The journey continues.... with a new SkyWatcher HEQ5 Pro mount

Rudy in Ottawa smiling happily with his brand new Sky-Watcher HEQ5 Pro mount

Well friends, the journey and the story continues as you can see from this photo taken today on Nov. 1, 2018.

As some of you know, I have wanted my own a full-featured equatorial mount for Deep Sky Astrophotography for a long time now and this week something happened that only further increased my determination to get one. That experience was me having at my disposal my astro-buddy Doug's 5-hour stack of quality subs of the Orion and Running Man Nebula to play with.

I posted the processed image in this forum the other day. Doug took these subs last week on his new Sky-Watcher EQ6-R mount. This is the very same mount that I also bought and briefly owned this past summer - the one I got a hernia moving and had to send back because it was just far too big and heavy for me. :-( In fact, Doug and I bought our mounts at the same time during the same sale in June, the difference is that Doug is a much bigger, stronger guy than me and I got a hernia and he didn't. I'm glad for him.

Well, after spending 3 days in Heaven this week with his M42-M43 data I finally said, "That's it, I can't wait any longer I MUST have my own EQ mount and I must have it NOW!" So after convincing my dear wife of 47 years that this would be a wonderful thing for her husband I went out and bought a brand new Sky-Watcher HEQ5 Pro on sale. This mount is a great little solid mount that guides really well and is used by many folks to produce fabulous astro-images. It is the little brother of the EQ6 and EQ6-R and weighs about half as much and It's perfect for me.

Anyways, it's a happy day at Rudy's house today so I thought I would invite you all to the party!!

Cheers,
Rudy

--
https://www.flickr.com/photos/rudypohl/

Seems like you are a very happy man now.

Have never figured out why wives never get it - a husband MUST have an equatorial mount to stay happy...

Wish you starlight and a rewarding journey!

Great to hear!

And what an interesting looking Skywatcher! I'll have to read up on them!

Congratulations Rudy and good luck with the new mount! Looking forward to your 1st light with it!

What a proud papa ! Congrats !!

(It's going to cloudy the next month in Eastern Canada)

May your skies be forever clear. (But, we are talking Ottawa so probably not going to happen.)

Great choice and all the best Rudy!

Happy days indeed!

Look forward to seeing what you can produce with that baby. Let us know how you find it.

Cheers,

Ollie

WOAH, congratulations Rudy! I think you're smile says it all - and just looking at the picture has me smiling too.

Thanks for the invite, I'll be over in 10....

Nate

Hi Rudy,

Congratulations. You look like a happy guy! I have enjoyed your images here and on Flickr. You do excellent work.

I know you have considered a number of different options before you settled on the HEQ-5, including the Fornax LT II. I'm curious how you finally made your decision.

rareynolds said:

Hi Rudy,

Congratulations. You look like a happy guy! I have enjoyed your images here and on Flickr. You do excellent work.

I know you have considered a number of different options before you settled on the HEQ-5, including the Fornax LT II. I'm curious how you finally made your decision.

Click to expand...

Hi rareynolds, I'm glad someone asked that question.

The answer is pretty simple and straightforward. I just got sick and tired of losing so many precious imaging nights to the wind. My Star Adventurer, as good as it was, (I sold it yesterday), was dependable, portable, easy to set up and align, accurate and even able to be guided, something which I've done since August. However, it was absolutely no match for any amount of wind, something which almost never stops around here.

After waiting and waiting and waiting for a few dark clear nights over the last few months I lost so many imaging sessions to the wind that I simply had had enough with the endless frustration. In fact, during a recent windy night out while my buddy Doug's big honking EQ6-R mount was chugging right along not missing a beat, or a sub, my Star Adventurer was blowing all over the place and my guiding looked like a train wreck! I finally got so miffed that I grabbed my wooden bar stool and chucked it across the field... and then, just for good measure I went over and picked it up and chucked it again!!! This was very out of character for me as I am usually the epitome of patience.

Then, just this past week, when Doug let me process his wonderful M42-M43 data, also taken in windy conditions by the way, that was it for me. Enough with the light-weight tracker and I went out bought the HEQ5 Pro.

Anyways, that's the story. My homemade barn-door tracker and the Star Adventurer were great for learning the basics of astrophography, but at my age life's too short to be wasting my few precious imaging nights getting snookered by the wind over and over.

Cheers,
Rudy

--
https://www.flickr.com/photos/rudypohl/

It's hard enough having to deal with light pollution, bad seeing, focusing difficulty, the moon, overheated sensors, etc. You can have all the other ingredients lined up just right and then you have to deal with wind. More often than not it's windy in my experience. So you get a heavy mount and it becomes much less a factor. Good luck to you and I look forward to seeing more great results from you. I love your M31, and M8+M20 on Flickr. not to mention the first rate wildlife shots.

I hope you get some good seeing conditions. At near 45N in Michigan, it hasn't been very good. I check Astrospheric a few times a day, hoping for some good news. Your part of Canada doesn't look much better.