Synscan GOTO upgrade for EQ5 mount

[Alien]

Does anybody have experience of (or own) a Synscan Pro GOTO upgrade kit for the SW EQ5 mount??

I have a manual EQ5 for observational astronomy and am thinking of upgrading to GOTO. I am not sure if the upgrade kit will be any good or if I should 'bite the bullet' and pay out for an HEQ5 or EQ6.

There does not seem to be much information out there as to how accurately the EQ5 upgrade will locate objects and also track them for imaging purposes. I am wondering:

- How does its ability to track compare to the HEQ5?

- Would it track well enough for exposures up to around 5 seconds or so i.e. for using with a Mintron?

Thanks for any help or advice!

[dark knight]

Hi Alien, I have the EQ5 with Synscan Goto upgrade and find it brilliant. Tracking is great provided you have reasonable polar alignment, but this applies to any mount configuration. 5 secs is easily achievable, I can leave an object in the field of view of a 20mm eye piece for upwards of 1 hour plus, no problem. As far as I am aware the HEQ5 mount can handle a slightly heavier telescope, but that said I load my EQ5 mount with a SW200p, DSLR and soon a guide scope too, I think this is the limit for the mount though.

Carl

[Alien]

Thanks, Carl - good to know the upgrade kit works well. Apparently with a WATEC 120n you only need max 10s exposure for live astrovideo feeds so this should be ideal. It is a good solid mount

[Caveman]

Is the GOTO upgrade kit easy to fit? i'm considering this upgrade myself, do you need to polar align the EQ5 mount each time you use the system?

[dark knight]

If any mount is moved, polar alignment needs to be re-done. For observational use, only a rough alignment is required, the synscan is then used to align up to 3 stars so it can map the sky, once done it will quite happily track.

[dark knight]

Sorry, yes it is easy to fit...