Balancing light OTA on HEQ5 pro

[Astro_Ben]

Evening folks,

My new HEQ5 pro is being delivered next week, I’ll be using it with an Evostar 72ed, OVL flattener and canon 700d. Not sure of the weight of the OVL but I reckon it’s 500g max, total weight on the mount will be (estimated) 3kg or so (possibly less depending on the OVL weight). 

Will I have issues balancing this with the HEQ5’s 5.1kg counterweight? If so, can anyone recommend an alternative counterweight that won’t break the bank? I’ve looked at EQ3-2 counterweights just in case but I’m not sure if these will fit an HEQ5 pro. 

Thanks,

Ben. 

[rockinrome]

Hi Ben

This will be no effort for the HEQ5 PRO which should come with 2 counter weights - 2 x 5kg.
Payload capacity: 11kg for imaging, 15kg for visual.

All the best.

[Astro_Ben]

10 hours ago, rockinrome said:

Hi Ben

This will be no effort for the HEQ5 PRO which should come with 2 counter weights - 2 x 5kg.
Payload capacity: 11kg for imaging, 15kg for visual.

All the best.

Thanks for your reply, but I think you’ve misunderstood me. I was worried about the counterweight being too heavy and overpowering the scope. 

 

Anyway, I’ve answered my own question with a night under the stars  

[rockinrome]

11 hours ago, Astro_Ben said:

Thanks for your reply, but I think you’ve misunderstood me. I was worried about the counterweight being too heavy and overpowering the scope. 

 

Anyway, I’ve answered my own question with a night under the stars  

Soz. As they say - a picture speaks a thousand words, and this sure does - great photo.
If you don't mind - what was the amount of data and what tools used for processing??

Thanks and all the best!
MJ

 

 

Edited September 4, 2019 by rockinrome

[Astro_Ben]

11 hours ago, rockinrome said:

Soz. As they say - a picture speaks a thousand words, and this sure does - great photo.
If you don't mind - what was the amount of data and what tools used for processing??

Thanks and all the best!
MJ

 

 

Thanks! 55 x 180s subs, 10 darks, 20 bias and dithered every 4 subs. Processed in photoshop 

Can't remember my editing workflow but this is my basic PS stuff -

Crop stacking artefacts

Star reduction pre stretch

Basic levels stretch

Gradient Xterminator

Colour blotch reduction

Black Point Set

Star reduction

Select colour range (red nebulosity)

Select and Mask colour range selection

Selective colour adjustment Layer

(I rinse and repeat the Colour range/Select and mask/Selective colour step a few times)

[rockinrome]

15 hours ago, Astro_Ben said:

Thanks! 55 x 180s subs, 10 darks, 20 bias and dithered every 4 subs. Processed in photoshop 

Can't remember my editing workflow but this is my basic PS stuff -

Crop stacking artefacts

Star reduction pre stretch

Basic levels stretch

Gradient Xterminator

Colour blotch reduction

Black Point Set

Star reduction

Select colour range (red nebulosity)

Select and Mask colour range selection

Selective colour adjustment Layer

(I rinse and repeat the Colour range/Select and mask/Selective colour step a few times)

Thanks Ben, much appreciated.
Just nice to have a starting point with an example of what can be achieved.
I have recently taken the Western Veil and M13 and whilst the images show the objects in question I cannot get satisfactory images post-stacking ..... all was well last year on NGC7000 too !!!!! PAH!
Just seem to be scratching my head, staying up to all hours for nothing ...... the joys of this hobby! ......

Kind regards
MJ

[Calzune]

On 22/08/2019 at 23:29, Astro_Ben said:

Evening folks,

My new HEQ5 pro is being delivered next week, I’ll be using it with an Evostar 72ed, OVL flattener and canon 700d. Not sure of the weight of the OVL but I reckon it’s 500g max, total weight on the mount will be (estimated) 3kg or so (possibly less depending on the OVL weight). 

Will I have issues balancing this with the HEQ5’s 5.1kg counterweight? If so, can anyone recommend an alternative counterweight that won’t break the bank? I’ve looked at EQ3-2 counterweights just in case but I’m not sure if these will fit an HEQ5 pro. 

Thanks,

Ben. 

How did you balance the equipment? I have almost the same gear and when I put the counterweight to the top is just alittle heavier than the telescope, can you post a pic? 

[Astro_Ben]

This is mine. I’m pretty sure it’s a way off perfect balance but it guides reasonably well at 0.9-1.2rms roughly. I’m gonna get a bulkier guide scope just to add some weight. 

[Astro_Ben]

On 08/09/2019 at 01:04, Calzune said:

How did you balance the equipment? I have almost the same gear and when I put the counterweight to the top is just alittle heavier than the telescope, can you post a pic? 

You could try leaving half the counterweight bar not fully out - this might add a few hundred grams to the scope side. 

[Stub Mandrel]

Don't worry about it, my HEQ5 guides best when the left side is distinctly heavy, not just a few ounces. I get 0.65" RMS.

You don't want to upset it by being too far out of balance, but if the mount slews without problems, it will guide OK.

I suspect moving the counterweight out by six inches will improve your guiding more than a weightier guidescope. Also make sure you have minimised backlash in the gears.

Edited September 17, 2019 by Stub Mandrel

[Astro_Ben]

20 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Don't worry about it, my HEQ5 guides best when the left side is distinctly heavy, not just a few ounces. I get 0.65" RMS.

You don't want to upset it by being too far out of balance, but if the mount slews without problems, it will guide OK.

I suspect moving the counterweight out by six inches will improve your guiding more than a weightier guidescope. Also make sure you have minimised backlash in the gears.

Forgive me if I’m being dim but I don’t see how moving the counterweight 6 inches towards the already heavier side of the rig would make it any better? Never experienced that before, I always have it slightly east heavy but never by a distinct amount. 

[Stub Mandrel]

43 minutes ago, Astro_Ben said:

Forgive me if I’m being dim but I don’t see how moving the counterweight 6 inches towards the already heavier side of the rig would make it any better? Never experienced that before, I always have it slightly east heavy but never by a distinct amount. 

It's hard because we don't know the details of each other's setups or the exact amount of any imbalance  but I have found what I would judge to be about a kg of imbalance works best for me. I do track past the meridian because of my situation and if I have too little imbalance the guiding degrades when the counterweight side is higher than the scope side.