Thursday, 25 April 2013

Mount drive hopefully sorted

After a month of waiting finally I could manage to sort out the drive for my EQ5 mount.
I'd like to say first of all that the dual axis drive (picture showned in previous post) is rubbish, if you had a thought to buy them DON'T, forget it!!! The manufacturer said it only works from batteries, no way to use it from a powertank, even the powertank is being capable to supply 6V. They also said, every time you plug it to a powertank, there is a 50-50% chance to fry the motors. So if you want to save yourself from a confusing and annoying situation, forget the dual axis drive.
What else than? Well the only option without doing some DIY is the Goto drive from Skywatcher. It is more expensive, the dual axis drive was £99.99 and the Goto drive is £319.00. The price difference is significant, but after reading many astro-forums the performance  should be significantly better as well (couldn't try it myself yet).

My only worry at the moment, that I have an EQ5 mount. There is a different version of equatorial mount on the market, called HEQ5 mount (H stands for heavy or heavier). I am doing astro photography and the EQ5 mount might be a problem, because it can't carry as much weight as the HEQ5 mount (I mean the scope, counterweights, finderscope, eyepiece, adaptors, camera). Half of the opinions said it will be okey, near to it's limit but okey. The other half suggest to upgrade to HEQ5, but no way I begin that procedure. I'll try to maximize the performance of my current equipment, use what I can and if that's not convincing.... Well I leave that problem for another day than.

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