How do auto dobs track?

[jabberwocky]

this may be a silly question but how do auto dobs track?

do you have to align them in the same way as the equivelent goto mount or do you point the base north and they then just move across the sky in relation to the base?

if its the former how much of a faff is the aligning process?

[Wildwood]

I align mine by first centering polaris in the eyepiece. I then lower the scope to level and switch it off. I leave it approx 20 seconds and then turn it back on. From that point forward it will track anything that I point it at. It takes less than two minutes.

[valleyman]

Wildwood is correct,

1. Level the base.....................very important.....I added Kitchen unit feet to mine

2.Set to Polaris in the ep, then take it down to Zero and switch off/switch ON

3. For Auto dob, just find the subject and set to track.......making last movement for East ..............Up and right...................for West............Down and Right.

[ollypenrice]

The principle is that the software has to calculate how far to move up (when east of the Meridian) or down (when west of the Meridian) plus how far to move to the west in order to simulate the arc over which the stars move during the night.

Olly

[Merlin66]

On you could have it on a Poncet platform - align to pole and have full equatorial movement.