Skywatcher SynScan GoTo Upgrade Kit for GP + EQ mounts

Sky-Watcher GoTo Upgrade Kit for EQ5 mounts and similar

This upgrade turns your Skywatcher mount into a fully-fledged GoTo mount. Simply choose the desired object via the hand controller and the mount automatically moves to the location at the sky. Through this upgrade, your EQ5 mount gets ready for:

Automatic object positioning with high accuracy.

Very good tracking through powerful and quiet stepper motors.

Astrophotography with automatic tracking and autoguiding (ST4 interface).

The advantages and features of the GoTo upgrade:

Complete scope of delivery for turning your EQ5 directly into a fully-fledged GoTo mount.

Pointing accuracy of approx. 1 arc minute

Selectable positioning speed up to 3.4° per second

Correction speed selectable between 0.25x, 0.5x, 0.75x and 1x

Extensive object data base of 42,900 objects (NGC, Messier, IC, moon and planets)

Any object, like a comet, can be located by using coordinates.

P.E.C. and autoguiding port for astrophotography

Software upgrades via internet

Adaption to other mounts:

You can use the upgrade kit also for other mounts with the same combination of worm and worm gear. The controller will work. The adaption in itself requires somewhat more effort.

Among others, this upgrade fits to:

Celestron Advanced Mount ADM

Vixen GP and SP series

Meade LXD 55, Meade LX 70 and Bresser Mon 2

and similar mounts

Important note about power supply:

To avoid loss of warranty, please use only the power supplies and mobile supplies recommended by us. Especially simple car batteries or sealed lead-acid batteries can lead to an under-supply, which can then damage the sensitive electronics of the mount. Operating a Skywatcher GoTo mount with a non-proprietary power supply not recommended by us is at your own risk. Thank you for your understanding. Here is the link to more information: Notes_power_supply_SK_GoTo_en.pdf

Experiences with the Skywatcher GoTo Upgrade on mounts not from Skywatcher:

I was surprised to some extent by the accuracy of the mount and the GOTO respectively. After 2 1/2 hours of cruising the sky in all directions and from horizon to zenith, the wanted objects were always visible in the eyepiece (24 - 8mm at 50°- 60° apparent field of view!), despite lousy polar alignment. With my old ETX, an object was barely visible in the finder (or not visible at all) after 5-10 GoTo searchings.

A brief note - mounting to Vixen/Meade mounts:

The GoTo Kit fits optimally to Celestron ADM and Skywatcher EQ4/5. Regarding the motors, it also fits perfectly to Vixen GP and Meade/Bresser Mon2. However, these mounts have slightly thicker housings, so the plastic lagging does not close optimally. But that is only cosmetic in nature, as fixing is done via the motors. With a bit of duct tape, lagging can be closed well.

In general, the cogwheels which transmit the power of the motors to the axes should have minimal play, that increases accuracy and reduces the load on the motors.

Important: The large cogwheel of the worm shaft has to be driven by small cogwheel of the motor, not by the large one! The are two screws at the back of the motor flange close to its double cogwheel which can be loosened for allowing these drive cogwheels to be moved laterally. This will allow them to line up.

Customer feedback - attaching the kit to a Vixen SP-DX:

I just have bought the kit in your shop in Munich. Even the internet with various forums didn´t supply an exact manual. I was a little concerned, as the kit is not really cheap ...

In short: it works!

However, one must take care of a few things. First, the supplied screws are not suitable for the Vixen SP-DX. To mount each of the motors, you need one M5/25 mm screw and one M5/65 mm screw (each with hexagon), together with suitable washers. But with them, the motors can be mounted without any problem. It is important in this context to mention that the first mounts of the SP-DX and also the SP (without DX) do NOT have a hole for the screw in the polar axis housing for mounting the RA motor! Then the installation is difficult, as the bar of the motor where the motor could be fixed with headless screws is too small and slim. For this reason, the headless screws cannot hold the bar! Here, something would have to be constructed for the bar with higher effort.

Then there is a minor problem with the cover of the RA motor. It does not fit exactly. Here you can a achieve a precise fit by cautiously planing down the plastic housing.

I hope that I was able to help you and your customers with the question whether the kit is suitable.

Kind regards

Tim Komm