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Posted

Hey all,

For a couple of years now I’ve left my HEQ5 set up permanently in the garden on its tripod, covered with a BBQ cover. This year I’m thinking of creating a more permanent enclosure for it.

As I do most of my ‘observing’ remotely nowadays with just my DSLR and lenses (rather than a scope) - and I don’t take it seriously enough to call it imaging 😂 I have a question:

I want the footprint for the closure to be as small as practically possible. Given that I am only using a DSLR and lens I really don’t need any kind (or very minimal) counterweight. Therefore can I keep the counterweight bar retracted? 

I don’t really want to alter the HEQ5 as I want to keep the option to move it back to the tripod if desired for use with a scope.

In the enclosure I’d mount it on a low height pier with the whole thing enclosed in a footprint area of around 1sqm. 

The aim would be to have something resembling a bee hive as the finishing housing.

I can’t seem to find anything info wise on the web so thought I’d check here with you fine people. 😊

TIA

Daz

 

 

  • Like 1
Posted

Have a nose through the diy observatory posts, there are quite a few in there including my version. Footprint of mine is about 700x700. I tend to keep it under a trimmed down tg365 cover as it can get quite warm in there. All the best. Obs1.thumb.jpg.a29deff79e110223f5a6b833760a4ff2.jpg

  • Like 3
Posted
1 minute ago, M40 said:

 Footprint of mine is about 700x700. 

Yeah, that's the kind of idea I'm looking at, but obviously not as tall in my case (probably 1 x hollow concrete block plus the mount) 🙂 

Posted (edited)

So I guess I should just make my question: can I use a HEQ5 with the counterbalance bar not extended? 😊

Edited by Dazzyt66
Posted

I've never tried it, but I can’t see any reason why not other than it may block the polar scope?

  • Thanks 1
Posted
11 minutes ago, M40 said:

I've never tried it, but I can’t see any reason why not other than it may block the polar scope?

That was my thinking - I don't use the polar scope anyway as I do my polar alignment using Ekos 🙂

  • 1 month later...
Posted
On 15/04/2023 at 11:49, Dazzyt66 said:

Hey all,

For a couple of years now I’ve left my HEQ5 set up permanently in the garden on its tripod, covered with a BBQ cover. This year I’m thinking of creating a more permanent enclosure for it.

As I do most of my ‘observing’ remotely nowadays with just my DSLR and lenses (rather than a scope) - and I don’t take it seriously enough to call it imaging 😂 I have a question:

I want the footprint for the closure to be as small as practically possible. Given that I am only using a DSLR and lens I really don’t need any kind (or very minimal) counterweight. Therefore can I keep the counterweight bar retracted? 

I don’t really want to alter the HEQ5 as I want to keep the option to move it back to the tripod if desired for use with a scope.

In the enclosure I’d mount it on a low height pier with the whole thing enclosed in a footprint area of around 1sqm. 

The aim would be to have something resembling a bee hive as the finishing housing.

I can’t seem to find anything info wise on the web so thought I’d check here with you fine people. 😊

TIA

Daz

 

 

That's how I had it setup (new observatory box coming online soon...):

986929D3-28EC-4B4B-A2B8-77373A6C7BA8_1_105_c.jpeg.fd3d5a5de96904abeddd6b88c2a527bb.jpeg

66532FC8-5AC2-4FE9-AA72-4A3E45721B8C_1_105_c.jpeg.15670095710403d57449eb1a4ec60423.jpeg

  • Like 3

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