Telescope Reviews: Woohooo my HEQ-5 Pro has arrived

Ok, Chris is sick today, but, we did get the new mount out under some clear, but milky sky last night. What can I say, I'm impressed. My observations from a first 'quick setup and tryout'.

a) I love illuminated polar scopes. I like them even better when they come aligned 'dead on' right out of the box. This one is both, it was perfectly aligned, and it's illuminated. First setup and a decent polar align took less than 5 minutes. I didn't do a drift align, but, the polar alignment was sufficient that an object stayed more or less centered in an eypeiece (5.2 mm ep in a williams optics zenithstar 80, resultant fov slightly over 0.5 degrees) for over an hour.

b) While not quite as quiet as the EQ6-Pro, it's certainly nowhere near the coffee grinder noise level of our EQ3 or a CG5. The difference between the two is small, and I see where it comes from. The section of the mount that houses the electronics is all metal on the EQ6, and on the HEQ5-Pro the front piece is plastic. Thats how they made it lighter, plastic front cover for the non load bearing front, and, it lets a little more of the motor noise out. With the EQ6-Pro, even during high speed slews, you have to be standing right next to it to even hear the motors running. With the HEQ5-Pro, during a high speed slew, you can hear it from a distance of about 10 feet, but not much farther. So, it's got a little more noise, than the EQ6, but not much. By comparison, the EQ3 is plainly audible from 40 or 50 feet away when it's slewing. Neither are audible while tracking, even from close enough to be looking thru the ep.

c) 3 star align went actually better than expected. After centering the first star using the 15mm ep, the second and third alignment star were 'right there' in the eyepiece, and the third one didn't even require any nudges to get 'dead center'. After alignment, a few goto checks put everything dead center in the ep, with the exception of M31. We couldn't see M31 after the goto because the 'pine cone cluster' was in the way

From our location, the eastern sky has a lot of 'pine cone cluster' below about 35 degrees elevation.

After the first alignment and a few quick checks that it all seemed to be running ok, chris called it quits because she wasn't feeling well. I was really interested in seeing how good the polar alignment was, using just the polar scope as it came 'out of the box', so I put a target in the center of the ep, then went inside and watched the olympics for an hour and a half. When I went back outside, and looked, my target was still pretty much dead center in the ep. I'll do a more detailed look over the weekend, track with a webcam for an hour, measure up the PE etc.

Weightwise, well, this is where the differences between the HEQ5-Pro and the EQ6-Pro really start to show. When it was time to pack up, I just unplugged the mount from the battery, then picked the whole thing up, complete with the telescope still attached, and carried it into the living room, about 15 feet from where it was set up on the back deck. This was not a strain at all. HEQ5-Pro with a williams optics zenithstar 80, and one counterweight attached. By comparison, my EQ6-Pro, when it's time to move it, the telescope comes off first, and, it's a bit of a strain to pick it up fully assembled on the tripod, with one counterwieght still attached, and move it over the same distance. I normally set it down once or twice during that move. I haven't put anything on scales, but, the difference in weight between these two is significant. To move the EQ6 any more than 20 feet or so, I do pull the head off the tripod.

Overall, on a first impression, it's hard to be happier than this with a new mount, especially at the price I paid, I bought this one for $1049.95 cdn from the local dealer .

I'm not normally one to promote stuff like this, but, the canadian dollar has been weak the last couple of weeks. If anybody is considering one of these things, especially if you are in the USA, I'd think about clicking on that link and grabbing one sooner rather than later, take advantage of the weaker canuck buck and the price war out there on these things. By the time you factor in exchange and the current price discrepancies, the white paint -Pro variant out of Canada is about 200 bucks cheaper than the same synscan mount in black paint from american suppliers. This was the deciding factor that made me buy sooner rather than later, I dont think the pricing can hold at this level, somebody has to give eventually, and at this price, the skywatcher HEQ5-Pro just seemed like to much of a bargain to pass up.

We've now got the 'final answer' for mounts in the quest to build his and hers astrophotography systems. The telescopes for the 'hers' side of the equation are complete, Williams Optics Zenithstar 80 side by side mounted with the Skywatcher Short Tube 80, all living on top of the HEQ5-Pro. The only thing left to decide now, what kind of tube upgrades are necessary to finish fleshing out the side by side setup living on top of the EQ6...