Sky Watcher EQ-5

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Sky Watcher EQ-5
[webmaster note: vote moved from description]

Dual axis drives add another 139.00. Identical to the Celestron CG-5 this model has been upgraded this year with a "little" better detail to interior finish and ball bearings on the RA axis. It is smoother than before but the cover interferes for the RA motor and must be removed for smooth operation. Also my motors tracked a little fast. I purchased this mount for a 20 lb 8" scope with attachments another 2 lbs and it does the job.... OK. Much better than the mount that came with the scope.

There is a good tune up page for this mount @ astronomyboy.com . I am going to try some of the suggestions he has there.

The tripod needs to be replaced though with a wood one or pier as the aluminum one is not stable enough to stabilize the scope adequately and results in the mount seeming lighter than it really is. When replaced with a good tripod what a difference.

You can tell if you are getting the new EQ-5 by the tapered slope to the back of the mount as the old one was stepped. I am sure that this made room for the ball bearings.

Did I mention the price?? At $350.00 this is a steal. No other manufacture has a mount that can handle a 20lb scope even near the price. It was well worth a little tuning up to get this mount especially on my budget.

Overall Rating: No Vote
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=127573

Sky Watcher EQ-5
Just about the only thing this mounts has going for it is
the price. I bought one of these with my 9.25 SCT and it was
completely overwhelmed. I now use it for a small refractor
and so long as I keep the mag to 100X it is OK. In order to
even make it usable I had to get a wooden tripod even though
I tried all the tricks to stiffen the thing up. In all honesty
I would not get one of these unless it can with the tube for
a minimal amount of money. THe last gentleman mentioned a
20 Lb load and I'm a bit puzzled by this. My mount was unusable
with a 20 lb tube (damping time > 11 seconds) THe tracking
motor works OK but just. For light duty visual work with a
small scope things are OK just don't push it.

Overall Rating: 6
Performance:6 Ease of Use:8 Value:10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=141376

Sky Watcher EQ-5
I have the CG5, which is the same mount. It all looks impressive when setup but looks are deceiving. The tripod is the real weak point with this mount. I filled the legs with sand to try and reduce the vibrations. However only a new wooden tripod will reduce this problem. Fortunately one is available from TAL which is designed for the CG5/EQ5. Which is handy for those who are useless at DIY.
Others have complained about sticky axis movement due to the use of poor grease. I haven't had this problem. There is an in-depth tutorial on improving this mount at www.astronomyboy.com
I use a 4.7" F8.3 refractor and a 3.1" F5 refractor with this mount. The mount is steady when using either these tube assemblies. The CG5 RA motor tracks well for visual use and okay for 15-20min exposures using a camera piggyback. The dec motor has a bit slack but not too bad. There's also a handy polar scope and bubble level for setting up the mount.
Overall not a bad mount providing its not overloaded or even not taken to its 20lb limit. It works extremely well with the Celestron 80WA (which weighs 8lb) and still a good mount for the Skywatcher 120 F8.3. Wouldn't want to put an 8" and definately not a 9.25" SCT that Celestron bundle with this mount. At the end of the day, if your on a tight budget (£250), then there are really no alteratives. Synta do offer a HDEQ5 (£499) and EQ6 (£750). The highly rated Vixen GP mounts start at £750. So at its price point, its the best mount available.

Overall Rating: 8
Performance:8 Ease of Use:7 Value:8
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=141650

Sky Watcher EQ-5
I bought this mount EQ5 new style about 3 months ago. It is a lot better than the old style EQ5 (I have one of those too that I use for a small refractor). I got this one for an 8" Orion F4 newt (I didn't want the EQ3 that came with the scope). The EQ5 works but only marginally. But the price was good and it is improved with ball bearings on the RA. The good news is it is a lot smoother and with reworking the insides it gets a lot smoother. I didn't do the whole job (according to Astronomy Boy) but cleaned out the old grease and replaced it with a lithium grease and adjusted the worm.

Adding the dual drive motors only cost 139.00 and they work OK. The RA seems to track a little fast so anything much over a couple of minutes exposure is impossible. Also the tripod is almost worthless for the 8" for that matter if your scope weighs over 10 or 12 pounds or so forget the tripod. Damping requires about 20 seconds or so. I bought the red oak to make a wooden tripod and hope to improve it.

Overall the mount itself will handle the 20lbs it is rated for as long as you get rid of the tripod. Expect to work on it though to really get the most out of it. It is just too rough out of the box. But here is the clincher .... With dual axis drives it only costs 400.00 or so. This is a real bargin compared to the others that can handle the weight. If for some reason this one disappeared I would buy another rather than spend the extra money. It is a keeper.

Overall Rating: 8
Performance:7 Ease of Use:9 Value:10
Weight: 5 (Veritable Vote)
Date:
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=142240

Sky Watcher EQ-5
The new eq5 operation, becomes quite smooth&easy after performing the cleanup on astronomyboys site. The internal finishes in the new eq5 were not actually that bad, but the black gunk in it was like a heavy glue mixed with black ink. The metal pod it comes with is total junk, mounted to a real solid tripod or pier it becomes quite a bit better. My next mods will be to change the o-rings in the worms to bushings. Not sure of the weight I am putting on it, I am using the SkyWatcher 2001peq5 newt, with telrad and canon camera usually mounted on it.

Overall Rating: 8
Performance:8 Ease of Use:7 Value:8
Weight: 3 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=168722

Sky Watcher EQ-5
You get what you pay for, the mount itself is not badly made. Synta skimped by using cheep a grease/glue to assemble it, and affixed it to a trash tripod. Fix these oversghts and it performs quite well. The motors seem to work quite well on my unit, and if you clip about 1/8 inch off the dec worm shaft it no longer hits the RA motor housing 8-). It is less that 1/2 the price of a vixen GP and does quite well for itself.

Overall Rating: 9
Performance:8 Ease of Use:9 Value:10
Weight: 5 (Veritable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=168724

Sky Watcher EQ-5
I owned the CG-5 as part of the celestron G8 bundle. It was the newer version with bearings in the RA/Dec unit. I replaced the nice and soft alum legs with my own oak legs. better! I regreased the whole unit. It was VERY dirty inside! like mud! I cleaned the inside with mineral spirit and toothbrush. But still the 11 lbs C8 SCT OTA is too much for the mount. OK for visual use but no more than that! This mount simply doesn't worth 400 bucks! Considering the quality of the mount I think it worth $199 period. I finally sold the mount and now a happy owner of a real GPDX!

Overall Rating: 6
Performance:5 Ease of Use:8 Value:7
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=250275

Sky Watcher EQ-5
I've just got my eq-5 two months ago,I use it coupled with a sky-watcher 120/1000 refractor,the ota weights about 5 kilos and with an aditional 1 kilo for balancing.
It's the new model with stell legs,it has good rigidity and it tracks fairly good,I also do some photography with my 6" newt,the mount allows to do long exposure photos with no problem as long as you keep an eye in the periodic error.
Great photos so far,I'm very plased with this new mount,and what a price!!! This was impossible just a few years ago!
It's products like that who brings new people to our beloved hobby,afordable and very relyable,great stuff.

Overall Rating: 9
Performance:7 Ease of Use:9 Value:10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=365245

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