Setting up the HEQ5

[Wpit]

Setting up the heq5 is always a problem when you first start, the first time I just moved the mount manually using the handset and finder. The trying new things each time, so practice pays dividends and playing in daylight and indoors helps to improve your setup time. I tend to leave the mount on the tripod and I find I can move both together to my viewing spot. I have 2 of these mounts now and my rough sequence is as follows.

1 move tripod and mount to viewing point roughly north.

2 add telescope, counterweights, handset and power.

3 setup home and level, I had to practice this indoors to get better at this.

4 polar align when Polaris is visible, I sometimes do 1 to 3 in daylight if the forecast is good.

5 redo 3 if I have to move the mount for polar alignment (this does not happen much as you get more practice)

6 power on always needs time and date entered carefully on the handset, if you get this wrong then the mount will not be able to find anything. All other settings are stored so the are usually skipped.

7 go through 2 star alignment

8 ready to view.

just take your time and enjoy, practice makes perfect. Watch those counter weights as they are heavy.

[Charic]

On 08/12/2017 at 14:06, Swithin StCleeve said:

I'm seriously thinking about splashing out on a HEQ5 mount, but having only used a Dobsonian mount before, and never even polar aligned a mount, I'm a little worried I might be confused by the setting up............

 

On 08/12/2017 at 14:29, Swithin StCleeve said:

........If the truth be known I don't really like technology, but after all these years with a dob I'm ready to go to the next level. Luckily, I'm in a society where I can ask more experienced people too.

I started out with a basic GEM mount and decided never again,  too much adjusting, not enough viewing?
The Dobsonian fixed that issue, no regrets.

I would only consider a better EQ mount if/when I proceed down the astrophotograpy route to mount my ED80 or ED100?

Personally I would just get a bigger Dobsonian, you know they work, the bigger they are, the better the detail, and no technology to go wrong!!

 

[david_taurus83]

If you already have an EQ5 then why not add the GOTO upgrade kit? I've just added one to mine. Easy to fit. I would however point out that a heavy duty tripod is a must as I don't think the aluminium ones are sturdy enough. There were a few EQ5 Pro mounts with heavy duty tripod for sale on eBay last week for roughly the same price as the GOTO upgrade kit...

 

As for setting up, there are some good guides on YouTube. Astronomyshed has a good 5 part guide on there called Complete Mount and Scope Setup. I used his guide last night so I could better balance my setup.

[Astro Imp]

3 hours ago, Charic said:

I started out with a basic GEM mount and decided never again,  too much adjusting, not enough viewing?
The Dobsonian fixed that issue, no regrets.

My thoughts exactly, just sorry I didn't make the change sooner.

[carastro]

If you know how to polar align the EQ5 then you're halfway there.  PA is the bit that most first time EQ users have difficulty getting their head around.  Polar alignment is done first.  

The handset alignment procedure is not difficult.  You basically need to input the location (first time only), the date and time (use American date format), and so the mount has some idea where it needs to be pointing.  It will then choose 2 - 3 stars to slew to, you need to centre them in the eyepiece and confirm they are there and "Bobs' your uncle".  choose your target and the mount should slew to it.

Quote

I didn't realise the setting up was different for either.

The only reason that alignment is possibly different for observing and imaging is that you need to be much more precise for imaging to prevent star trails and field rotation on the long exposures.

HTH

Carole 

[bottletopburly]

It`s not hard ,visual you don't have to be critical ,AP the more spot on it is the better but don't lose sleep over it, it`s called a learning curve ,there is plenty of info on here and youtube videos ,and i'm sure a society member will run through it ,give you the basic info then a matter of honing your skills .

[andyboy1970]

Before I built my Obsy I marked the spot where the tripod legs sat once the scope had good alignment, then each time I set up I put the tripod on the marks and quite often little or no adjustment was required for Polar alignment.

Have seen others Epoxying large washers to the patio slabs where the tripod legs sit.

[lnlarxg]

I know what you mean. When I got my NEQ6 I was very confused, until I watched these videos on YouTube, probably the most complete guide.

It’s a channel called “AstronomyShed”, he put up a 6 parts video starting with “Complete Mount & Setup. part one” 

 

[Anne S]

Did you know that there is a polar align routine in the SynScan handset. Celestron put it in their eq mounts years ago. It’s now been added to the later updates as Celestron and Skywatcher te the same company.

I used it when I had a CG5 Mount, first use a compass to set the mount up pointing the correct direction. Then do a 3 Star alignment. Once finished do the polar alignment routine which just gets you to slew between 2 stars. You then adjust the mount controls to centre a star in the eyepiece. Repeat this process until  you’re happy with it, then do another 3 Star alignment.

