SkyWatcher EQ6R-pro: User review AFTER 6 MONTHS

I’ve owned the SkyWatcher EQ6R-Pro mount for about 6 months and after engaging in 14 imaging sessions, it’s about time to write a decent user review. There are many things to like about the SkyWatcher EQ6R-Pro. The maximum payload capacity of 20kg (44lbs) allows you to use heavier telescopes, tracking gear, cameras, and other astrophotography gear without any issues. The mount is reliable, it slews accurately to deep-sky targets and tracks them accurately enough to engage in astrophotography. Moreover, the USB 2.0 connection on the mount allows you to remote control the EQ6R-Pro from your laptop or computer without having to use a hand-controller. Another advantage is the belt drives that – in addition to being accurate – are also very quiet when slewing to your target of preference. All this being said, there is one serious design flaw which is the altitude adjustment lever on the back of the EQ6R-Pro to polar align this mount. I’ll explain each of these points in more detail below.

The SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro is available at Agena Astro (USA/WW), High Point Scientific (USA/WW), and Astroshop (EU/WW).

Why I bought the SkyWatcher EQ6R-Pro telescope mount

Before getting into the main pros and cons, let me give you some background on why I choose to buy this mount in the first place. After having used a Celestron Advanced VX equatorial mount for about four years with great satisfaction, it was time to move on to an equatorial mount with a little more ‘punch’.  More precisely, I was looking for an equatorial mount that would be able to carry heavier payloads (>10kg / >25lbs) and accurately track deep sky objects with an apparent diameter of about half a degree or less (i.e. smaller galaxies) in the price range of 1250 to 1750 euros/US dollars. After comparing six equatorial mounts on various aspects such as price, portability, ease of use, payload capacity, and tracking accuracy, I ended up buying the SkyWatcher EQ6R-Pro mount which ticked most of the criteria I was looking for.

But reviewing and buying are one thing, user experience is another. Many reviews on the SkyWatcher EQ6R-Pro appear to be written by persons who were sent this mount to review it for only a couple of days. Although these reviews are somewhat useful, you’ll only notice the little pros and cons after using it for multiple astrophotography sessions in my opinion. So I waited for about 6 months and used the EQ6R-Pro in about 14 different astrophotography sessions before writing this review. I’ll mention some main advantages and disadvantages that I’ve come to experience in the past months since I’ve bought this mount. It may be important to mention that I’m reviewing this mount as an astrophotographer, and not (only) for visual astronomy purposes. Note to U.S. astronomers and astrophotographers: This mount is also available in the USA under the Orion brand as the Orion Atlas II EQ-G mount. Both Orion and SkyWatcher source this mount from the same Chinese factory: Suzhou Synta Optical Technology.

Main Advantages of the SkyWatcher EQ6R-Pro

Payload capacity

There is an unwritten rule in astrophotography that you should not push the mount to its maximum payload capacity. Although the mount would be able to carry the payload, it becomes difficult for the mount to accurately track objects in the night sky when the mount is operating under its maximum weight capacity. Consequently, I was looking for a mount that could carry a bit more weight as compared to my usual payload, in the range of about 15 to 20kg. The SkyWatcher EQ6R-Pro is advertised as a mount that can carry up to 20kg (44lbs) for astronomy and astrophotography purposes. The advertised payload capacity was a bit higher as compared to other, competitive mounts in the same price range such as the CGEMII, CEM40, or the Atlas EQ-G which could all carry 18kg (40lbs). Click here if you’re interested in my full comparison review on these “intermediate” equatorial mounts.

I’m happy to state that, in this respect, the mount didn’t disappoint. I’ve been mounting my bigger telescope: an 8″ F/12 Classical Cassegrain, my tracking gear, filter wheel, and camera(s) on the skywatcher EQ6R-Pro for planetary imaging and deep-sky sessions. I’m happy to report that the mount was perfectly able to handle the weight. The 2x5kg (2x11lbs) counterweights and the sturdy mount head of 17kg (38lbs) never failed to slew to my targets of interest and track them for as long as I wanted. I never had the feeling the mount was unstable, or perhaps too light to carry my astrophotography gear. This being said, my maximum payload capacity is about 10kgs (22lbs), about half of what the mount should be able to carry. However, I have no reason to suspect that adding extra weight would seriously challenge this mount as its performance has been very stable across multiple imaging sessions.

Direct USB 2.0 connectivity

Of course, you could argue that going completely wireless is the way to go in 2020. However, I would argue that I have reached that capability by connecting my EQ6R-Pro to a small mini PC. In turn, this mini PC is part of my wireless network at home and I can remotely access that mini PC from my phone, tablet, or any other computer or laptop – even outside my network – by using Team Viewer. Of course, there are dedicated hardware packages on the market such as the ASIAIR in Europe (astroshop) and the USA (OPT) if you’re interested in such a solution. The issue I have with those packages is that they have their own capturing software which is perhaps good, but I like to have the freedom to choose my own software such as APT, sequence generator pro, PHD2, etc. But I’m wondering off-topic, let’s continue this review :-).

High Tracking Accuracy and (silent) Belt Drive

Again, this is mainly of interest for astrophotographers like myself who want to take multiple multi-minute images of deepsky objects. Before sharing my results across imaging sessions, I need to stress first that tracking accuracy is a highly debated topic in astrophotography. Guiding accuracy depends on a lot of factors, including the weather and seeing conditions on a particular day, the weight of the payload, the degree to which you are able to balance your payload well against your counterweights, how accurate you polar align your mount, and probably also the way in which you have set up your guiding software. This being said, it is useful to get at least some indication of guiding accuracy so let me share my results with you.

