astro4

I've made a few changes to the equipment I have for viewing and taking pictures of the stars and have learned a little bit more since last time I updated these pages:-)

To start off with, I decided to buy a new mount and sell the old one(HEQ5) I bought the new skywatcher HEQ5 PRO mount with skyscan hand control and also a new telescope, the skywatcher mak 150 pro..I did consider buying the upgrade kit for the old mount ,but decided against it as I knew I could get a good price for my old mount, which I did:-) and also in case i messed up the upgrade..

Well, I had a few problems with the new mount after it arrived, I was getting a COMM error on the skyscan hand control unit every time it was switched on, but it would disappear once I pressed enter and would go in to the setup mode normally...But there was still problems after that, after inputing date/time/location etc etc and then start the alignment process, the scope would just turn round full circle and at that point I knew there was something seriously wrong with mount or hand control.

I phoned the dealer where I bought the scope from and told them of the problem but they had no idea and said it could be the power pack supplied with the scope, and so I ordered a new one..To make a long story short, the new power supply unit was as useless as the dealer I had called (but that's another story).

I e-mailed skywatcher about the problem I had and am still waiting on a reply from them...I searched the internet for any clues to the problem but couldn't find anything..And to make another long story short I got an e-mail reply from someone that uses the skywatcher mount with skyscan, he told me there was a batch of faulty cables or internal connectors on these mounts with the skyscan unit..I ended up replacing the cable between hand control and mount for some spare (very long) network cable I had lying around, problem solved:-)

So I've really not had much of a chance to use it because of the weather and the problem I had with the hand unit cable, until recently that is:-)

During all the time since I received my new mount I was determined to set it up with a proper polar alignment, and of course locate Polaris correctly, well I could close my eyes and tell you where Polaris is now:-)(not quite)..I did find the setting up of the setting circles a little confusing at first but I think I have the hang of it now, a good guide for polar aligning I used for the heq5 mounts is found here http://home.btconnect.com/astro-site/..

The Verdict on the new skyscan HEQ5 pro mount? fantastic, after doing a two star alignment and then inputting an object or tour, it finds it and is nearly dead centre of the eye piece. And it will stay there forever (or at least until the power pack runs out:-)...

To the right of this page you will find my first picture of M42 the Orion nebula taken at prime focus on my 6"refractor..I also took a couple of wide field shots using my canon eos350d with a 70-200mmL lens piggybacked on my skymax 150 pro MAK.

$80ED Refractor$