Sky-Watcher EQ6-R – Fully Computerized GoTo German Equatorial Telescope Mount – Belt-driven, Motorized, Computerized Hand Controller with 42,900+ Celestial Object Database

I have been dying to get a quality go-to mount for astrophotography and have been eyeing this one for a few years now. I was beyond happy to see it on here with Amazon's financing options which for me was better than buying from more specialized dealers. My packages (it comes in two boxes... one for the mount and the other for the tripod) both arrived together and in good condition. In other reviews here on Amazon people described only getting one of the two packages, but that is pretty common no matter who is selling this mount it seems. Regardless, I was happy when I saw the delivery man pull two boxes out of the van (I admit I was watching out my front window for the delivery driver like a kid looking for Santa at Christmas). Once unboxed, everything was easy to put together. Instead of the hand controller, I use my cheap $150 laptop to control the mount with EQMOD, Stellarium, and PHD Guiding (with a guide camera) via an ethernet to USB cable. At some point I will probably upgrade to the ZWO ASIAIR Plus. The EQ6-R Pro is a well known mount with plenty of in-depth reviews on YouTube along with tutorial videos. This is a great go-to mount for its price, payload capacity, durability, and tracking accuracy. In fact, it is probably the best in its class. When properly polar-aligned, and with the use of a guide camera, achieving sub-arcsecond accuracy is easy as long as the payload is within limits. The general rule of thumb for most astrophotography go-to mounts is not to go more than 50-75% of the maximum payload rating. As long as your payload does not weigh more than that, you cannot go wrong buying this mount and it will serve you well for years. I really love the fact this mount has an encoder built in and I can upload my PEC (periodic error correction) information right into the mount (PPEC)... for those who do not know what that means, it means the mount can permanently remember where/when to make certain tracking adjustments and adjust before they happen. (This makes tracking even more accurate) I used PHD Guiding to setup PPEC. There are not a lot of complaints about this model in general. The few common ones generally revolve around the "stiction" from the thick globs of grease used to lubricate the bearings and worm drives. One can feel this when balancing the equipment during setup. There are a number of online tutorials on how to "hypertune" the mount by cleaning off the old grease and applying a better quality lubricant, though, doing so will negate the warranty and are for more advanced users. Another common complaint is that the alt-az screws at the base of the mount that help proper polar alignment can feel awkward and not very smooth, but in the end they do their job. And lastly, for those who will be using this mount in super cold environments and use the hand controller, the LCD display on the controller will stop working if the temperatures fall too low. This is a common problem with telescope hand controllers, though some more expensive mounts do have a heating mechanism behind their controllers to keep the LCD screen working and not freezing. I hope this review helps. Like I said, there are plenty of reviews and tutorials on YouTube on this mount and all it has to offer. Clear Skies!

I’ve had this mount for over a year. It’s perfect! It achieves less than .5 arc seconds guiding accuracy. I love it!

I tried twice to get it from this seller, but both times, I only received the box with the tripod, while the boxes containing the mount were claimed to be lost in transit. Amazon customer service was helpful, but I ended up purchasing from somewhere else.

I had started to do astrophotography in 2022. I started by purchasing the iExos-100 PMC-8 through Explore Scientific. It works, it's fine for what it does, but has an extremely low weight capacity, the gears tend to bind, and there's not a lot of info on how to get it to work with some software. Many users on YouTube seem to have the EQ6R-Pro and were taking beautiful pictures with them, so I decided to take the plunge. This is an entry-level mount...and believe me, this is the one to start with. If you want to do astrophotography, your biggest investment is the mount and you will do fine with this one. The slewing is whisper quiet and immediate; I've not had any backlash at all. You will want to purchase a power adapter to go from the 12v DC to AC, but this is not mandatory (many/most powerstations will have the proper power port). The included handcontrol is very responsive (though setting it up for visual can be a bit tricky) and the mount has an ST4 autoguide port (I don't use this as I run my guide camera through my PC) and a USB connection. The payload of 44 pounds is well above what I currently have, so there is room to breathe (it would appear the limit will be an 8" imaging Newtonian) with a Vixen and Losmandy style mounting bracket. The tripod has 2" legs and is rock solid. The mount is easy to set up and teardown...though with the weight, portability isn't its main selling point. If being used for astrophotography, the mount will need to be set up with your control PC to be used in whatever your control software is (I currently use NINA). This necessitates downloading of ASCOM drivers and EQMOD (well, for PC, at least; I'm unsure for those that use Raspberry PI or ASIAIR). Thankfully, there are a myriad of resources online that make this a breeze. If you are wanting to take pictures of the sky, this is where to start.

