The EQ-6 mount with the C11 OTA, Lumicon Giant Rich Field
Close up of the EQ-6 mount, showing power and handbox
viewer, Lumicon 2" diagonal and Televue 32mm widefield EP
connections and lattitude scale
Here with the tripod is fully extended, with the Synta
With the refractor pointed at the zenith, the eyepiece
150 (6") f/8 refractor, properly balanced. The pivot
is at a height of 36", a little low still for my tastes and
point of the DEC axis with the tripod fully extended
back muscles. Need about an 18" 1/2 pier extension
and pointed north is at 67.5" in height.
between the tripod base and the mount head.
I purchased this mount from Hoon Hiu, a synta importer / retailer from
BC Canada. His price was over $200 less
than I've seen from any other source. He charges $80 for standard
shipping (7 business days to the east coast) and
$140 for 3rd day shipping. Check him out at teleHoon.
He is very pleasant to deal with.
The EQ-6 mount head weighs about 38lbs, the tripod about 17. It
is supplied with two counterweights, which look
like CG5 counterweights, but the bore is smaller, to fit the retractable
counterweight shaft on the HDT. The HDT
counterweight shaft is about 1/8" less in diameter than that of the
CG5 / GP series mounts.
The major 'knock' that I have against this mount is the (in my opinion)
too short, too small (diameter) counterweight
shaft. They were too 'cute' on this detail. I would have
preferred a 1" c/w shaft that screwed into the mount and
was at least half again as long. The stock c/w shaft is 23/32"
diameter (smaller than that of the CG5) and extends
only 9.5" from the mount, or 16" from the center of rotation of the
RA axis. As a result, using a large diameter
ota, especially if there are accessories mounted on top (like a super
finder), the ota center of gravity is farther
away from the center of RA axis rotation than the counterweight shaft
end. Since you cannot get the center of
gravity of the counterweights as far away from the RA axis of rotation
as the center of gravity of the payload,
it takes more weight on the c/w shaft than ota payload to come to balance.
This should not be the case. However,
I should tell you that the mount seems to be able to carry the C11
with accessories, giant rich field viewer, 2"
diagonal, 16x70 polaris finder, heavy 2" eyepieces etc., even though
it takes 36lbs of weight to counterbalance
this payload. And it does so without any hint of strain.
The polar scope is almost identical to the one on the old Super Polaris
mount, and much better than that on the CG5.
However, apparently the first of these mounts had the cheaper polar
scope. This mount has a very heavy, think
and nicely made polar scope cover that screws onto the back of the
mount - much nicer than the press on covers
that never fit well. But it's a little hard to get the threads
started right - it might need a little cleaning up.
This mount has locking levers that look a little bit like those on the
CG5 mount, but they're much heavier duty,
and they work well for setting friction on the axes so that you can
move your scope manually but continue
tracking without interruption. Some have reported that when locking
these levers the corresponding axis moved
a little. My mount does not do this. In fact, I find the
levers to work great as clutches for setting friction / tension
to allow me to move my C11 ota by hand, and yet retain accurate tracking.
The counterweight shaft rotates with the DEC axis, and the polar scope
rotates with the RA axis. This should make
it easy to fit optical encoders to this mount. I prefer this
type of setup to the type or hand controller that counts motor
rotations to plot celestial coordinates. With those setups (i.e.
they Dynostar), you loose accurate coordinate information
if you move the mount manually (without the motors). With separate
optical encoders, you can slew the scope manually
to your hearts content and maintain accurate coordinate information,
even when flopping, as long as you don't do it so
fast as to cause encoder errors.
Over time I will be adding information about my ongoing use of this
mount. Here are some general first impressions
and information:
The azimuth adjustment in the base of the mount uses two opposing screws
pushing against a piece of metal that
is screwed into the head plate of the mount. There are two holes
on the mount head plate into which this can
be installed. You can install it to have one one leg pointed south
as shown above, or reversed so that one leg is
pointed north. I strongly recommend installing so that one leg
is pointed north, underneath the counter weight bar.
When two or more weights are installed on the counterweight bar preparatory
for mounting a large optical tube,
you need that one tripod leg underneat the counterweight bar
or the mount wants to tip forward toward the counter
weigths. The tripod headplate can be seen in the picture below.
The RA and DEC setting circles are really nice, very readable, not as
finely graduated as I'd like, but they are going to
do the trick. They rotate independently of the axes and can be
locked in place with either or both of two small knurled
screws, 180* opposite each other, so one will always be in easy reach.
