Advice on my scope.

[wookie1965]

Many of you may have read about my escapades with the EQ5 alignment, I thought I had sorted it with a new power supply.

When using my Tal I can hit nearly every target so I presumed everything was ok.

Took my 5" out last night and it was terrible 3 star alignment last star Capella was 1.5 Telrad circles out. I polar aligned using the handset as well just to get more accuracy. 

I am now thinking the 5" is too big and heavy for the EQ5 and wanted a second opinion please. Fully loaded with my heaviest eyepiece Telrad and finder it weighs 10kg According to a google search the payload is 9.10 kg so I am not that far over would this make a difference. 

Thank you in advance 

Paul

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

Paul, the stated max payload is 9kg so if you're going over that by 10% and only having persistent problems with the 5" then one can assume that's where the issue lies. Most experienced advice we receive is keep to 2/3rds the max loading weight for best performance (and reduced wear)?

Although experience with other mounts and poor goto performance has shown that incorrect balance can have a detrimental effect too... Disregarding the weight for a moment, is the scope balanced spot on?

 

[wookie1965]

Yes balanced in both axis I have a routine, I set up the tripod level that, put the mount on check the balance again, polar align, put weights on then scope check polar alignment again then check balance I used to use one weight right at the end but found it was still moving a slight amount so now I put one weight at the top and one just about 2" from that and the scope stays perfectly still. 

I have had some good nights with it but only a couple of times. 

I'm going to try it again tonight and reset the handset as it said warning reverting to previous CE or something similar. 

[Rob]

Hi Wookie, yes the EQ5 is to pushed for yours & my 5” frac. The length of tube plays havoc. This why I started looking for an old dual drive HEQ5, then slowly upgraded when funds allowed. I also stripped and replaced all the bearings and re-greased everything.

popped an ADM saddle on there and moved to a Losmandy plate (15” one). Then finally grabbed the skyscan upgrade with Wi-Fi dongle. This has been over 3 ish years.. but just having the HEQ5 mount head made a difference.

I also bought a CG5 tripod (2” leg) 

Rob

[wookie1965]

4 minutes ago, Rob said:

Hi Wookie, yes the EQ5 is to pushed for yours & my 5” frac. The length of tube plays havoc. This why I started looking for an old dual drive HEQ5, then slowly upgraded when funds allowed. I also stripped and replaced all the bearings and re-greased everything.

popped an ADM saddle on there and moved to a Losmandy plate (15” one). Then finally grabbed the skyscan upgrade with Wi-Fi dongle. This has been over 3 ish years.. but just having the HEQ5 mount head made a difference.

I also bought a CG5 tripod (2” leg) 

Rob

I have the EQ6 tripod 2" leg I got a adapter to fit the EQ5 on it.  really I am now in two minds save and get a HEQ5 head or full mount or sell the 5"

[Rob]

10 minutes ago, wookie1965 said:

I have the EQ6 tripod 2" leg I got a adapter to fit the EQ5 on it.  really I am now in two minds save and get a HEQ5 head or full mount or sell the 5"

Yeah I know what you mean Paul. I think if you have a good 5”, then invest in an old black version HEQ5 head and go from there!. I know you put a lot of time, effort and funds into getting the focuser sorted. 
 

The lack of go to for a while is worth the wait on funds as the difference over the EQ5 is noticeable.

Rob

[Rob]

Also by upgrading the mount will pay you for future upgrades/scopes. So a win, win!

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

40 minutes ago, wookie1965 said:

Yes balanced in both axis I have a routine, I set up the tripod level that, put the mount on check the balance again, polar align, put weights on then scope check polar alignment again then check balance I used to use one weight right at the end but found it was still moving a slight amount so now I put one weight at the top and one just about 2" from that and the scope stays perfectly still. 

I have had some good nights with it but only a couple of times. 

I'm going to try it again tonight and reset the handset as it said warning reverting to previous CE or something similar. 

You may be lucky and the handset time zone settings have flunked. This happened to me with AVX when gotos were going off one night and changing the time/date made no difference. Resetting the handset to factory default, reloading the latest firmware & adding in my local time/date settings etc, sorted it.

Although if the mount is fine every time with the TAL, you're probably just pushing the mount a bit too far..?

 

[wookie1965]

Thank you all going to experiment tonight resetting handset and trying that see what happens I will know more then and can decide what's best.

[Rob]

8 minutes ago, wookie1965 said:

Thank you all going to experiment tonight resetting handset and trying that see what happens I will know more then and can decide what's best.

Good luck Paul.. 

[michael8554]

The suggestion is that overloading the mount causes poor GoTos.

Overloading may cause the bearings to bind.

May overload the motors, causing them to burn out.

May cause the clutches to slip.

Mat cause poor tracking.

Etc etc....

Failing to be close to the third alignment star won't be a date or time problem, as centring the first two stars will already have pulled the mount's starmap into fairly close alignment.

But should still be checked of course.

Wrong date or time will merely fool the mount into thinking some targets are below the horizon etc.

"reset the handset as it said warning reverting to previous CE or something similar"

Not familiar with Skywatcher stuff, but that may be a clue ?

Michael

 

[wookie1965]

Sorted it I loaded up "polar align pro" but did not select which mount it had Polaris in the 4 o'clock position last night using Synscaniit  that showed Polaris in the 10 o`clock position ish. 3 star alignment second star a tad out 3rd nearly bang on.

From 9.30 until 12.30 everything was in the FOV only thing that worried me was I went to M81 & M82, Jupiter was a lot higher than when I had viewed it before so thought I would look again.

Now this is the worrying thing the mount started to move but only in one axis the numbers on the handset where still going, I waited for it to stop miles away from Jupiter pressed the directional buttons only one axis worked. Up and down was a no go changed the cable nothing switched off and on all working fine again so I dont have a clue what went wrong.