I received my EQ6-R three days ago, along with a brand new 155Wh lithium 12V battery to power it. The mount seemed to work ok, but on several occasions while executing a goto command the mount would 'stall' while making a very loud noise. After that the goto alignment was completely off. This happened several times and I thought the mount was defective. The problem turned out to be the battery. This mount will not slew correctly if the voltage drops near or below 11 volts, which is what was happening. A new sealed lead acid battery has solved the issue as the voltage on an SLA is closer to 13 volts. Now that I have a correctly functioning mount I will to some real testing and then update this review. Edit: Having gained some experience with the mount in the field I am upping my initial rating from 4 to 5 stars. This is a very solid and stable mount capable of very accurate guiding. The only drawback is it is heavy, so if you are planning to use this mount at a remote site be sure you are prepared to deal with the weight. You will not find a better astro photography mount for under $2500. I use mine with a C11, which most 'experts' would not recommend. The EQ6-R is more than up to the task.

This was the fourth time I tried ordering this mount. The first three attempts were frustrating (from two sellers who's names started with the letter "A"). Only the mount showed up. No tripod or counterweights, and they can't be purchased separately (Amazon's Customer Service asked me to research if this could be done, where it could be purchased from, what the price is, shipping costs, etc. Frustrating!). I decided to try ordering from a seller with a storefront (Focus Camera LLC), and both boxes showed up, with fast free shipping!. As far as the mount, it's heavy, quiet, and rock solid. I'm an electrical engineer by day, and an amateur astrophotographer by night. This is my upgrade form a SkyWatcher EQ35M Pro which was a good mount, but I am looking for a higher payload capacity and better tracking accuracy. From everything I have read and researched, this mount has a reputation for having both. Slewing current draw with a 12lb payload looks to be around 1.5A at 12Vdc. Less than 0.5A while tracking. I have tested the mount using a 12V 10A capacity power supply, and a 12V 34Ah LiFePO4 battery pack with no motor stalling or slewing issues This is the newer model that includes a separate USB connector on the mount. The documentation for the mount is good, for the SynScan controller it's very good. I use a laptop for controlling my astrophotography setup. The only issue I ran into so far was connecting EQMOD to the mount via the USB port on the mount. This was resolved by setting the baud rate to 115,200. Because of the popularity of this mount, YouTube and astrophotography forums(Cloudy Nights) are great resources for finding information and solutions to any problems I have encountered. As far as tracking performance, I live in the upper midwest, it's winter, and we haven't had a clear night in the last 8 weeks, so I can't comment on that yet. I will update this review once I get a chance to use the mount a few times. Hopefully that won't be too far off...

I ordered this twice, the tripod looks great but with only half the order both times I can't review the mount. Will update if they send the rest.

I bought this mount so I could drive to dark sites and use 8" imaging OTAs. It's a little heavy at about 40lbs for just the head, but definitely manageable. And the handle really shows it's strength as a travel mount. It doesn't come with a case for the head or the tripod, so if you're driving around with this you'll definitely want one. I found the Pelican 1600 to be a great fit for the head, and tripod bags are pretty cheap. You'll want to carry the counterweights separately because they add another 22 lbs together, and you need both for 8" OTAs. Polar alignment is easy enough, but the pattern in the finder scope isn't oriented vertically unless I rotate the R.A. axis to some weird angle. Overall the mount is quiet, study, and accurate. It's probably the best deal in this weight class.