Skywatcher HEQ-5/Orion Sirius EQ

jermng · Post by **jermng** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 11:05 am

Just wondering if anyone here is using the above mount(s). Any comments on it? What scope do you put on it? Do you do any astrophotography? Any portability issues?

Just looking for general comments.

Thanks!

Post by **HoO_Germany** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 5:33 pm

Hi Jeremy

both eq-mounts are the same. One for the US-market named ORION Sirius and the other for the European-market named Skywatcher HEQ5. Both mounts are made in China by Skywatcher/Synta. The capability of these mounts is good, they can carry scopes about 10kg and by only visual using, you can go for 12 kg if it is not a long scope.
The mount is a quiet good "work-donkey". For astrophotographies you can not use this mount "out of the box" why the handbox-electronic is not fine enough for making fine corrections. When you grade up by a steering SynScan you get a quiet good possibility for make very good astro images. The same you can do directly by buying the HEQ5 SkyScan version with GOTO and handcomputer.

jermng · Post by **jermng** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 5:51 pm

Thanks! What about the EQ6/Atlas? Is it much less portable/heavier compared to the HEQ-5?

Post by **HoO_Germany** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 9:30 pm

jermng wrote:Thanks! What about the EQ6/Atlas? Is it much less portable/heavier compared to the HEQ-5?

The EQ6 / Atlas is the same history, the same manufacturer, Skywatcher / Synta China.

The EQ6 mount is more heavier than the HEQ5, here is the weight of the mounthead at 18kg you have to carry, including tripod, conterweights you have to carry more than 35 kg.
The carrying capability of this mount is on visual work at 25 kg, by using it photographic you can go good for 16 kg.
But here you have also a very good mount (work-donkey) compared to the price it costs. Ofcourse you will find much better mounts in this clas, but there you have to pay more than 5x or 6x more.

So we in Europe "love" those mounts why they are relatively cheap, and you can do a lot of perfecting with those mounts (also HEQ5).

You can change the motors and gears, you can put other steerings to work with, you can choose the originally steering SynScan GOTO, and you can repair very easy this mecanic.

Shure you can not compare this mount for example (at original price) in a quality of a Vixen Altlux mount, because there must be a difference in the price, but as after investing maybe 1000 Euro more in this mount by a buying price of 800 Euro, you will get a comparable mount to the Vixen Altlux for somewhere 1800 - 2000 Euro in comparison to 5300 Euro for the Vixen mount 8-)