Nona
super member
Reged: 03/04/04
Posts: 190
Loc: North Kent, UK
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I posted this last night in the wrong forum...should have been here instead of cats & casses! 
I've just come in from the cold (around 0 degrees) to write up a quick first light report.
I've replaced my CG5-GT with an EQ5 Synscan and I'm really pleased with the new mount. I had a discussion with some guys on the mounts forum a few weeks ago and as noise was a major factor in buying the mount, I plumbed for the EQ5 with goto.
I bought it 2nd-hand from a guy just a few miles from me. It's only about 6 months old and is in perfect condition. The previous owner went through the setup and chose a few subjects and the motors were really quiet (after an initial burst of start-up noise).
Even though both mounts have polar scopes, I thought that the EQ5 was much easier to use/setup. It just seemed better quality and was clearer to see/use. 
There's almost a full moon tonight but it's low in the sky at 9pm in the UK, so I went for Saturn as my first goto object. Using a (new) Vixen 40mm EP, it was near to the edge of the FOV so some tweaking will be necessary on the polar setup. I had my best views of Saturn tonight...it's high in the sky and the seeing is about 7-8.
I then went for a stroll around some messier objects...M44, M3 and M103. I used the .63 reducer for M44 and with the 40mm I got 90% of the cluster in the FOV. I was so pleased with M3 as I've never had a good view of it before...and tonight it's a full moon! On went the binos with 20mm WO's and I could just start resolving stars (I think! ).
M103 was very nice...again my best ever view of the cluster.
All-in-all, this has been a great night. I've left the mount back on Saturn while I watch match-of-the-day (the UK boys will know what this is..)...then a quick coffee before going out for another 30mins before bed. What a night! 
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Jeff
OMC140 with Hilux coatings
EQ5 with Synscan 3.12 goto
William Optics Binoviewers
Edited by Nona (03/23/08 05:01 AM)
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Paydirt
sage
Reged: 12/02/07
Posts: 343
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Hi! Right now I am trying to decide between the Atlas and Sirius so thank you for the review!!!
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Nona
super member
Reged: 03/04/04
Posts: 190
Loc: North Kent, UK
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If you've got a fairly light load going on the mount, the EQ5 is the one to go for...otherwise it's an EQ6/Atlas. The Atlas uses the same motors so the noise should be the same...but it can take a much heavier load.
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Jeff
OMC140 with Hilux coatings
EQ5 with Synscan 3.12 goto
William Optics Binoviewers
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John_C
member
Reged: 05/02/09
Posts: 25
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When you are manually seeking at a high slew rate do you get a burst of really loud grinding noise when you release the button on the keypad?
Edited by John_C (09/08/09 11:34 PM)
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Lane
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 11/19/07
Posts: 1515
Loc: Frisco, Texas
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Just a note about some confusion with mount names we got into on another thread, after some research I found this:
EQ5 is another name for the Vixen Great Polaris
EQ5 PRO is another name for the CG5-GT
HEQ5 PRO is another name for the Orion Sirius.
I would guess this thread is really about the HEQ5 PRO not the EQ5 PRO.
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Mounts: CGEM, ORION SIRIUS, AT Voyager/motorized
SCTs: C6, C8, C9.25, C11,
Refractors: TV Pronto, Orion ED80
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John_C
member
Reged: 05/02/09
Posts: 25
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My understanding is that a Skywatcher EQ5 Pro is a Skywatcher EQ5 with SynScan drive/controller added.
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FoxTrot
sage
Reged: 06/01/06
Posts: 240
Loc: Melbourne, Australia
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Just out of interest, the Dec and RA motor housings on the Skywatcher EQ5 Pro, are they made of plastic or metal? (I think resonating plastic is the cause for much of the Celestron CG5 and Meade LXD75 noise). Fox
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TV Genesis (non-sdf)
TV NP127is
Clave 6, Pentax XW 7, Vixen LVW 13, Panoptic 27
2x TeleXtender, 2.5x Powermate
LXD75 AutoStar
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Lane
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 11/19/07
Posts: 1515
Loc: Frisco, Texas
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Quote:
My understanding is that a Skywatcher EQ5 Pro is a Skywatcher EQ5 with SynScan drive/controller added.
