RASA 8 on HEQ5 - Anyone do it?

[Budgie1]

So, my imaging rig to date has been using refractors, Evostar 100ED DS Pro, Evostar 80ED DSO Pro & WO Zenith 73 III, which has been alright but the number of clear nights seems to be getting fewer and the West Coast of Scotland isn't renowned for it's temperate rain forests because it's very dry! 

So that I can try to get the most out of the clear nights we do get, I would like to upgrade to a faster scope and I'm thinking about the RASA 8, which should suit my ASI294MC Pro but I'm not too sure about the weight on the HEQ5.

My HEQ5 is about 3 years old, has the Rowan belt conversion fitted and is mounted on a solid concrete pier (see my Obsy build thread for details).  With the RASA 8, ASI294MC Pro, dew shield & guide scope & camera (I would rather have guiding than not) then it's getting very close to the maximum imaging payload for the HEQ5. I know it could really do with the EQ6-R or similar, but I can't justify changing the mount & scope, and there's no point just changing the mount and sticking with the scopes I already have.

So, has anyone got or used a RASA 8 on the HEQ5 and how did it handle? Any issues balancing the rig and did you use a guide scope or not?

Thanks for any advise.

Edited April 26 by Budgie1

[tomato]

Sorry, I don’t have access to a HEQ5 any more else I would have tried this combination out for you. What I would say is you would be imaging at 2.39” per pixel so you have some leeway to play with. The RASA8 and dew shield combination is a bit of a sail in windy conditions but I see you have a nice roll off roof observatory which would offer some protection.

I can understand why you would like some first hand experience, it would be frustrating in the extreme to buy a RASA and then not be able to use it because the mount wasn’t up to it.

It might be worth asking FLO if they could advise?

[Adam J]

9 hours ago, Budgie1 said:

So, my imaging rig to date has been using refractors, Evostar 100ED DS Pro, Evostar 80ED DSO Pro & WO Zenith 73 III, which has been alright but the number of clear nights seems to be getting fewer and the West Coast of Scotland isn't renounced for it's temperate rain forests because it's very dry! 

So that I can try to get the most out of the clear nights we do get, I would like to upgrade to a faster scope and I'm thinking about the RASA 8, which should suit my ASI294MC Pro but I'm not too sure about the weight on the HEQ5.

My HEQ5 is about 3 years old, has the Rowan belt conversion fitted and is mounted on a solid concrete pier (see my Obsy build thread for details).  With the RASA 8, ASI294MC Pro, dew shield & guide scope & camera (I would rather have guiding than not) then it's getting very close to the maximum imaging payload for the HEQ5. I know it could really do with the EQ6-R or similar, but I can't justify changing the mount & scope, and there's no point just changing the mount and sticking with the scopes I already have.

So, has anyone got or used a RASA 8 on the HEQ5 and how did it handle? Any issues balancing the rig and did you use a guide scope or not?

Thanks for any advise.

You may get  away with it just about due to the relatively low image scale. 

Adam 

[Clarkey]

I have used my RC8 with ST80 guidescope on the HEQ5 and it just about managed - but due to the longer FL I decided it was not quite good enough. However, at the RASA FL it would probably be OK. Also, the RASA is lighter and you can use a small guidescope.

[tomato]

I use a little 50mm Altair guide scope with the RASA8, it does the job.

[Budgie1]

I've got 50mm WO guide scope or Evoguide 50 I can use with it.

The ASI294MC is a little undersampled but it should be fine.

The other option I was considering was the Esprit 100, but that's a lot slower at f5.5 and I think it'll be too heavy.

[Whistlin Bob]

I've not tried a RASA, but I'd really like to!!!

I possibly have comparable experience- for a couple of years I imaged with a flocked Explorer 200p on a belt modded HEQ5, also in an obsy. The all in weight (scope, camera, filter wheel, small guide scope) was around 10kg, and longer than a RASA, so a bit of extra moment. I'd got the mount running pretty sweetly: with a lighter load it would do in the range of 0.5-0.8 RMS. With the newt it was more like 0.9 to 1.2 RMS- I found this acceptable. The mount was clearly under more strain, but there was no deterioration in a couple of years until I acquired an eq6, and the mount still works well today.