Sky Watcher HEQ5 Pro Belt Mod

Guiding is always an issue for me. I don’t know why I get spikes sometimes, I don’t know if my balance is on point, I don’t know if my focus is dialed in. So I asked around and someone on Cloudy Nights mentioned a belt mod for the HEQ5 pro mount that I have. It was only a little over 100 bucks so I purchased one from First Light Optics. It arrived and it was time to do some surgery on the mount… I read the instructions (which were very good) and opened up my mount.

Opening up the gear box and motherboard…

Messing with a brand new mount is a little nerve racking and probably stupid… but I did it anyways. Everything was going good until I had to remove one of the pins from the motherboard. It wouldn’t come off. With little force, I accidently broke off the base from the motherboard, damaging it permanently. Wonderful. Otherwise, everything else went fairly smoothly. So I had to call skywatcher and have a new motherboard sent out. 200 dollars later, I finally had the new board and was ready to complete the install.

Completed Rowan Belt mod

So the new motherboard went in without a hitch and I was able to complete the install. I feel much more comfortable with the tracking accuracy of the mount at this point but I still have some tuning to do with the RA and DEC axis. They are a little tight coming from the manufacturer so I need to get in and loosen a few screws. Other than that, I feel like it was an education. I learned about my mount in a pretty unique way and I am happy with the results. Looking forward to using this mount for many years to come!