HEQ-5 PRO first light.

[thing]

I've been using a CG-5 with my 8" Newt for about a year now without any problems, but I wanted something that would track a little better and most importantly, was quiet! I have neighbours at left, right and back so I need to be thoughtful about the noise. Anyway, I ordered the mount from FLO last week. Now a good dealer shows his salt not when things go right but when they go wrong, the mount that arrived was totally dead in RA. These things happen, (usually to me... ) apparently it's the first time this has occurred. Steve had the mount collected Thursday and by Monday I had a new one. Communication was excellent as it always is with FLO, so full marks again to them. I really would be confident buying anything from those guys.

The mount and tripod arrived in seperate boxes, well packed in the usual shaped polystyrene stuff. The tripod is er, a tripod, it has little rubber ends on the feet and is quite meaty, but the CG-5 one is a two inch beast also. The CG-5 also has a built in bubble level which the EQ-5 lacks. The mount looks substantial, it sits higher on the tripod than the CG-5 which is quite noticeable when you use it in anger.

I did all the aligning of the polar scope etc yesterday afternoon using a distant tv aerial, it is a leap ahead of the CG-5 polar scope, it has the Plough, Cass and the Octans (for the southern hemisphere wallahs) in view when you look through it. It lights up too which is kind of neat.

So, last night I polar aligned it, the instruction book is typical Synta, you have to imagine a hassled Chinese guy trying to write instructions in his best school English........., some of it is just plain wrong but anybody with an ounce of sense can read between the lines. I fired it up, went for the 3 star align and..........it was miles out and the align failed. Go through the usual checks, have I entered the date in American, did I set for daylight saving the usual stuff that those of us with GOTO mounts know and love. I did it again...failed, and again....and again...eventually it said 'align successful'......and as I replaced the handset with a sigh of relief I pulled out the power cord........so here we go again..........I eventually got it to align, don't ask me how, I just kept on doing it. But the GOTO was about three degrees off in RA. I was thinking furiously (don't laugh) and I decided to park the scope and try again. It aligned first time, so I parked the scope and shut it down.

Now tonight after tips from other members in another post I decided to mark the 'park' position with some thin strips of masking tape and an indelible marker. Do the polar align, move mount back to marker strips, try align.......3 star align first time on the dot. This might just be a fluke so....switch off, move mount around randomly with clutches out. Re line up with marks on masking tape, re align and spot on again. Not only that, the GOTO put all objects almost bang in the middle of the eyepiece. I am now happy. I did the complete sky tour which whizzed around to all points of the sky, all objects spot on. The mount is extremely quiet, a sort of jet turbine whirr is all you hear if you really try apart from some gear type crunching noises just for an instant when it starts to move at it's fastest rate. This I am assured is normal. By gear crunching noises I don't mean bad gear crunching noises.

I did notice some vibration when I was focussing at 5 mil (x200) that I hadn't noticed on the CG-5. This might be the rubber feet on the HE tripod, I'll try taking them off and seeing if it makes a difference. The legs on the HE are 1.5 inch compared to the 2 inch on the CG-5. I suppose I could try the mount on the CG-5 tripod, it looks like it will fit.

Anyway, to see what the tracking was like I decided to try some 30 sec and 1 minute subs of M13. This was with no PEC training or backlash adjustment, basically this is the mount straight out of the box. The CG-5 would give 30 secs but if you tried pushing it to a minute it would struggle. The following 2 shots were taken this evening through thin mist. First one is 5X30 secs and the second is 5x1 minute at 800 ISO. 5 dark frames with each. Camera is a Minolta Dynax at prime focus. Pictures heavily compressed.

(click to enlarge)

(click to enlarge)

There is some bloating, that could just be my rubbish focusing, but on the whole it's looking good. With some fettling of the mount I reckon a good steady 90 seconds should be available.

So all in all, very pleased after the initial learning curve, I would recommend this mount.

[ngc2403]

hello,

sounds like you had abit more problems than me but i got there in the end.

i followed the manual to the letter and it didn't really make much sence however i must say that the GOTO is excellent in the mount and i like you was very happy with it. i have a set way of setting up the mount i like to do a one star align then park it then three star align just because it seems to work better and i am less likely to make a mistake with it.

i know what you mean about the clutch noises when it is moving fast it sounds crunchy but not anything bad i hope. i spent some time getting to know which way was the right side to have the two screws that hold the telescope dovetail on. so that the telescope is pointing the right way first time and that the mount is close to the star first time. after the one star alignment though is sorts that all out.

hope you enjoy/get to use it soon

ally

[thing]

I'd thought about the dovetail mounting screws actually. After the first couple of failed aligns I took the scope off and rotated the mount in Dec 180 degrees and remounted the scope, it didn't make any difference. Which side do you have the dovetail screws? I have them on the left as it's easier for me to put the scope on being right handed.

