should i get a HEQ5 PRO?

[Eeyarn]

hi been saving for a few months now and am about to upgrade my mount, i currently have a eq5 with motors, and a 150pds but want to upgrade my mount so i can eventually have a guided setup.

some questions i have are:

is it portable?

does all guiding software work on it?

will it carry all the equipment i need for imaging? (when i eventually get it) 

i was going to order my mount within the next couple of days but thought id just ask if anyone has any last minute advice. im a beginner to AP and don't want to end up spending a lot of money on something that's not going to be the best equipment for what i need. all the reading iv done seems to suggest its the best mount for the money and a good beginner mount but are there any negatives or has anyone had any problems with it? or are there any other mounts around the same price i should be considering?

apologies if all this has been asked in other posts or if these are stupid questions. 

thanks, iain 

[Bizibilder]

The HEQ5 is a good mount and is suitable for imaging and guiding.  It will take your scopes weight easily (and have "spare capacity" for a guide scope or finder guider).

I have used one myself for the last couple of years and would only add a couple of things to consider:

You will most likely need a laptop to control your camera and guiding, therefore you could also use it to control the mount.  EQMOD (freeware) is the way to go with Cartes du Ceil as your star atlas (some folk use Stellaruim but I prefer CdC with all its additional catalogues - over a million objects to choose from!).  If you go this route you only need the SynTrek version of the mount and an EQDIR cable - saving you quite a bit of money.

Second - are you future proof?  or will you want to upgrade to an EQ6 or similar?

As to portability the HEQ5 is easily carried in one hand (tripod separately of course).  The EQ6 is considerably more weight but can be carried (both hands!! - it all depends on how far you have to carry it! )  It will also carry a greater payload.

[swag72]

The HEQ5 is a cracking mount and has certainly been the starting point for many an imager. Mine was happy buzzing about all night and with guiding would gladly spew forth a load of complete 30 minute subs the following morning. You can not go wrong with it for imaging.

[nmoushon]

Like above I'll praise the HEQ5. I've used it for two years with great success. As Roger brought up the only thing you'll want to consider is will it hold any future upgrades. As of right now it will hold everything you need to guide and image no problem. Even if you upgrade to a CCD you'll be just fine. BUT if you ever think of getting a larger scope then you will run into some problems. The 200pds with all the imaging gear will max out the mount for sure. It doable but Im not sure how long of sub you'll be able to manage with that kind of load. Also have to consider wind to when you upgrade scopes and if your mount will be able to handle some wind or will even the slightest gust ruin your sub.

[ronin]

Check yourself on the portability of the HEQ5.

Also what do you mean by portable, carry out into the garden, or backpack one halfway up Snowdon.

I am a little unsure what to say as in the Getting Started with Imaging bit someone asked about portability of the EQ5 and was told that it wasn't feasible to consider it as such. Here we have the heavier HEQ5 and you being told it is.

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/212684-backpack-imaging/

[edjrgibbs]

+1 for the syntrek over the synscan, it's a great mount using stellarium through the EQDirect module to align and goto.

[Eeyarn]

thanks for the replies. 

when i said portable i just meant up the garden, sorry i should have been more clear. i will be taking it away with me for a week but will be in the car so wont have to carry it too far. 

ill be going for the synscan over the syntrek as i don't have a laptop at the moment (having to buy everything a bit at a time haha) 

think im going to rother valley optics tomorrow as its only about 20 minutes away hopefully they'll have it in stock.

thaks again 

iain

[nmoushon]

I think you'll be happy with it for sure. I have mine fully assembled sitting in a closet. Tripod, mount head and an 11# counter weight. I pick the whole thing up and take it out to the garden behind my townhouse. So I think its very portable. The only bothersome part about moving it is making sure the legs to knock anything over or scuff a corner but the weights not a problem.

[tingting44]

im in the same boat as you mate! i currently have the EQ5 with dual motors/ST4 conversion/GPUSB and its time for me to upgrade to the HEQ5, i just need to sell on my current gear before the boss allows me to get more astro gear, please let us know how you get on when you get it

[Adamar98]

It's a great mount. It's the only mount I've owned so I can't compare it to others. It's easy to setup. It's easy to use. It's light enough to carry short distances. Mine has never let me down in the two years I've had it. With guiding I get 20 minute subs every time. Imho it's worth every penny.

[Tinker1947]

If you look farther in to the future it might be wiser to go for a NEQ6 or the AQ-EQ6-GT might mean saving for a bit longer but its summer daylight now so i wouldn't rush.....

