Yet another EQ8.

[stephen_usher]

Well, the new mount arrived at the beginning of the week but I didn't manage to get it home from work until Thursday. So, today's been the first day I've been able to take it out for a spin.

I'm still awaiting the arrival of the proper pier adapter so after dismantling the CGEM I merely removed the pin and put the new mount on the old adapter. Of course, without a pin to do the fine azimuth alighnment I can't really hope to align it well. Still, I've manage to roughly align it thanks to a very brief period of clearish skies and the view of the Moon.

I roughly set the altitude using the scale on the side of the mount and pointed the mount northwards before turning it on. Once I set the location and time I didn't do the alignment but instead asked the mount to point at the Moon. Of course, it pointed where it thought the Moon should be, which allowed me to then use the altitude adjustment and man-handing to slew the mount until the Moon was dead centre in the finder scope and locked everything down. It should be good enough for the time being anyway. It'll all have to come apart again soon anyway.

[Tinker1947]

It does look a nice bit of Kit, hope you get some good tracking with it.......

[Zakalwe]

You've done better than I have (100% clouds here. Again)

No pier adapter is really needed, just three holes and a pin (or bolt).

They're beefy pieces of kit. aren't they?

[stephen_usher]

You've done better than I have (100% clouds here. Again)

No pier adapter is really needed, just three holes and a pin (or bolt).

They're beefy pieces of kit. aren't they?

Well, it needs the holes to be vertical and tapped. Tricky. ;-)

Yeah, they are well built, though easier to handle than the CGEM though.

I was surprised that even after I added the 80mm APO on top of the C11 EdgeHD I didn't need to move the weights all the way to the end of the rod.

[stephen_usher]

Now looking more complete with the Meade 80mm APO on top:

 

If only there were clear skies...

[Zakalwe]

Well, it needs the holes to be vertical and tapped. Tricky. ;-)

One of these:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Draper-Expert-6-8Mm-Twist-Drill/dp/B00138MW0E/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1386452666&sr=8-3&keywords=m8+tap+and+drill

and one of these:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Am-Tech-Tap-Wrench-Set-Pieces/dp/B0033WG09C/ref=sr_1_14?s=diy&ie=UTF8&qid=1386452824&sr=1-14&keywords=tap+wrench5+tap

It'll take about 10 minutes to do. Its a piece of cake

Or just drill straight through and put a nut and bolt in.

[stephen_usher]

The skies have (mostly) cleared here now. Very hazy.

Well, my first impressions of the mount?

1. The alignment process is painful. After coming from Meade and Celestron it's an order of magnitude worse. It doesn't pick stars which may actually be above the horizon even and initially slews almost 90 degrees from the first star! It gets a bit better on the other two stars. Due to this my alignment tonight is poor.
2. Backlash? What backlash?! I can't see any. The motion is silky smooth.

So, there you are. Once I get the mount properly mounted I thing I'm going to have some fun.

[stephen_usher]

Well, what can I say? The difference between this mount and the Celestron CGEM is like chalk and cheese.

Maybe my CGEM is a poorly constructed unit but it has masses of backlash, it drifts for a few arc seconds after you move in one direction and the periodic error is massive.

The EQ8 by comparison couldn't be more different. There is no discernible backlash, even with a 9mm eyepiece on the C11. The motion is precise, smooth and accurate.

The EQ8 may be over double the price of the CGEM (but not much more than the CGEM DX) but it's far more than double the capability (other than the awful alignment system).

[Astroscot2]

Looks a nice set up Stephen, my own was delivered at the end of last week,  Mounted it on the peir Sunday but thats as far as I got,

Keep us updated on your progress

cheers

Mark

[stephen_usher]

Looks a nice set up Stephen, my own was delivered at the end of last week,  Mounted it on the peir Sunday but thats as far as I got,

Keep us updated on your progress

cheers

Mark

I most definitely will, as and when there are new things to report.

[ollypenrice]

I'm on the next boat, so to speak, and very much looking forward to it...

Olly

[Tinker1947]

I fancy a EQ8 as a upgrade, but people typing reviews are a bit thin on the ground......

[stephen_usher]

I've just rushed home and opened the observatory (while my dinner cooked).

Turned on the 'scope and resumed after parking it... It seems that the hand controller has not only lost the time but I had to re-align again. (Actually, the alignment went a lot smoother after turning the Advanced Filter off.)

I'm not sure if I have a duff hand controller or if the Sky-Watcher ones don't have a battery-backed clock on board as the Celestron and Meade ones do.

Anyway, after the alignment it told me that I was a mere 1 degree off polar alignment, which is pretty decent seeing how rough and ready my aligning process was. Anyway, I should have the proper mount adapter within the next day or two so there's not point in doing any better alignment for the moment.

