My New Mount - Skywatcher HEQ5

Anyone, that has read some of my previous posts will know that I sometimes comment on the fact I use "incorrect" equipment for DSLR astrophotography. My main gripe being my mount which isn't very stable, suffers from field rotation and doesn't have the best motors. Basically it is rubbish for astrophotography and I really needed something different.

I have had my eyes on a Skywatcher HEQ5 for quite a while as it seems to be a common choice for astrophotography use and it isn't as heavy as some of the bigger mounts like the NEQ6. My version of choice was the HEQ5 Syntrek which is basically the HEQ5 Pro SynScan without the GOTO handset. I basically didn't need the handset as I already have one with my Alt-Az mount plus I plan to use a laptop in the future when using the mount for astrophotography.

However, when looking at some online sites I noticed that there was comments about the Syntrek version being discontinued which horrified me as I didn't want to pay circa £130 more for a handset I didn't need! This meant that my planned Christmas present was now a May Bank Holiday present and I quickly snapped up the last one. After buying it, the mount was actually deleted from First Light Optics' website within 15 minutes!

I have had lots of fun in the kitchen already with it including attaching it to the laptop and controlling it with an Xbox 360 gamepad. All I need now is a nice clear night to really test it out including an attempt at some long exposure photography.