[Roy Batty]

Your first pics are looking good Dave with the new mount. You've now basically got the same set up as me, it's a nice combination which should serve you well.

cheers

RB

[thing]

I've seen your shots Roy, they are really impressive. There's hope for me yet then!

[ngc2403]

i have them one the left too but i just feel that the mount usually sent the telescope pointing into the ground with them on the right though this based one pure speculation.

the setup you have i the same focal length as mine to and i find that 90sec is possible which opens up a lot of doors

[thing]

i have them one the left too but i just feel that the mount usually sent the telescope pointing into the ground with them on the right though this based one pure speculation.

the setup you have i the same focal length as mine to and i find that 90sec is possible which opens up a lot of doors

You would have thought it would have pointed the scope at the ground but it didn't, the Dec head must be nulled at 0 and 180.

A couple of things I forgot to mention, it eats more juice than the CG-5!! I have a Powertank and it barely needed charging from one week to the next with the CG-5, with the HEQ it ws indicating low output after about an hour.....mind you I hadn't precharged it. I went onto a mains supply after that an it was fine. Also the two counterweights that come with it aren't enough. The counterweight shaft is quite short, it needs another 3 inches on it really. I had the weights hanging right off the end of the shaft and it hardly coped with a Hyp 5 mil attached. Not a big deal really but worth mentioning.

[beamish]

Dec head isn't affected at all,however it's pointed at startup, so if you end up using a side by side bar you can turn it east -west. Good report Thing, glad you got it all up and running okay!

Karlo

[ngc2403]

i find that the mount uses up the halfords power pack in ~3hours but that it goes from 4leds on to 3 in minutes and then stays there. i think it is to do with the cold, because when i bring it in after a few hours of being out the pack sayes 4 leds again so full??

thanks for that karlo i was wondering how it might hand a side by side bar?

[Roy Batty]

Dave you may whish to consider getting the extended DEC shaft available from FLO, this adds more than enough extra for the counter wheights. I've invested in one as I'm piggy backing my ED80 on the C8-N.

RB

[starf]

thanks the the review, dave. some alradite on these index markers can be seen quite well with a red ight.

[Starjumper]

Good post, Dave.

John

[thing]

Dave you may whish to consider getting the extended DEC shaft available from FLO, this adds more than enough extra for the counter wheights. I've invested in one as I'm piggy backing my ED80 on the C8-N.

RB

I just use 3 counterweights now Roy. I usually balance it to the part of the sky I'm going to be imaging rather than the 'book' horizontal position. Sometimes I can get away with two depending on the position of the DSLR but more often than not it needs three.

[brympton]

Dave,

An interesting review thank you, can I ask if you checked the centre line of the scope with the mount by either adjusting the set screws shown in the picture below or by shimming the dovetail to tube ring interface. I mention this because I did not achieve consistent 3 star alignment until this was taken care of on the EQ6/200spx I owned previously.

(click to enlarge)

Regards

Mark

[glennbech]

Your initial GOTO/Alignment trouble sounds like me 12 months ago. I found that I had to chose my alignment stars with care. I think two stars pretty close in RA and one star "above" and on the other side of the merdian is described in the manual as good choices; Deneb,Vega & Caph for example...

Now I usually do a 1-star alignment at Capella and the HEQ5 Pro places 14' objects in the field of view of my DSLR even when imaging through the 1000mm 8" Newtonian.

[thing]

Dave,

An interesting review thank you, can I ask if you checked the centre line of the scope with the mount by either adjusting the set screws shown in the picture below or by shimming the dovetail to tube ring interface. I mention this because I did not achieve consistent 3 star alignment until this was taken care of on the EQ6/200spx I owned previously.

(click to enlarge)

Regards

Mark

No I didn't have to do any shimming or adjustments Mark. Sounds peculiar that you had to. I know it's a different mount but I haven't heard of anyone else with an EQ6 that's had to do that. Still, if it works, it works.