About heq5 pro mount .

[Mehul]

Hi guys . I am new to this place. I am buying my first astrophotography setup . I will buy heq5 pro mount and put a gso 8" astrograph on it . Would it be proper to put an 8" gso astrograph on and heq5 pro ? Plz help . 

[drjolo]

I know a few people that use 8" newtonian for imaging on HEQ5, but this is balancing at the edge I think. I both imaged with 6 and 8" newtonians on HEQ5 and EQ6 and I really recommend EQ6 for 8" newtonian for astrophotography.

[Craney]

Yes, agree with the above.    

Although you can convince yourself otherwise, an 8" is about as big as you would want to go with a HEq5.     Remember your will have a camera (DSLR???) , guide scope and guide camera etc... ... maybe an upgraded focuser to add on in terms of weight....   ( I have a SW200PDS and can get 2 mins subs from it)

Concentrate on the balance and stability of the mount before launching into that 100+ frame sequence of the Spaghetti Nebula....

[Chris-A]

Another in agreement here. I imaged with a C9.25 (slightly heavier admittedly) on an HEQ5 for a year or so. It often worked ok but there were odd periods of frustration with dropped sub after dropped sub. It was all so much less stressful when I upgraded to an NEQ6.

[xtreemchaos]

im a big beliver in wont not carnt, i load up my HEQ5 2kg over the weight limit and it runs without any problems, f11 frac and ed80 + quark and solar wedge and cams i use the same rig for deepsky and get 2min subs unguided if its not windy. the main thing is balance it has to be spot on. i think it should carry your scope fine. charl.