Skywatcher EQ5 Pro Goto mount with Celestron hand controller

[jeffwjz]

Hi all,

I'm very new to this forum, I hope I'm posting this topic at the correct place.

I saw a seller is selling a second hand EQ5 Pro Goto mount in a seemingly quite good condition, and am tempted to buy it for my astronomy set up. The only issue is that the set is without a Synscan controller. However I do own an old Celestron 114LCM which has a Celestron Nexstar hand controller. My questions are:

- I'm wondering if the Celestron hand controller can be interfaced to EQ5 Pro?

- The 114LCM is a motorised Alt Az telescope, so I don't think the hand controller will be useful for an equatorial mount. Therefore is it possible to update the controller firmware/software to make it suitable for controlling an equatorial mount?

Not sure if anyone has any experience in this?

Thanks.

Jeff

 

[Cosmic Geoff]

The Celestron handset will not work with the EQ5 Pro Synscan.

However Synscan handsets are available. They are expensive new (price your prospective purchase accordingly) but are sometimes available from Astroboot.co.uk etc. 

A "Starsense fro Sky-watcher" would almost certainly work, but you probably won't be affording this if you are looking at an incomplete second-hand mount.

Somebody may come along and advise on whether you can control the mount from a laptop instead.

The Nexstar handset will most likely work with any Nexstar mount, though you might have to reload with different firmware. 

[Merlin66]

You need a Synscan handcontroller.....

Alternative is to install EQMod on a PC and use that to control the mount.

 

[Cornelius Varley]

Or SynScan WiFi with Android phone or PC.

[jeffwjz]

Thanks guys. In this case I'll just use eqdir cable then. Looks like the most viable option for me.