I myself was looking for a mount that could track with sub-arc accuracy for multiple minutes to take beautiful images of smaller galaxies and globular clusters. I’m happy to report that the EQ6R-Pro was up for the job. To be completely transparent, I do run Sequence Generator Pro with Plate Solving software, EQMOD, and PHD2 guiding to find and capture targets. If you’re interested in how to set up capturing software such as Sequence Generator Pro, click here for my illustrative guide on how to do this. Using this software, the EQ6R-Pro was always able to plate solve deep-sky objects and track them for multiple minutes with sub-arc accuracy. Many nights showed an average periodic error of around 0.5 to 0.7 for both the RA and DEC axes, so I have to say that I’m very impressed by the tracking and guiding capabilities of the SkyWatcher EQ6R-Pro. Another big plus is the silence with which the EQ6R-Pro is slewing towards its objects in the night sky. I live in a heavily populated area in the city, so it’s important for me to engage in my astrophotography addiction without waking up the neighbors :-). Luckily, the EQ6R-Pro comes with belt drives that – in addition to being highly accurate in their tracking due to PPEC and what not – are VERY quiet.

Main disadvantages of the EQ6R-Pro

Very Poor Altitude Adjustment during Polar Alignment

Actually, I can only think of two disadvantages that I’ve experienced over the past couple of months. The first one is pretty annoying though. I’ve run into serious issues when polar aligning my mount. Setting up the mount is pretty standard, and easy when you’ve already had some experience in how to set up and polar align an equatorial mount. The handle on the 17kg mount head does help to carry the mount outside. If you have little experience in setting up an equatorial mount, please check out my blog on how to set up and polar align an equatorial mount here. The EQ6R-Pro also comes with an illuminated polar scope, which is nice of course. The main problem is when you engage in polar alignment. In particular, the altitude adjustment lever on the back of the mount has – in my opinion – a serious design flaw. In order to change the latitude of your mount, you’ll need to loosen up the altitude bolt in front of the mount – this is easy – after which you have to push-in the lever at the backside of the EQ6R-Pro which has a spring, and then rotate that lever while you’ll have to keep on pressing that lever. However, about 50% of the time, the lever doesn’t connect to the thread of the mount and consequently, nothing happens. This is very annoying when you want to achieve a a highly accurate polar alignment. Moreover, the lever is pretty large, and being at 52 degrees latitude, this only gives me a very small manoeuvering space to rotate the lever (about 45 degrees max, after which I bump into my telescope or the leg of the tripod). I’ve reached out to other astrophotographers like Chuck – a well-known astrophotographer from Detroit (see: Chuck’s astrophotography) – and others are annoyed by this poor design as well. I’ve tried to solve the issue by putting the lever in front of the mount and putting the bolt on the back-end. Unfortunately, that didn’t work because the lever and screw in the back with the lever ahve a different size compared to the bolt and screw in front of the mount. All taken together, it is pretty annoying when you have to go through polar alignment. When you do reach polar alignment though, the mount performs really well.

Loose Belt Drive on Arrival!

This might be somewhat of an isolated incident, but my new, out of the box SkyWatcher EQ6R-Pro had a loose belt drive on arrival…After setting my mount up for the first time and after a couple of slews, one of the belt drives stopped functioning. After inspection the next day by opening up the gears, it quickly became clear that the ring that supposed to keep to belt drive in place had fallen off. After googling “loose belt drive EQ6R-Pro” it became clear to me that I was not the only one who had suffered this feat, so it appears that my experience was not an isolated incident. I was able to fix the belt drive by putting a new ring in front of the belt with some Teflon tape and I didn’t experience any issues since. Of course, I could have sent it back to the shop but – due to COVID-19 and long waiting time – I decided to fix the belt drive myself. My main point, however, is that when customers are seriously investing in a high-quality mount such as this SkyWatcher EQ6R-Pro, these kinds of things shouldn’t happen. So SkyWatcher, if you’re reading this, please check your expensive equipment for any defects before sending it to your beloved customers as it will hurt your brand, thank you very much! If you’re interested in my first night that turned into a first fight, you’re welcome to watch this video.

Conclusion

So would I recommend this mount to my fellow astrophotographers who worked so hard for this mount? Due to the two issues I’ve experienced, I cannot say “yes” wholeheartedly. Let me stress that – considering the price – you do get a lot of value when you are buying the SkyWatcher EQ6R-Pro. There are many things to like such as the high payload capacity that allows you to engage in your favorite hobby with heavy astrophotography gear, the direct USB 2.0 connection that allows you to remote control this mount without the use of a hand controller, and the highly accurate and silent belt drives are all very positive aspects of the EQ6R-Pro. However, I cannot ignore the two issues I’ve experienced over the past couple of months. The loose belt drive was a mistake that SkyWatcher will hopefully fix in future production of their beloved EQ6R-Pro. However, the polar alignment issue is – in my opinion – a serious design flaw and an annoying one, as you’ll have to go through polar alignment every time when setting up this mount. So I’ll write this directly to SkyWatcher: When you’re reading this, please try to improve the design of your latitude adjustment on the mount and perform a high-quality check before sending the EQ6R-Pro to your customers :-)! If SkyWatcher is able to fixes both of these issues, I would say that the SkyWatcher EQ6R-Pro is probably one of the most competitive mounts on the market that offers a lot of value to both visual astronomers and astrophotographers alike!

I hope this review was useful for you, if you have any comments, please put them in the comment section, I’m happy to respond :-). Clear skies!

The SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro is available at Agena Astro (USA/WW), High Point Scientific (USA/WW), and Astroshop (EU/WW).