Having said that, I used to just use the compass if I was viewing. Your 3 Star alignment will make sure the mount models the sky correctly . You really only need to polar align properly if you wish to image.

Anne

[Pieter]

I got one and the first time I set it up it took me a rough 20 minutes (5 minutes of that was me not getting I had to release the counterweightbar LOL).

Now it went down to 10minutes. I am viewing only atm btw.

[david_taurus83]

Sorry to hijack this with a question of my own but I feel it's relative to the topic. As I mentioned previously, I've just added GOTO to my EQ5 mount and was out first chance I got last night. My polar scope doesn't have the large outer circle around the crosshairs, only the small Polaris circle on the crosshairs. I managed to get Polaris in the circle when it was almost exactly south of the celestial pole so easy enough. After doing a 2 star alignment it said it was successful with an error of approx 40 minutes one way, 30 minutes the other. Now I don't expect the GOTO to be spot on but I found when selecting an object, after automatic slewing, I was having to slew quite a bit left on the controller to get the target into the field of view. Upon reflection this morning, I remembered I didn't level up the tripod and mount like you should, so obviously my initial polar alignment and 2 star alignment were not perfect. My first time so not too bothered as I still enjoyed the session. My question is though, what are the usual accepted errors you more experienced folk expect to see on the controller after a 2 or 3 star alignment? Minutes? Seconds? Or is there further fine tuning to be done after the star alignment as mentioned by Anne above. Again, sorry for the thread hijack and long post!

 

David

[pushrod]

On ‎16‎/‎12‎/‎2017 at 12:56, david_taurus83 said:

Sorry to hijack this with a question of my own but I feel it's relative to the topic. As I mentioned previously, I've just added GOTO to my EQ5 mount and was out first chance I got last night. My polar scope doesn't have the large outer circle around the crosshairs, only the small Polaris circle on the crosshairs. I managed to get Polaris in the circle when it was almost exactly south of the celestial pole so easy enough. After doing a 2 star alignment it said it was successful with an error of approx 40 minutes one way, 30 minutes the other. Now I don't expect the GOTO to be spot on but I found when selecting an object, after automatic slewing, I was having to slew quite a bit left on the controller to get the target into the field of view. Upon reflection this morning, I remembered I didn't level up the tripod and mount like you should, so obviously my initial polar alignment and 2 star alignment were not perfect. My first time so not too bothered as I still enjoyed the session. My question is though, what are the usual accepted errors you more experienced folk expect to see on the controller after a 2 or 3 star alignment? Minutes? Seconds? Or is there further fine tuning to be done after the star alignment as mentioned by Anne above. Again, sorry for the thread hijack and long post!

 

David

Hi David, you would expect to get your targets in the FoV after a 3 star alignment unless perhaps the new target was in a completely different part of the sky.  (A tip is to always try and choose an alignment star that is near your main target.) A 3 star alignment will always be more accurate for goto than a 1 or 2 star alignment.

If after your first choice star is centred and you find the 2nd star is not almost bang on then you can be pretty certain your polar alignment is not going to be very good. Could be a sign that your "home" position starting position was not good.

Errors can be cumulative - so not being totally horizontal won't help, time slightly out, longitude and latitude a bit out, not centre-ing targets accurately can all serve to mess things up a bit. That said if it is just for visual it should not matter too much, unless one or more are way out -  but it would for imaging. Another thing to check is if your polar scope is centrally positioned correctly. There is explanations/instructions in the guide booklet - don't know if you got these with your original scope or the goto kit?

Your MEL and MAZ errors refer to the accuracy of your polar alignment and  i think they should really be within a few minutes if 'goto' is to remain accurate.

During the evening it is possible to improve the accuracy of your goto. When you have gone to a star but it wasn't perfect you can press the ESC button and then quickly press again but hold for 3 seconds - it will then give directions for you to re centre that star and it will then have improved its goto accuracy in that part of the sky.

I have never found using the handset to improve polar alignment particularly easy to do. ( you have to recentre a star with the adjustment bolts but if you didn't see where it moved to this can be almost impossible to do!)

But a good approximate guide is that the North celestial pole (NCP) is always in line with kochab (brightest star in Ursa minor) and Polaris. The hand set also gives a 12 hour clock time,  in the set up procedure, - this is where Polaris should be positioned (in the tiny circle thru polarscope) in relation to the NCP ie if time was 6.00 then Polaris is directly below NCP) To be honest for visual this level of accuracy is not really needed and if your polar scope is not centred it would not work anyway!

