off.

I hope to order mine mid next week.

[Davie]

As long as you don't expect to take it out of the box and go then it's fine.

Spend a few hours setting the polar scope up, working out how to use the setting rings and balancing the scope then when you come to use it for the first time its great

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

[dmahon]

Don't put your foot under the weights if only a snapped rawl plug is holding them on!

[Viv]

Don't put your foot under the weights if only a snapped rawl plug is holding them on!

Ouch !!!!

[Tinker1947]

If the bar that holds the weights is the same as the NEQ6 it has a large shouldered screw in the end this need to be removed to put on or take off weights, Polar Aligning is properly a must do, how accurate depends on what your going to do, Astrophoto's require it to be quite good, just looking round in general get it aimed close is all thats required, as for the setting all the other bits, i never bothered i use a Telrad and Stellarium to find my way around, the GoTo has never been used,,

Telrad finder

Stellarium

[Davie]

Before I tried to use move the mount after i fitted the rawl plug on top of the screw that holds the weights i tried to pull the weight and rod out of the mount and it was held firmly in place.