Does the standard H-EQ5 track?

[quantumpanda]

Does the standard H-EQ5 track?

Thank you.

[brianb]

Track, as in follow the stars .... yes, if you set it up right. IIRC you need the Pro version to allow the "goto" handset to be attached, or for autoguiding.

[Psychobilly]

I guess your question is about the basic HEQ5 which can track provided the mounts been properly polar alignes and uses a basic controll box...

Beyond that you have The Syntrek which can be used with its basic handset for tracking or with the addition of the Synscan Handset effectively becomes the full Pro spec..

Peter...

[gfletcher]

I have the Standard basic HEQ5 and yes it tracks extremely well for visual observing as long as your polar alignment is accurate.

With respect to imaging, i was able to get up to 2 mins subs with my ED80 and up to 75 secs subs with my 250PX (obviously it is dependant on how far away angularly you are away from polaris).

Having now started guiding it seems like the stars the limit on sub lenghths ( main factor now seems to be light pollution for the longer subs)

HTH

Graham

[Capricorn]

Since it is not stated specifically the standard HEQ5 will track IF it has a set of RA/Dec motors built into it.

Without the motors to get it to "track" you have to manually rotate the head around by means of a couple of "twiddlers". So not really usable manually for photography if that was your thoughts.

Not sure if the standard HEQ5 comes with motors and I think/guess they don't. So you would have to purchase one with them already in place, or buy and put them on yourself.

A set of 2 motors with hand controller costs around £80.

So it will track if it has the motors, and I don't think that motors are standard fitment on the base HEQ5.

[GazOC]

The standard HEQ5 has dual motors and tracks.

[gary1968]

As far as I am aware the standard HEQ5 does come fitted with 'basic' motors so will track. The Syntrek version has better motors and a basic hand set, the Synscan version has the same motors as the Syntrek but has the all singing and dancing goto hand set.

Both the lesser versions are upgradable to the Syscan version at a later date if required.

HTH,

Gary

[Astro_Baby]

HEQ5 Heavy Duty - Dual motors and will track. Slew speed is limited to x16 (which is pretty slow) so you have to position the scope manually and then switch on the motors.

With a good polar alignment it will track very reliably for quite some time (at least as far as visual goes).

Can be upgraded with a GoTo kit which replaces the motors, main control board, and handset plus the connector panel. Can be scary for the fainthearted as an upgrade.

Used to be supplied in a black colour - not sure about now. It may come out in a white color scheme.

HEQ5 Syntrek - Has the same motors as the GoTo so slews at very high speed (up to x384 I think) so can be manually steered to its targets using the hand controller as the mount can throw the scope around at a fairly nippy pace. It tracks once its on target and polar aligned. Can be upgraded just by adding the GoTo handset which just plugs in.

Supplied in white color.

HEQ5 Pro - has the works - full GoTo and x384 slew speed. Fast, quiet slewing, Tracks extremeley well when polar aligned for visual. Must be one of the mot populare mounts around.

Supplied in white color.