What's Up? Webcast: EQ6-R Overview

[@andrewweller5119]

I love my EQ6-R Pro. I run a WO GT81 IV and a Celestron C11 XLT (around 33lb fully loaded) on it for Astro Imaging and it has yet to let me down. amazing bit of kit.

[@kerube]

The C11 is not too heavy for the mount?

[@stevefpv7249]

Great stuff! Bought my 6R Pro back in July 2020 for solar. Now getting ready for night time imaging and thinking/dreaming of purchasing the esprit 120 to mount on this puppy:)

[@stephen.and.the.huskies3741]

Great introduction! I recently adopted my Dobson Newtonian to this mount.

[@SkyWatcherUSA]

Very cool. Send us a pic on FB!

[@sirmeowcelot]

Great mount with solid performance and exquisite craftsmanship. I have been using asiair pro with EQMOD and also NINA and both perform really well. Also, upgrade to an ADM saddle for fine-tuning along with an extra finder scope shoe on the provided space. Riding a Skymax 180 on top. I couldn't be happier with the EQ6-R-PRO. I'm also looking forward to getting an eq8rh pro to ride my 254F145MC.

[@tacomaastro7462]

First off, I would recommend the EQ6-R Pro to anyone looking for a good mount. With that, mine had some issues. balance and tracking was questionable and reliably slewing to a target had its own agenda. Having limited opportunities for testing I did some on-line research and found that this was not as uncommon as I had thought. The answer... tear down, cleanup and rebuild. So the disassembly was interesting but not difficult. When I got it apart I found that the grease being used actually looked contaminated and sticky. I cleaned everything up, removed the grease that was on the bearings and re-assembled using superlube for the bearing lubrication (liberally). Once re-assembled, the RA and DEC were completely freed up, Balancing is now a dream, once polar alignment with a one-star alignment is complete slewing to a target if not dead on is always close enough that in most cases centering is not needed. Last nights PHD2 guiding was an RA of 0.11 and DEC of 0.10. almost flatline. Needless to say, I am a happy EQ6-R Pro owner.

[@yervantparnagian5999]

It's really a shame the quality of astro gear coming out of the factory is what it is. Totally unacceptable that you and others have to tear down a brand new product and rebuild it. The fault is Sky-Watcher, of course, for allowing this to happen.

[@compubyte2010]

You should DO IT AGAIN .. but make a video for us LOL

[@astromeathead1910]

Just bought mine yesterday...sorry for the upcoming clouds!

[@NuggetShark7070]

When will the eq6-r pro be restocked? Really trying to get one, but they are sold out everywhere.

[@shadowchaser6362]

Very Helpful! Thank-you!

[@compubyte2010]

ok, this mount has been out for a while and has gone thru quite a few changes.. Is there a page or someplace where we can SEE the differences? eg. serial to USB, also newer ones don't show an ST4 port? but "auto guide" port? how many "changes" has this Mount had? and If I buy a used / older one.. HOW do I tell how old the mount is?? NOTICE writing for make / model changed a bit too on certain ones.. model is sometimes above an sometimes below make (skywatcher) .. appears to be at least 3 or 4 versions of this mount?

[@captgbakos1291]

Thoroughly enjoyed this video. My EQ6-R Pro is still on backorder so this was a good primer that I will be watching again for sure. Quick questions: what's the current supply picture looking like for this mount, are they beginning to flow to the US again? Any predictions on catching up on current orders? Also, on the power supply topic, I have a new Celestron - PowerTank Lithium Pro battery that appears to be rated for 5 amps. Do you have any experience with this battery or can you provide any feedback on it's adequacy for this mount? Thanks again!

[@captgbakos1291]

@@cryptojihadi265 I switched my order to High Point Scientific since th hey have them in stock and it arrived last night. Looks like they are starting to flow back into th he vendors. So happy.

[@anthonymistrulli5774]

I lost one of the washers that fit in one of the screws that holds the telescope to the mount in the saddle plate. Can’t find the exact size. I’m using something a little bigger but not the right one.

[@RicardoSilva-yj1bk]

After a long time waiting for it, I received my EQ6R-PRO this week (March/2021) and, unfortunately, I am one of those that a simple USB A to B printer cable doesn't work with the mount (yet). I wish I could have had that information up front and available in the instruction manual, their website, anywhere, so I could have bought the EQMod cable before hand. Now, I have to wait a couple of weeks to get that cable to test with the ASIAir Pro and figure out whether that would work.

[@chrisstrobel3439]

Did you try a different brand cable? You should be able to go straight from the USB plug on your mount to your computer/ASIair Pro.

[@TheImprovisations]

Setting the correct baud rate is crucial. Did you do that?

[@frankskeen1310]

Question? If I get an EQ6-R mount can I put it on a HEQ5PRO tripod if i enlarge the center hole to put the larger bolt thru tripod head into the base of the EQ6R mount.. Reason is I aready have the HEQ5Pro tripod head set in concrete elevated to allow me to put the attachment bolt thru the tripod head. Sound weird but it works in my observatory on a permanent concrete pier.

[@shibumi5210]

Can a Celestron external wi-fi unit be used with this and other mounts?

[@ricardoabh3242]

PE? Arcsecond and with auto guider better?

[@joelcody418]

My I request captions or a transcript of these broadcasts? I'm am deaf and it is very difficult to follow along

[@xxxXXXCH04XXXxxx]

There are subs

[@PafMedic]

An Illuminator On The Eqm35Pro Wouldve Been Nice..Why Would You Not Have Included That🤦🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️

[@FocusAstronomy]

Because it does not fit as was stated in the episode.

[@PafMedic]

@@FocusAstronomy ,So Whats Your Suggestion On Easier Polar Aligning W/O Being a Contortionist

[@SkyWatcherUSA]

@@PafMedic for imaging the QHY Polemaster is excellent.