Hope this is of some help and not too offputting/confusing.

[N3ptune]

Like you said you can practice with your EQ5 and it's not hard. Doing the following procedure and assuming the polar scope is well aligned, the mount can hold an image in the FOV for more then 20 minutes for my visual and sketching purposes.

A. Adjust the mount altitude to match your local latitude.
B. Point the north leg of the tripod towards Polaris with simple eye alignment.
C. Adjust the level of the tripod with the built in bubble.
D. Put Polaris in the circle of polar scope using the adjusters has the picture. (fine tuning)

E. I add the weights after the process. (I read people put the weights before they fine tune, but I find it too hard for the mechanics to fine tune the altitude with the weights on, so I install the weights after)
F.  Add the telescope. (I keep the rings mounted on the telescope has an assembly in the bag, it's much faster like that)
G.  Balance the telescope a bit.

It takes about 5 minutes really, you do your observation standing but with a steady view for many minutes (with a RA motor, a clock drive), which is convenient in my case for sketching at high power.

if this can help, I hope.

 

[david_taurus83]

Thanks for the replies. I should have replied myself as the following evening after I posted I gave it another go. This time, I leveled the tripod and mount before alignment. I also picked my own 3 stars in the sky for alignment, as opposed to following the prompts on the handset. It must have made all the difference as when selected afterwards, M31 popped straight into the field of view. So pretty successful on only my 2nd attempt. I've purchased a new style polarscope with the clockface reticle along with an illuminator to make the crouching down bit easier. Along with some other things...Think it's safe to say I've been bitten!

[Jannis]

This video of me setting up my scope for the night might give you an idea of how setting up the HEQ5-pro is, and how long it takes.

I use a laser as a finder in this video, but using the finder scope does not take much longer. Polar alignment is rather quick for visual, as well as for lunar, planetary and wide field imaging. For long exposure deep sky it's best to be more careful if using longer focal lengths.

 

[Donkeiller]

On 08/12/2017 at 14:06, Swithin StCleeve said:

I'm seriously thinking about splashing out on a HEQ5 mount, but having only used a Dobsonian mount before, and never even polar aligned a mount, I'm a little worried I might be confused by the setting up. How awkward is it? I'm not asking for a tutorial, just a hint as to how long it takes to set up, and the basic procedures you have to go through after getting it out the car, before you can start using the handset.  I looked for a tutorial on youtube, and there's loads of techy stuff about changing parts on it, but I can't find owt on setting it up from scratch, for observing.

 

 

 

Give up now. You will save yourself hours of frustration.

[Donkeiller]

On 10/12/2017 at 19:40, Andyk93 said:

I’ve never had a dobsonian, I started with an equatorial. I would first put it all together and get it level. Then I would balance the scope and put it in the Home position. Polar alignment was just point it at Polaris and get it in the polar finder circle and a star alignment for the goto was just point at 1 star, centering it. Goto a 2nd star and center it in the eyepiece and then off you go. Probably 15 minutes worth of effort. The goto was 75% accurate I would say and it would track perfectly for hours. The most awkward part was carrying an neq6 down the stairs and outside to set it up. Thankfully the heq5 is much lighter

It takes me less than 5 mins to align my SE mount. Once aligned has never failed to find a selected object. Kept Castor pretty much centred for over 2 hours. I went out jogging then had tea and came back.

On the other hand my experience with EQ mounts has been serial failure and frustration. 

[Donkeiller]

On 15/12/2017 at 07:46, Wpit said:

Setting up the heq5 is always a problem when you first start, the first time I just moved the mount manually using the handset and finder. The trying new things each time, so practice pays dividends and playing in daylight and indoors helps to improve your setup time. I tend to leave the mount on the tripod and I find I can move both together to my viewing spot. I have 2 of these mounts now and my rough sequence is as follows.

1 move tripod and mount to viewing point roughly north.

2 add telescope, counterweights, handset and power.

3 setup home and level, I had to practice this indoors to get better at this.

4 polar align when Polaris is visible, I sometimes do 1 to 3 in daylight if the forecast is good.

5 redo 3 if I have to move the mount for polar alignment (this does not happen much as you get more practice)

6 power on always needs time and date entered carefully on the handset, if you get this wrong then the mount will not be able to find anything. All other settings are stored so the are usually skipped.

7 go through 2 star alignment

8 ready to view.

just take your time and enjoy, practice makes perfect. Watch those counter weights as they are heavy.

Sounds like great fun.