Rob L

I await the results in 3 minutes!

Yes. That seems to be the same with the EQ3-2 dual motors. When you press the left hand RA button in 2x, it just cuts power to the RA motor so that objects drift across in RA due to Earth's rotation. It says something about it in the motor kit booklet I think.

Yep, it says so here http://www.opticalvision.co.uk/documents/39.pdf

"2X"button will rotate the telescope forward at twice the tracking

speed or approxiamately ½º per minute. The left "2X" button stops

all motion and allows stars to drift by at their normal rotation rate

of approx. ¼º per minute. The "8X" buttons allows forward at eight

times the tracking rate (approx. 2º per minute) and the reverse

button move the telescope backwards at seven times the tracking

rate (approx. 1 ¾º per minute).

No worries, seeing as you've been "forced" down the laptop route. Can I also recommend APT www.astroplace.net - APT - Introduction

brilliant piece of software the basic versio is free, and the full version is only a few euros.

Hi Quatermass,

If you haven't ordered the shoestring gpusb then you should take a look at this thread http://stargazerslounge.com/diy-astronomer/81238-simplegpusb-home-brew-auto-guider.html

It's very easy to make and the build cost comes in at under £10. I hadn't done any soldering at all before attempting this - but even I could do it.

It does require Ascom be installed but you don't need to touch it, just install the Ascom software, the driver software written by Sam and PHD and you're away.

The only issue I've found with this is I can't get it to work on 64bit Windows, I've got it working on my wifes laptop with Vista installed and on an old laptop running XP.

Rob

Good luck with it, hope it all goes smoothly.

Aligning the reticle in the polar scope has got to be one of the most difficult and maddening things I've had to do. I swopped out the grub screws on mine for thumb screws (makes it so much easier).

Since doing it I haven't checked it again. I'm too scared, because it's probably found it's way out of alignment again, the thumbscrws are both a blessing and a curse

I'll definitely be giving this a go.

Thanks, Rob.