Do a google search and you can find several pictures of the EQ5, EQ5 PRO, and HEQ5 PRO and all are different mounts. The EQ5 looks identical to my old vixen GP mount. EQ5 Pro looks identical to the CG5. The HEQ5 Pro looks identical to the Orion Sirius except for the white/black color change.
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Mounts: CGEM, ORION SIRIUS, AT Voyager/motorized
SCTs: C6, C8, C9.25, C11,
Refractors: TV Pronto, Orion ED80
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John_C
member
Reged: 05/02/09
Posts: 25
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Quote:
Quote:
My understanding is that a Skywatcher EQ5 Pro is a Skywatcher EQ5 with SynScan drive/controller added.
Do a google search and you can find several pictures of the EQ5, EQ5 PRO, and HEQ5 PRO and all are different mounts. The EQ5 looks identical to my old vixen GP mount. EQ5 Pro looks identical to the CG5. The HEQ5 Pro looks identical to the Orion Sirius except for the white/black color change.
I have an EQ5 and EQ5 Pro standing side by side. The EQ5 has a post-purchase dual drive upgrade installed (not SkyWatcher afaik and definitely not a goto). The only apparent difference to me is the shape of the motors and the plastic housings around the motors - the mounts themselves look identical. YMMV.
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John_C
member
Reged: 05/02/09
Posts: 25
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Quote:
Just out of interest, the Dec and RA motor housings on the Skywatcher EQ5 Pro, are they made of plastic or metal? (I think resonating plastic is the cause for much of the Celestron CG5 and Meade LXD75 noise). Fox
The declination is plastic. The RA is surrounded by plastic but such a large surround that the motor inside could easily have its own housing in something else.
What I have noticed is that if I slew at a high rate and stop I get the buzz-saw sound but if I have the controller slew to an object it doesn't do this. My assumption is that this is a result of it gradually lowering the slew rate whereas when I manually slew and then take my finger off the button it has to try and stop instantly - so it may be activating a clutch or making it free-wheel in some other way and this is the source of the noise... if so they could have done better as my old NexStar didn't do this.
The other time it does this is if I slew back and forth - say from Algol to Arcturus. Then it slews quietly to Arcturus but when I send it back to Algol I get a short burst of the grinding noise but this time when it starts rather than when it ends... same thing if I then go back to Arcturus. I'm guessing this might be because backlash has left some slack for it to take up... but it worries me and if anyone else has other ideas I'd be glad to hear them.
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John_C
member
Reged: 05/02/09
Posts: 25
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Just for closure... I never did find out why the drive was making the noise - it was borrowed and for some reason they didn't want to take advantage of my offer to completely disassemble it - LOL - so it still puzzles me because it was a real buzz-saw sound and as far as I know it is still doing it.
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neptun2
sage
Reged: 03/04/07
Posts: 277
Loc: Bulgaria
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About the noise - at least for me it is only in the beginning or end of slew. I tested doing manual slews at different speeds and saw that the noise is present only when i use 6 or 7 (i can't remember exactly which one) speed. So the noise is present only when the mount goes through this speed at the beginning and end of slew. Also when i mounted the synscan upgrade kit on my heq5 i first used the default grease that skywatcher provide with the upgrade kit to grease the motors and later replaced it with better grease. After doing this the noise is almost gone. about different skywatcher mounts - eq5 and eq5 pro are the same mechanically and very similar to cg5. Eq5 can be converted to pro by replacing the motors, gears and hand controller. Difference between eq5 and cg5 is stepper versus servo motors and of course the hand controller. Heq5 and Eq6 are different than eq5 and has much higher payload capacity.
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Skywatcher Explorer 200P 8" f5 newtonian reflector
HEQ5 Pro Synscan Equatorial mount
Nikon Action 12x50 , Nikon D5000
Nagler type 6 11mm , Pentax XW 7mm , Televue 2x barlow 1.25"
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