SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro Polar alignment issues

[DKNicholson]

A while ago I replaced my HEQ5 Pro Synscan with the new (then) EQ6-R Pro and have to say that it is altogether quite an improvement.  BUT - and isn't there always - when using Sequence Generator Pro with Platesolve2 it would rarely find the destination.  This was extremely troubling as I had never had an issue with the HEQ5 in that respect.  After some investigation I found that even though I had accurately polar aligned the mount using QHY Polarmaster, the telescope was pointing some way below the pole position! This either meant that the 'hole' in the mount where Polarmaster was sitting was incorrectly aligned or the dovetail saddle was not correctly aligned.

As my set-up is in an observatory I had plenty of time to try and resolve the issue. The most successful arrangement I found was to raise the front telescope mounting ring away from the Lozmandy dovetail using two pairs of nautical quality stainless steel penny washers. This aligned the telescope near to Polaris and when I tried a destination in SGPro it was so accurate that sometimes it did not require to search again to get closer. Initially this was only intended to be a temporary solution, but as the washers are very stainless and the process works I decided to leave them in place.

So if anyone else has encountered a similar situation with the EQ6-R Pro, it may be worth looking to see if everything is properly aligned.  Because when it is the mount does appear to be very accurate when slewing to a destination.

Yours aye - DKNicholson

Edited October 18, 2019 by DKNicholson

[Tomatobro]

Interesting. I guess the RA could be rotated 180  so the clamp knobs are on the opposite side and replace the scope. If its FoV is the other way then it has to be the saddle?