Received my new EQ5 Pro mount from FLO + Questions

[acharris77]

Hey all, first up apologies for all the bad weather us astronomers are going to have now lol. I received my EQ5 pro today and as usually the customer service from FLO was top class, especially with their help on the price increase of Skywatcher items.

I put it together tonight to get a feel and see how it all goes together and I am happy to have figured it out as instructions weren't very helpful lol. It is a big, sturdy mount in fairness. My questions are below.

Where is the best place to get the altitude from to adjust the dial? Will a GPS program on my phone be ok?

How do the two black knobs that are on the head work? Do you have to have both locking bolts tighten on the Dec to allow fine precision?

And I notice my handset is a slighty different shape to the images. Mine has cut-ins each side by the screen and I was wondering if this is a V3 handset or not?

Thanks for any help you can give me.

[Oddsocks]

Hi Ant,

Congrats on the new mount, I have an older HEQ5 Pro that I use as my mobile setup when away from home and it has been trouble free from the off, they are quite simple to master once you have used it a few times.

For the latitude scale you can use your phone, I use the GPS map in my car or google earth on the iPad, the scales are not terribly accurate anyway, only an indication really, fine adjustment of the actual latitude is made with the polar scope or polar align facility in the Synscan handset.

The two black knobs are used as a "pull me - push you" though I guess you are too young to have come across that old saying very often

[acharris77]

Thanks for the detailed response, much appreciated. Unfortunately, Being 38 next week, I have heard the "pull me - push you" expression lmao.

What you posted made much more sense than the included instructions with the mount lol. When we get the skies clear next, I will look forward to trying it out.

Thanks again.