N-EQ6 and C11 Carbon: My Astrophotography Dream Team!

Unboxing My New Observatory Setup: EQ6 and C11 Carbon!

What a surprise this morning when the Chronospost delivery guy rang the doorbell! I wasn’t expecting any packages today… But seeing the size of the boxes, I immediately knew what it was: My N-EQ6, its tripod, and the C11 Carbon! Three massive boxes!!!

Even before I opened the mount’s box, I could tell this was serious hardware – a totally different beast from my CG5. And unboxing it? Pure joy! The mount looks absolutely massive when you’re used to its little sister (the CG5). The tripod looks similar to the CG5’s, just in a snazzy white instead of black. Within five minutes, the mount was on its tripod, ready for some quick tests before its permanent home on the pier! And the C11 carbon fiber tube? Absolutely gorgeous!

My ultimate goal is to control the mount (and the rest of the observatory) remotely, via computer. So, I immediately dove into a project that every EQ6 owner should know about EQMOD. It’s an ASCOM compatible software that offers complete mount control (GOTO, PARKING, ALIGNMENT…) without needing to touch the hand controller! Exactly what I’ve been dreaming of for my setup. Many folks already use EQMOD with their EQ6 or HEQ5 mounts and seem super happy with it.

To connect the mount to the observatory PC and get EQMOD running, I grabbed an EQDIRECT cable from Pierro Astro. It arrived within a few days, complete with instructions and perfectly packaged. Can’t complain!

Last step, but certainly not the least: mounting the beast onto the concrete pier! So, I designed the plans for a pier-to-mount adapter plate, 25cm in diameter and 3cm thick. For this, I used a handy little free software called MiCôSystème. It’s pretty basic, but totally sufficient for my needs. There’s also a Pro version with more advanced features, if you need them.

Danny Loudèche from Astromeca is handling the fabrication of this custom piece. His prices are competitive, he’s super transparent, and he has extensive experience crafting mechanical parts for astronomy. Notably, he’s made several parts for Eric Mouquet’s telescopes – seriously stunning work!

So there you have it. Now, it’s just a waiting game for the steel adapter plate to arrive so I can connect it to the pier, followed by some observatory re-wiring… And a huge thank you again to La Clef des Etoiles and Médas for this incredible gift!