HEQ5 Go To upgrade

[moondog]

In the Astro Workbench I gave a description of the installation of the upgrade. Last night I got to use it in anger.

This is a brief report.

I'd previously polar aligned the mount and indicated on the deck with a marker pen where to reposition the scope.

Once you press the 'on' switch on the mount it immediately takes you through the set up via the handset.

It asks you the latitude and longitude of the site. It remembers this information for next time.

Then it asks date, time zone (UK 0,0), time (local), and wether daylight saving is in operation. Yes it is as it's BST.

The handset doesn't remember the date, time etc - but it's easy to put in.

It then asks if you want to do a 1, 2 or 3 star alignment. Since I was out pretty early, only Arcturus and Vega were bright enough to be visible. So I chose 2 star alignment.

The hand set offers a list of stars that should be visible. Scrolled down the list and chose Arcturus. The mount then set off pretty sharpish to turn towards Arcturus. It looked to have stopped in the right area. I could see it through the finder, but not through the 40mm EP. Used the slew keys to centre Arcturus in the finder then swapped to the EP and centred it on the star. Pressed 'enter' and the handset offered the list of stars again, this time I selected Vega.

The mount swung round to Vega and when it stopped with a 'beep', there was Vega, not quite in the centre of the EP this time.

Did a very slight slew to centre Vega and pressed 'enter'

The message came up on the handset - 'calibrating' and a few seconds later 'successful'.

It probably took less than 5 minutes from turning the 'on' switch.

I changed the EP for a 12mm one. When I asked it to look at the moon and Jupiter ( yes - I know I could see them visually but it's only a test!) they were both in the field of view of the 12mm EP (83x mag).

When I'd finished, pressing 'utility - park scope' returned the mount to the polar aligned position.

The upgrade did just what it said on the tin.

MD

[Tinkerbell]

Good report MD.

Don't ya just love it when a plan comes together :salute: :cheers:

[MartinB]

Those HEQ5s certainly look the business. S@N mag winner in this months mount review - beating the EQ6 pro Vixen Sphinx and Celestron GT. Looks like a good purchase then MD

[OXO]

Mmmmmm sounds great something on my wish list for later this year

James

[moondog]

I'm looking forward to using 3 star align next time as I reckon it should increase the accuracy. Perhaps it will be able to centre objects in the 12mm EP and not just in the centre third.

I viewed the moon at a high mag. and left the scope running for 1/4 hour whilst I went inside - it was showing the same image when I came back. You can chose the type of tracking i.e. - sidereal (normal, stars & planets), solar, lunar or with guide scope. The standard HEQ5 motors only allow sidereal tracking.

We'll see how it holds up over the next few months, but it looks promising.

MD

[GazOC]

I havn't got around to setting my Skyscan up yet. I think the 3 star just corrects for cone error, is that right?

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Cone error and bad polar alignment to some extent, though it doesn't say so in the book. I find that my polar alignment always works a lot better after a 3 star align and I assume that the magic box is helping out.

According to the manual a 3 star align allows for cone error.

Captain Chaos

[tom.yates]

Think this is a must upgrade if you can afford the dosh

[moondog]

Gaz/CC

The standard HEQ5 manual gives details of polar alignment - but only for the mount using the polar scope.

It seemed strange to me that the alignment of the main scope itself was not mentioned.

After you've carried out polar alignment you can't see Polaris with the main scope without moving the main scope.

This is due to the axis for the polar scope not being parallel to the main scope.

Correcting for cone error means adjusting the main scope mounting plate so that the main scope points to the same

position in the sky as the polar scope. Once you've done this I presume even 1 star alignment would be accurate.

It's obviously just easier to let the SynScan do the work on 3 stars !

MD

[FLO]

Must have missed this (been busy ).

Thanks for the report - quite fancy a HEQ5 myself one day 8)

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Gaz/CC

The standard HEQ5 manual gives details of polar alignment - but only for the mount using the polar scope.

It seemed strange to me that the alignment of the main scope itself was not mentioned.

After you've carried out polar alignment you can't see Polaris with the main scope without moving the main scope.

This is due to the axis for the polar scope not being parallel to the main scope.

Correcting for cone error means adjusting the main scope mounting plate so that the main scope points to the same

position in the sky as the polar scope. Once you've done this I presume even 1 star alignment would be accurate.

It's obviously just easier to let the SynScan do the work on 3 stars !

MD

Not sure what you're getting at MD WRT not seeing polaris in the main 'scope. With my HEQ5 the 'scope has to be at 90 degrees to Polaris in order to be able to look through the polar alignment 'scope. Turning the main 'scope to look at Polaris will totally obscure the polar 'scope's view as it looks through the shaft that the main 'scope rides on. This is, however potentially adjustable as the head with the dovetail clamping mechanism is seperate ffrom the shaft and could be re-aligned (I think, having never tried it).

As you say, cone error is the error caused by the main 'scope not being at 90 degrees to the shaft that it rides on. This is indeed adjustable by using adjusting screwws on the tube ring to dovetail bar connection. This is "taken into consideration" when doing a 3 star alignment and the mount compensates for the error. Take away the need for compensation and you will almost certainly get better goto's and tracking.

The main bit about what you posted (the bit I don't understand) is the bit about polar alignment of "only the mount". What else would you polar align except the mount?

Captain Chaos

[moondog]

CC

The point I was getting at is that the standard HEQ5 manual ( non go-to) doesn't mention aligning the main scope - only the mount.

The main scope mounting plate must be fitted 'as it comes out of the box', as mine is only a couple of degrees out - not the 90 degrees that you mention. I didn't know that the rotation of the mounting plate could be adjusted on the axis, it seemed logical to me that it would be factory fitted to be parallel to the polar scope axis. Obviously not!

MD