[@andrewweller5119]

Great vide this one.

[@TheImprovisations]

My mount is definitely misbehaving, and it has been so from the start. The guding graph have short sections where it looks like pretty flat, and then it jumps of several arc seconds, both axes do this, and it doesnt really look like the guiding pulse is able to bring them back in line, or at least it takes a very long time. And it does not take many seconds for it to jump of again, in the same direct or different direction. There's lots of bits and sheddings of the belt in the belt drive compartments . As the mount is a few months old and still under warranty I do not dare performing a teardown and rebuild. My experience dealing with Skywatcher for support is the worst part in all of this though. It has been over a month since I got a reply from them. They say they do not have the time to deal with my issues. Maybe someday I'll get help, *fingers crossed*... This is in dealing with one the European distributors of Skywatchers mounts. Skywatcher USA seems great though!

[@SkyWatcherUSA]

Hi Simon. Let us know who you're dealing with in Europe. Send us an email at [e-mail].

[@TheImprovisations]

​@@SkyWatcherUSA Hello there, I followed your suggestion and sent you an email to the address that you supplied. About a week has now passed and I have not seen a reply from you.

[@SkyWatcherUSA]

@@TheImprovisations Are you sure you sent it to skywatcher USA? If it is not specifically sent to the USA email address it will disappear into a black hole.

[@TheImprovisations]

@@SkyWatcherUSA Hmm. I did use the email address you supplied to me, somehow the email ended up at Celestron Helpdesk. They later on were able to inform me that my case had been marked as "closed" by Skywatcher, and suggested I should try to contact you again. I then, made a second attempt to contact you. This time I actually recieved a reply from Skywatcher, where I was told that : "...We have no connection to any of the Dealers in Europe. We only handle North America (US and Canada). I'm sorry you're having an issue with technical support over there..." So, what should I do?

[@SkyWatcherUSA]

@@TheImprovisations I'm sorry you are having these issues. If you were in North America we would have you send it in for either service or replacement. Because you are in Europe you need to deal directly with the dealer from which you purchased the mount. At the very least they should offer to replace the mount or provide a refund. Best of luck, sorry we couldn't do more from here.

[@mesample1705]

I have owned my EQ6-R for 14 months. I liked this presentation until about minute 56. Telling users don't be concerned that the PHD2 tracking is not as important as the images, is used car salesmen talk. I'm a retired engineer with years of quality experience. If high frequency tracking error is evident in the graph the FWHM will be higher and image detail will be reduced. Also telling the listener that you carry components if some board gets damaged is either inaccurate or High Point Scientific is misrepresenting Sky-Watcher. The cable interface board on the SynScan hand controller, per High Point Scientific is not available for replacement. The entire hand controller must be replaced.

[@SkyWatcherUSA]

You are more than welcome to analyze the data coming off PHD2 anyway you like. But the goal is to get pin point stars in your image. FWHM is all well and good but it all comes down to your systems resolving power and your local seeing conditions. If your stars look good that is fundamentally what matters. As far as parts, we offer all the high demand parts but some components are easier to replace as a whole such as the controller. We cannot stock every last part but we do have the parts on hand to address many of the major issues.

[@compubyte2010]

as a retired engineer.. you can just build your own !! or repair it. by removing bad components on the board and replacing them.. as an engineer you should know how the principle behind this? I can't tell you how many parts i've been unable to find or get. and had to create a board for something. and purchase parts from Bangood or AliExpress. That aside, I do agree with you that telling folks PHD2 tracking isn't important may be incorrect to say! !! However, he did state. to use the ST4 for better guiding. so I get it.. he's not a fan of using 3rd party apps..

[@mesample1705]

@@compubyte2010 If I know the component which needing replaced, I would have. The failure put a dimple and crack on the chip top center, so it could not be identified visually. SynScan was not providing schematics for that product, so I was stuck. I hear from all other sources that ST4 guiding is not preferred over PHD2 as PHD2 and other 3rd party applications learn from tracking performance what error should be expected when such error is somewhat periodic. Their predictive AI outperforms PEC. Perhaps he recommends ST4 over using 3rd party software due to their added complexity and hence more troubleshooting for beginners.

[@muuraa1]

This dude just said that st4 is the better, more stable way to guide. 😂😂😂

[@RobB_VK6ES]

Probably towing company policy. it eliminates a whole hardware/software loop from guiding issues.

[@SkyWatcherUSA]

You're welcome to guide however you want.

[@r.fortner4661]

@@SkyWatcherUSA It was an interesting statement that made me widen my eyes. Ive always heard that ASCOM guiding was always better. But your statement indicated there was a technical reason that ST4 was better. Was that only in cases where the computer and software with PHD2 could be old and slow?

[@SkyWatcherUSA]

@@r.fortner4661 We find USB connections to do a nice job but serial is a much more solid connection and therefore less likely to drop connection over time.

[@compubyte2010]

I think it's a silly thing to include the counterweights with the Tripod !! FOR those of us NOT using the tripod. WE have to now Purchase the weights SEPARATELY? which is not cool, that they don't come WITH what they are intended to use with the MOUNT. a LOT of us are sticking these on Piers ( permanent and portable ) so we don't have to deal with the legs and counterweights getting in the way. they should be included with the MOUNT .. NOT the tripod !! They are for balancing the MOUNT. not the Tripod !! Took me forever to find a New one that I could purchase without the Tripod.. cost me $1k for it. but the savings will go into upgrades .. I realize you do it this way to FORCE people to purchase your Tripod. SHAME ON YOU !!!

[@SkyWatcherUSA]

Hi there, the EQ6-R mount doesn't actually sell separately from the tripod originally. It's a package deal.