[Owmuchonomy]

I've had mine for 7 years. It's great but it does need tinkering with every so often to keep it sweet. The Astrobaby homepage has a very good service tutorial. It's not really that portable by hand once you add on the two weights and tripod. Regarding imaging the general consensus is not to exceed 60% of the mount capacity so about 11kg is comfortable. I'm near Harrogate if you need help. Chris

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Eeyarn]

thanks again for all the replies. i had thought about the neq6 tinker1947 but iv not had the 150pds long and don't have the room for a bigger scope as its all kept in the kitchen near the back door so wont be upgrading anytime soon. ordered the heq5 today should have it by Wednesday, cant wait.

[tingting44]

thanks again for all the replies. i had thought about the neq6 tinker1947 but iv not had the 150pds long and don't have the room for a bigger scope as its all kept in the kitchen near the back door so wont be upgrading anytime soon. ordered the heq5 today should have it by Wednesday, cant wait.

nice! did you get it new? ill be joining you very soon!

[DaveS]

You won't regret it! Mine either lives in the utility room next to the back door, or outside under a Telegizmo cover if the weather isn't too awful. I have three paving slabs in my back garden with dimples in them for the legs to go in. Makes polar aligning after a move in and out a doddle.

[Eeyarn]

yeah tingting44 i was going to drive to rother valley optics today and get it but when i called them they didnt have it in stock so ill go get it Wednesday, they said it should be in by then. where are you selling your eq5 if you don't mind me asking? don't know what to do with mine. 

good idea Dave ill be doing that, anything to cut down the setup time.

i also noticed on rothervalley optics website that the celestron advanced vx price has dropped to £685 read good things about it, just thought id mention in case anyone was interested.

iain

[tingting44]

yeah tingting44 i was going to drive to rother valley optics today and get it but when i called them they didnt have it in stock so ill go get it Wednesday, they said it should be in by then. where are you selling your eq5 if you don't mind me asking? don't know what to do with mine. 

good idea Dave ill be doing that, anything to cut down the setup time.

i also noticed on rothervalley optics website that the celestron advanced vx price has dropped to £685 read good things about it, just thought id mention in case anyone was interested.

iain

nice one cant wait for you to get your first light with it! are you going to be using EQMOD with it, thats my plan for guiding

im selling mine on here buddy

http://stargazerslounge.com/classifieds/item/3540-eq5-dual-motors-handset-gpusb-st4-kit/

and also got it listed here on Astro buy and sell

http://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/propview.php?view=80024

[Carina Lass]

I've been helping a friend set up their HEQ5 - it's a sweet bit of gear. Easy to setup and the polar scope is a bonus.

He's very happy with it too - even put in a pier as soon as he got it - rather than using the tripod al the time - that helps a lot with the alignment too.

[tingting44]

I've been helping a friend set up their HEQ5 - it's a sweet bit of gear. Easy to setup and the polar scope is a bonus.

He's very happy with it too - even put in a pier as soon as he got it - rather than using the tripod al the time - that helps a lot with the alignment too.

1st light yet ....

[Carina Lass]

Not yet

cyclone hereabouts is creating a lot of cloud

[Russe]

Buy an old laptop on eBay. I'm imaging with a Dell Mini 9.

I've upgraded to 2GB RAM and a 64GB SSD.

Here for example on fleabay:

http://bit.ly/1exPoTD

You'll need the RAM upgrade to run everything you'll want though.

This laptop will not be for powerful image processing at all - only for image acquisition. The hard drive is too small for storage of everything - but you'd keep your images where you process them, right?

[Russe]

Here the RAM: http://bit.ly/1nlz6wV

[Russe]

I'm not the seller!!

[Eeyarn]

hi just a quick update, i go t the mount last Tuesday and didn't get a chance to use it until Saturday night, only briefly though as i had work at 5am Sunday. got it set up and balanced, did a quick polar align and then the three star alignment which took about two minutes and was really straight forward. the goto was slightly off but the targets were still in the FOV of the camera so wasn't a problem, i'm putting this down to my polar alignment as it was a bit rushed.

to say i was happy with it would be a huge understatement, think i imaged more saturday night than i have at all since buying my camera, only single subs but it was more of a quantity over quality night  

thanks russe for the info on the laptop i will be getting a cheap one soon. and yeah all my astro stuff is kept on a removable hard drive and processing is done on my desktop so some thing like that one would be ideal.