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AstroGeek: Thanks @AstroGeek for the additional insight. Not much you can do about seeing, but if the seeing is good the mount is consistent? |
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For this money, the best mount you can buy. @Christian_Hilbert This is it, perceived performance vs price, its hard to not look at this mount. Most people that own it seem to like so I ma glad that you love it. All of this makes me comfortable. The Esprit 120 is fairly heavy, the scope I am planning to use is 7,5kg, so less than the Esprit. Thanks for your input CS Brad |
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| I purchased a SW EQ6-R Pro a couple of months ago upgrading from the AVX where my Sub success rate was around 66% unguided at 45 seconds. Now with the EQ6-R Pro I can take 75 second unguided subs with a success rate of 99.5%. I just started AP a couple of months ago and haven't taken the leap to guiding yet , but for now I love the EQ6-R Pro for the weight capacity and smooth belt drive and very pleased with the results. |
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Hi Brad, I have an EQ6-R too, and I'm very happy with it. With good seeing (or at least the best I can get at my place), I get about 0.6-0.7 RMS. If I get worse, that's my fault or the seeing's, not the mount's. That's with a c9.25, 0,63 corrector, OAG, filter wheel, imaging cam, guide cam and dew shield so, maybe 13-15 kg. Cheers! PS: No, eq5 to eq6-r it's not a side movement. Of course it's not an ASA DDM, but it's a much better mount overall, with belt drives, less backlash, less periodic error, more capacity... You won't be disappointed, if your expectations are those you stated. |
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Bradley Watson: Hi @Ara Sorry but you cannot compare a 10 Micron, an A-P or a Paramount with a SkyWatcher. They play in completely different leagues. They provide features you will never see or have on any SkyWatcher for their typical prise range. This is also the reason why they cost so much more. I had an EQ8 and replaced it with a 10 Micron. I also know the R6. The SkyWatcher mounts are definitely good mounts in their class and a good choice with a huge community and excellent tools available. |
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Oriol de la Vega: Thanks @Oriol de la Vega I know it was mentioned before it was a sideways move, but I know it’s not as well. As you say the EQ6-R Pro is belt driven. It’s important for me that there is consistency and that I don’t need to babysit the mount. Last night I was imaging using my EQ5 and I had consistent 0.8” guiding, after a few hrs I went to bed and left it. I know for a fact that the next time I image (no changes to setup) I will struggle to get it below 1.5”. I am looking for the consistency from the responses here on the forum when excluding seeing. It seems to me that this is the case. Thanks for your input CS Brad |
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Ruediger:Bradley Watson: Hey @Ruediger You are right, the EQ6-R Pro mount cannot be compared to any of 10Micron mounts. To be fair to Ara he was saying the he hadn’t really heard of skywatcher and only the others he mentioned. I suppose he had a budget and was looking for some performance and the EQ6 met those criteria. I will admit, the 10Micron mounts are serious pieces of kit with excellent performance but that comes at a cost, I saw a video with one tracking satellites with precise accuracy between the satellites. I know I will upgrade to something like this but not yet. I would like something like that in a remote observatory (Summer House). This is great discussion! CS Brad |
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Just a short advice from someone who went through the same pain as you do (I wanted ROUND stars!). First AVX ($900): FOr that price actually a good mount, round stars: nope when going beyond 2 minutes exposure time. Then, Losmandy G811 ($3000-4000): Ended up in a total disaster, dec backlash was horrible. At the end the controller gave up for no reason. Now: Bisque MyT ($6500): I am in guiding heaven. With the new PHD multi star algorithm RMS of 0.2 almost every time. Sooooo ... I hear you about the money, I thought the very same, I am not a millionaire (I wish 😊). Thought that $3000 was enough, more than I wanted to spend. Result: I spent now $10000 in total, yikes, that hurt. As 2 Astrobin friends told me before I bought the MyT: It is better to cry once than multiple times. I do not know the EQ6R, I looked actually at the EQ8 before I bought the MyT. I hear good things about it, so that will you give some more sweating. Just a thought that I wanted to pass along, I know how it feels. Uwe |
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Hi Brad, There is no question the EQ6 R Pro is on a completely different league than the EQ5. You should see great improvement even with your 80mm refractor, let alone the RC which I think is well above the EQ5's payload for imaging. Really the only downside that I can think of (and the reason I stay with small scopes and small mounts) is it is much heavier and a real pain to set up and tear down if you have to do it at the beginning of every session. If you have a permanent or semi-permanent installation, this is not an issue. That said, please keep in mind that when working at sub-arcsecond resolutions (and guiding is definitely such a case), seeing becomes a very important factor. It could very well be the case that your mount is not tracking all that bad and it is the guide star's image that shifts and wobbles and deforms, confusing the autoguider. It pays to try a few of things just to eliminate that possibility, since it will continue to chase you with the EQ6: - Try to maximize your *unguided* performance, by ensuring PA and balancing are as accurate as possible (and perhaps fiddle a bit with the worm adjustment screws). My humble ole' ioptron smarteq pro needed all the babysitting in the world, until I discovered its polar finder was like 20 arcminutes off. Simply switching to a computerised PA method quadrupled its performance, both guided and unguided. - Try to maximize your guide star's SNR, by playing with the focusing and the camera gain/offset, as well as the guiding sub duration which should be between 2 and 4 seconds. - Use PHD2's guiding assistant to tell you what could possibly be wrong. This document is very helpful: https://openphdguiding.org/PHD2_BestPractices.pdf Kindest regards, Dimitris |
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| I have two, best value you can get. |
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Hi Brad, Hi @dkamen (Dimitri) Thanks for your input. There are some really good pointers you provide. I have not tested unguided tracking at all in fact, that'll be a good test in fact. The RC, I have not even bothered putting on this mount, feels like it would be too much trouble and disappointment. I recently built a ROR observatory for exactly the reasons you mention (tearing down gear and putting up again), so the weight I am not too concerned with. I definitely do not want this to follow me so I will recheck my balancing and look at worm screws. I made the move to SharpCap Pro a while back which made a huge difference to guiding and its even better (when the mount works) with the new multistar guiding in PhD2 - My last session was 0.7-0.8", the seeing didn't seem any better than usual but I have no explanation for why it was this good. The RC I have is 7.5kg, so when I add gear we should be in the region of 10kgs which the EQ6 will be able to handle. I also want to be able to add a bigger refractor to my collection and am hoping the EQ6 can accommodate this too. Anyway, you have given me a few things to focus on now. Thanks and CS Brad |
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| I sure hope this is a good mount, mine arrives tomorrow!! Ray |
