Would you sell an Heq5 to get an Astrotrac?

[spacebloke]

Well that's the position I'm in.

I find taking the Heq5 outside and setting it up everytime i want to do any imaging or visual astronomy a bit of an annoyance.

So I've been thinking that an astrotrac might be a better solution for me. I already have a tripod and ball head, so it would just be the geared head and astrotrac that I would need.

I would also like the fact that I could take it anywhere and do a spot of imaging without having to try and find a taxi (my girlfriend) beforehand.

Please feel free to let me know if you think this is a reasonable idea or to tell me I'm just being stupid and should keep the Heq5 .

Cheers

Stuart

[Digz]

Personally I wouldnt. I have an NEQ6 and just brought an Astrotrac for nights where time is short and I dont want the hassle of setting up the NEQ6 and for when travelling. Like you I do find lugging the NEQ6 a chore sometimes, but ultimately I will be wanting to have a permanent set up. Do you need to sell to finance the Astrotrac?

Astrotrac's are great and you can even get a version with a RA autoguide option. Im not sure how the payloads compare, and I have seen some people mount scopes on an Astrotrac, but to me they are two different mounts for two different jobs. I dont think my astrotrac would replace by NEQ6 and scope as I tend to use it with my DSLR and lenses rather than a scope.

I hope that helps a little.

[spacebloke]

Hi Lee, Cheers for the advice.

The astrotrac would be for use with a DSLR and a CCD camera some day. I have (literally) just sold my 80ed scope. So the Heq5 mount would only be used for visual astronomy with my 6se OTA. But I plan to sell the OTA also to help fund a 12" dob.

It would just mean that I could have great views through the dob without having to polar align first and be able to image at the same time.

The payload for an Astrotrac is very impressive 15kg.

Stuart.

[Digz]

No problem Stuart.

Like you I aim to get a CCD at some point (when my savings actually remain as savings!!!)

Given what you have said above I would then sell the HEQ5 as it sounds like it will be redundant once the 6se has been sold. Maybe you can use the monies from both those items for a bigger dob or towards a CCD?

[ollypenrice]

The main job is polar aligning and any equatorial needs that. Would the Astrotrack be that much easier to PA? Would it be easier at all? The key feature is airline portability. The Astrotrack probably has less PE but for car transport wopuld you gain much?

Olly

http://ollypenrice.smugmug.com/Other/Best-of-Les-Granges/22435624_WLMPTM#!i=2277139556&k=FGgG233