These setting circles are very easy to read, and
can be read from one convenient location at the top back of the mount
from either side. These may not be finely graduated,
but they are going to be easy to see in the dark with a led flashlight,
or one conveniently mounted led light here out of
harms way on the back top of the mount. The setting cirles seem
well made, and feel really nice in operation.
If you've seen the hand controller of a CG5 or GP mount, this looks
the same, but for the 16x slewing speed. The phone
type cord that connects the hand box to the mount is coiled, and seems
heavy duty. However, the RJ type connector fits
loosely into its receptacle on the mount, and the red light indicating
power to the mount goes on and off depending on
how the cord is moved or stressed. I used a small piece of tape
over the base of the clip to tighten it up.
One of the annoying things about many of these hand controls with separate
battery pack is that the battery pack power cord
fits into a receptacle on the hand control. With these you have
to watch the position of the battery cord when moving about
with the handbox. On the HDT mount, the power cord connects directly
to the side of the motor box on the mount, so the
hand box is not tethered to the battery box - a big usability improvement.
However, the tip of the power cord does not
properly fit the connector in the side of the mount - it's loose, and
can be very easily and inadvertantly pulled out of the
mount. On the other hand, if you've been used to a CG5 mount,
the 16x slewing speed is really nice -
The tripod is very nice - pretty much as heavy but more nicely built
than my Meade adjustable SCT type field tripod. Very
sturdy even when the legs are extended, though I've read other reviews
that have mentioned some periodic vibration with
the legs fully extended. However, they only have one locking
lever per shaft. I would have preferred the security of two
locking bolts per shaft as on the Meade SCT type adjustabe field tripod.
The external finish of this mount is much better than that of any EQ4
/CG5 or EQ5 mount I've seen. And in my opinion
it seems very well made, considering that the base and housings are
all castings. The black powder coat finish
is very nicely done. There are just a few things that detract
from what would be a good impression - the latitude scale is
sloppily glues into a recess in the side of the mount with glue overruns
(The EQ6 medallion is nicely done though!), the
pointer for the altitude scale looks fragile, the removable panel on
the side of the motor housing is not particulary well
fitted. The really important stuff is all there. It will
be interesting to see if future examples of the mount fix a few of these
minor detractions.
Oh, an interesting note - I have a handful of vixen GP type mounting
plates - NONE of these will fit the HDT head. It is more
than 1/16" too narrow for them. A C8 dovetail bar fits fine,
as do generic CG5 dovetial bars. The mount comes with one
dovetail bar, extruded aluminum, about 8" long. I found one CG5
mounting plate - it does not fit either. On the other hand,
the dual bolts that hold a dovetail bar on the HDT mount head should
be very secure.
If you've been used to slo motion controls, you wont find them here,
which is typical of the heavy mounts. You won't
miss them with this mount. Just set the friction on the locking
levers so that you can move the scope around with a
little effort. The mount continues to track properly and you
can quickly make fine corrections, even through a finder
scope, with the 16x slewing speed.
So far I have not used this mount with any OTAs heavy enough to begin
to challenge it. I will tell you that it handles
a C11 as though it weighed nothing at all. Tracking seems to
be excellent. I centered Jupiter in a 26mm crosshair
eyepiece and 2x barlow combination for about 211x in a C11 and left
it to track for 45 minutes. Jupiter had moved
about a planet's width in DEC due to inexact polar alignment, but was
still exactly on in RA. Some have reported
some jittering noted at exceptionally high powers - I saw none with
this mount at 392x with a 7mm nagler on Saturn
and Jupiter.
I plan to test this mounts tracking with various optical tubes, and
also to test for periodic error. Reviews I have read
suggest that the periodic error of these mounts is quite low.
NOTE: If you plan to mount a C11 or C14 on this mount (either of which
it will easily handle) you will need to mate
a CG5/EQ6 dovetial bar to the Losmandy DC11 or Celestron CI700 dovetail
plate supplied with the optical tube.
It is best, in my opinion, to work it out so that when the smaller
dovetial is attached to the EQ6 head, the larger is
riding snugly against the top of the RA axis head, even if the smaller
dovetail bar does not fully rest on the bottom
of the recess in the mount head. This makes a huge positive difference
in vibration characteristics.
Further reviews of the HDT / EQ-6 mount can be found here
http://www.cloudynights.com/mounts/eq6.htm
http://www.cloudynights.com/mounts/eq6-2.html
http://apm-us.com/amateur/eq-6-review.htm
Check back here for more information / opinion as I have opportunity
to use various OTAs on this mount. I will be working
up an encoder installation for this mount and will report on that when
I get time.