Skywatcher EQ8

[martin_h]

First light last night!

After what seems a catalog of disasters and false starts I at last managed to get first light on this mount last night. I spent a couple of nights in the past week getting it drift aligned and the guiding as good as I could, then seeing as it was a clear night all be it with a huge moon I decided to give it a bash.

Due to the moon I picked a random target in the North, set Sequence Generator Pro to start it all off at 11 pm then went to bed! It was with some trepidation this morning that I nipped down to the obs and took a peek inside, 80 3 mins subs had been collected, he guiding graph was as flat as you like.

So for a first light it did what it said on the tin..... it held my scope, pointed it in the right direction and kept it there all night.(including a meridian flip 30 mins after I started!)

[sloz1664]

Great to you have it fettled to at least get some subs under your belt Martin. Onwards and upwards

Steve

[martin_h]

RC8 on an EQ8 with a very expensive counter weight on the front of the RC!

 

 

[Marvin Jenkins]

The kind of kit us mortals dream of, or should I say are aiming at. Is that some form of pier mount at the bottom of the pic?

I have only basic kit compared to you, but I am about a year away from building a small obsy, so tips would be much appreciated.

I am lucky to have dark skies, a big garden in an elevated position, without trees or large buildings, (rural France, one farm house in a field)

I have to say, dude, that wiring looks complicated.

[swag72]

Glad that you got it all working well Martin ??????

[Nigella Bryant]

How are you getting on with the eq8. I am thinking of getting one.

[ollypenrice]

Every reason to be a happy bunny!

Martin, does that cord attached to the top left of your flap cause it to open and close?

Olly

[martin_h]

43 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

Every reason to be a happy bunny!

Martin, does that cord attached to the top left of your flap cause it to open and close?

Olly

Close, it opens on its own as the roof draws back

[ollypenrice]

1 minute ago, martin_h said:

Close, it opens on its own as the roof draws back

Thanks. That's a good idea and simpler than the method I use. I'm trying to come up with a way to let the flap on one of our sheds open below the horizontal to give more circulation space outside it. Sorry for the digression.

Olly

[martin_h]

On 12/05/2019 at 10:16, Nigella Bryant said:

How are you getting on with the eq8. I am thinking of getting one.

To be honest I have not used it enough to form an opinion as yet, my filter wheel packed up on the mounts first light and I am waiting for a replacement.

[skybadger]

As an owner of an eq8, I finally got around to enabling the auto meridian flip under eq pro last night and got good Dec registration but about 20' difference in RA. How well does yours do and have you shimmed it ?

Cheers 

Mike

[martin_h]

2 hours ago, skybadger said:

As an owner of an eq8, I finally got around to enabling the auto meridian flip under eq pro last night and got good Dec registration but about 20' difference in RA. How well does yours do and have you shimmed it ?

Cheers 

Mike

See above post

[skybadger]

Yes, but were you solving after a slew or had you shimmed it to get to a blind slew so reliable it picked up straight after ?

[martin_h]

No shimming required, both my mounts (EQ6 and 😎 have always solved directly after a flip.

[skybadger]

Thanks Martin.

 

[swag72]

No problem for my EQ8 to do an auto meridian flip 👍🏻

[skybadger]

With plate solving and self-correction to pointing assumed ?

[swag72]

Yes

[skybadger]

Cheers, that's another data point.