Affiliation
British Astronomical Association, Variable Star Section (BAA-VSS)
Wed, 09/06/2023 - 19:10
I finally have my Skywatcher EQ6-R PRO mount.
Talking to some imaging contacts, they seem to think this mount is not up to a Celestron C11 for astrophotography.
However PEP with Optec SSP3 (with its 30s integrations) is of course more forgiving than AP.
Is there anyone out there who is doing PEP on this or similar Skywatcher mounts with a C11.
The spec does claim up to 20kg load for AP. C11 OTA is 12.5kg and SSP3 adds another 1.5kg from memory so it seems well within limits to me.
Any real hands on experience would help me decide. Anyone got this set-up or similar please?
Kevin
Hi Kevin,
I have a EQ6-R PRO with an 8 inch Newtonian and an AZ-EQ6 PRO with an 12 inch Newtonian from Orion Optics VX, light weight with only 15 kg, 300/1200mm and DSLR: Canon 200 D and soon with an QHY600m CMOS camera. The telescope is wind shielded. The weight is no problem. I dont care about focus drift, since slight de-focusing is good (-;
Even a setup in the field has no problems. Since most of my targets are 60 - 120s at iso200 - iso400 and a short focal length of 1,2m, and Autoquiding there are no issues or whatever. (I dont need to have exposures with several minutes)
The QHY600 with filter wheel is more heavier (< 3 kg) than the 0,5 kg Canon DSLR. But I am confident, that it will be working out.
If I have to by a new mount now, I'd take a look into the Skywatcher: CQ350 Payload: 35kg.
http://skywatcher.com/post/advertisement/CQ350/
My AZ EQ6 with PHD2 autoguiding has mostly 0,5 - 1 arcsecond total uncertainy, the EQ6-R Pro has crazy 0,30 - 0,40 arcsecond uncertainity, but with the 8 inch Newtonian. (Since the conterweights are not swichtable, I do not have tested the 12 inch with the EQ6-R- Pro)
You may can ask if someone with an C11, If he is doing an observing night with you, for checking it all out? Or you may consider only for photometry with the shorter focl length:
https://www.astroshop.eu/telescopes/orion-optics-uk-telescope-n-300-1200-vx12-ota/p,57572 14kg
https://www.astroshop.eu/telescopes/orion-optics-uk-telescope-n-300-1600-vx12l-ota/p,65277 16kg
with Lambda 1/10
CS Bernhard
Thanks Bernhard,
Very useful information
Regards
Kevin