Assuming that the forecast fog doesn't roll in too early I may try some imaging, just as a test.

[stephen_usher]

Oh well, fog's rolled in so play stopped for this evening. At least I got a little play.

[Tinker1947]

My NEQ6 hand controller requires the date and time input every time its turned on, it keeps the location ok.....EQMod sorts out the alignment and parking much better than the hand set, unparked my mount and it slews to the home position, CdC used, clicked on Jupiter and it slewed the planet was in the EP when it stopped, just a small adjustment and resycn..

[stephen_usher]

Hmm.. Thanks Tinker1947. After waking it up initially last night and asking it to slew to Jupiter it was about 45 degrees out on the RA.

Once I've got the Permanent PEC stored (which requires good alignment initially) I'll probably move over to using EQMOD via a dedicated PC accessed over the network using Remote Desktop.

[Tinker1947]

I downloaded Alignmaster its a 30 day free trial, if it does what it says, i will send him the purchase price, its cheap like APT.....

[Gina]

I've never even tried the handset with mine I use EQMOD/ASCOM exclusively.  It's a vast improvement on the NEQ6.  Seems faster slewing and with the MN190 and 2 Evostar 80EDs on it it's awsome   PA is very much easier than on the NEQ6 too.

NOW if only we could get some clear night skies I have a massive ToDo list of images

[stephen_usher]

Gina, I didn't think that you could train the on-mount permanent PEC without using the handset to set the mount into the special training mode first.

Once done the PPEC would cut in whenever you ran the mount, even if using EQMOD, meaning that the software could get on with the more important stuff.

[stephen_usher]

Well, the adapter from Ian King Imaging arrived today and miraculously the fog cleared this evening, allowing me to get outside, get everything installed and the mount aligned using the polar alignment utility.

One or two snags though.

1. Due to a school boy error when placing the pier bolts into the concrete base the pier is aligned to the edge of the garden and not E-W/N-S which means that the holes to bolt the pier adapter onto the pier head are out. Unfortunately the EQ8 has *JUST* too little adjustment in the azimuth plane to allow me to bolt the adapter down. So, I'm relying upon the centre bolt and some glue which happens to be on to of the pier head to keep the adapter still. It seems to work!
2. The skies were not quite clear with high cloud passing over, so I had to catch my moments to see the alignment stars.
3. I discovered that there is some backlash in the DEC drive. Nothing too great but I'm surprised that I didn't see it last weekend. Nothing decernable in the RA though, which is good.

Still, after three cycles through the polar alignment procedure I'm down to an error of 1' in azimuth and 47" in altitude.

I must admit that the PTFE (Teflon) ring on the Ian King Imagine adapter makes the azimuth adjustment pretty smooth.

Unfortunately, due to the Moon, the high cloud and the very iffy seeing in general there's no way to do any imaging tonight to test things further.

Anyway, here's what the rig looks like now:

[Gasman]

Hi guys

I`m interested in how accurate you are finding the slewing/goto with the EQ8?. I`m using Eqmod and wanting to hit a 25micron slit each time which with my Atik 314 it would be within 4 or 5 pixels. I`ve not received my new spectroscope yet so not sure if I can achieve that with my NEQ6. The EQ8 caused much interest at Kelling recently and is on my future `want` list!.

Regards

Steve

[Earl]

cant wait to get mine next year

[alan potts]

Sky Watcher hand controllers are a pain in my opinion, I don't know how many times I have stopped myself  from throwing mine across the field. The Meade works like a dream. This looks like a nice mount at a reasonable price, if I had one I have a few goodies I could load onto it.

Alan.

[ollypenrice]

It seems ours is on its way, SW having released some more which were initially missing their counterweights. Thanks FLO.

I need to get my beam into gear making the dual scope mounting hardware...

Maybe I'll try EQ Mod but I've never had much luck with ASCOM. I quite like handsets. For mosaics I just note the centre co-ordinates of each panel and slew to them. I can't see that this is much of an issue.

I also realized, yesterday, that I inadvertently ordered the polarscope but rather than cancel it I'll see what it does. Lucas Mesu does one along the same lines and, surprizingly, it does work despite its afterthoght appearance. My real alignment will be old school, by drift. This gives a direct measurement independent of any mechanical variables or software foibles.

Three weeks of clear skies have ended but at least the cloud and moon have arrived together.

Olly

[stephen_usher]

I also realized, yesterday, that I inadvertently ordered the polarscope but rather than cancel it I'll see what it does. Lucas Mesu does one along the same lines and, surprizingly, it does work despite its afterthoght appearance. My real alignment will be old school, by drift. This gives a direct measurement independent of any mechanical variables or software foibles.

I also ordered the polar scope but it's on back order still.