Buying HEQ5 Mount without GoTo

[AlanP_]

I am considering purchasing the HEQ5 mount without GoTo and upgrade at a later date. I am actually not sure how it all works though. What actually tracks the stars in sync with the earth rotation? Is it the mount itself that is motorized or is it the GoTo mod that does that? I ask because I am wanting to do DSO astrophotography. I am not too fussed about visual at the minute. I would love to take some deep sky images of Orion, Pleiades etc, which I could find easily without a GoTo mod. 

So basically, would using the mount without GoTo and a telescope attached allow me to do long exposures? 

 

Thanks

[cletrac1922]

Hi Alan from land down under

If you want to do AP, then you definitely going to need a mount with GoTo

Was not aware that the HEQ5, came without GoTo, and SynScan hand controller

I have a EQ5, with a SW ED80, and recently purchased the Wi-Fi adaptor, and use APP from my Android phone to control the mount

John 

[Alan64]

1 hour ago, AlanP_ said:

I am considering purchasing the HEQ5 mount without GoTo and upgrade at a later date. I am actually not sure how it all works though. What actually tracks the stars in sync with the earth rotation? Is it the mount itself that is motorized or is it the GoTo mod that does that? I ask because I am wanting to do DSO astrophotography. I am not too fussed about visual at the minute. I would love to take some deep sky images of Orion, Pleiades etc, which I could find easily without a GoTo mod. 

So basically, would using the mount without GoTo and a telescope attached allow me to do long exposures? 

 

Thanks

You can purchase the EQ-5, and upgrade that one with a go-to system in future.

A go-to system would make long-exposure photography far easier.  In the meantime, you could motorise just the RA-axis, for basic, automatic tracking, and "cut the teeth" with that at first.

Edited January 8, 2019 by Alan64

[carastro]

The Syntrek version of the HEQ5 comes with a dumb handset which I tried to use once and gave up and never used it since.  I did not bother to buy the Synscan version with the GOTO handset as I already had one with my NEQ6 (My HEQ5 was bought initially for taking to astro camps).

I presume this is the version you are referring to which is around £100 cheaper.  

I think it would be extremely difficult to image without a GOTO mount as it would be pretty impossible to find your targets.  OK< you might be able to manage such things as Orion nebula and Pleiades as you suggest because they are easy to find.  The majority of DSOs are too faint to identify until a long exposure it taken.

I am not quite sure what you are hoping to achieve/avoid by not buying a GOTO version.

The mount will track without the GOTO handset, but trying to slew around the sky will be difficult. 

Carole 

Edited January 8, 2019 by carastro

[Aliam Sigsaly]

On 08/01/2019 at 01:34, cletrac1922 said:

Hi Alan from land down under

If you want to do AP, then you definitely going to need a mount with GoTo

Was not aware that the HEQ5, came without GoTo, and SynScan hand controller

I have a EQ5, with a SW ED80, and recently purchased the Wi-Fi adaptor, and use APP from my Android phone to control the mount

John 

To me - new to AP and not from richest countries - 130 pound extra put GOTO off the list. It is damn easy to subtract sidereal time from RA and get exact position. Most DSO are anyway about 30' so you can easily find it manually and my cammera has 24000 ISO so I can check DSO position in few seconds, but mainly: if you are alone in the middle of night in the middle of deep forest in total dark with tones of wild animals around (there are many wild pigs in my spot, and I get encounter with them once - they were 5 m from me, and since than I am really trying to be as calm as possible) , last thing you want is some buzzing of GOTO.

 

 

 

Edited December 26, 2019 by Aliam Sigsaly

[johninderby]

The regular HEQ5 and HEQ5 Syntrek are now discontinued so your best hope of finding one is to look for a used one. Would think all the dealers have sold out of these old mounts now.

[Aliam Sigsaly]

18 minutes ago, johninderby said:

The regular HEQ5 and HEQ5 Syntrek are now discontinued so your best hope of finding one is to look for a used one. Would think all the dealers have sold out of these old mounts now.

What they are selling now?: Only HEQ-5 Pro Synscan? 

I ve also heard somewhere that some HEQ-5 has better tracking engine, is the difference between Pro and non-Pro?