The difference between...

[Connor]

motor drive scopes and goto scopes? I'm really confused

[John]

Motor driven scopes will track an astro object once the scope has been pointed to it by the observer. A GOTO scope, once set up properly, will actually point the scope to the right part of the sky for an object selected by the observer, and then track it.

[Astrogeordie]

Hi Connor,

the difference is that a motor driven scope allows to track an object and to slew around manually by pressing a button. They come either as single drive for tracking in right ascension only, or as dual drive to allow corrections in declination and to allow moving across an object. So you can use the dual axis drive to "fly above the moon" at high magnification which is really fun.

GOTO scopes go further. A built in computer with a data base uses the dual axis drive to slew to an object of your choice. Once the computer knows, where the telescope points at and how the axles are oriented, it drives to the object either by counting the steps of the stepper motor or by reading out encoders that are built into the motors.

While a GOTO telescope can track as well, a tracking scope is not necessarely a GOTO one.

EDIT: John was faster !

[Moonshane]

hi Connor. a motor drive just tracks something (either with one motor or two motors) once you have found it in the eyepiece. a GOTO also has motors and does track (and may even indicate what something is if you happen upon it manually?? not sure about this) but there's a library of computer stored objects which once the mount and goto functions are set up properly, can point at many thousands of objects. my issues with goto are as follows (and these are based on the experiences relayed by others as I have never used goto):

cheaper gotos can sometimes be either inaccurate or tricky to set up

smaller apertures might be pointing at a target but unless you have very dark skies or the right filter you may not be able to see it

funding the goto motors etc takes away a portion of the value in the optics so you tend to be able to afford a smaller scope with goto than without if you have a fixed budget.

personally, part of the challenge for me is finding things which are tricky, manually. for some, working through a long list of objects is fine but I like to take my time. there's room for everyone.

if you are imaging then goto is often essential, but I don't image.

hope this is clear.

[Bizibilder]

A motor drive scope has a motor (usually one but it can be two for the two axis of movement) that moves the scope to follow the stars as they move across the sky (They don't actually move - its the rotation of the Earth that makes them appear to move!!). You point the scope at the object of interest and then turn the motor on to "follow it".

A goto scope has motors on both axis BUT it also has either has a computer within the controlling handset or an external computer that can control the motors. You do not point the scope yourself, you simply tell the scope what you want to look at and the computer moves the scope to that object and then tracks it.

However - you have to go through a "line up" routine first by manually "motoring" the scope to a selection of objects - usually bright stars - and, when each is centered in the eyepiece, you "tell" the computer what it is pointing at. If the computer has enough (usually from 1 to 3) of these fixed points it can calculate where all the other objects are and thus control the positioning of your telescope with some accuracy.

Hope this helps.