Eq3/5 slewing with dual axis motors?

[jimjam11]

I notice in the spec of the celestron cg5 manual it states a maximum slew of 3deg per second which is something like 700x slew speed. I assume most of the goto mounts slew at similar speeds.

If the dual axis kits for the eq3/5 slew at a maximum of 8x and installing the motor effectively locks the ra slow motion knob how do you actually slew to something with any precision? Unlocking the clutch works for large changes but when you get down to the last few ra minutes it seems too easy to miss with the clutch unlocked and with the handset it takes forever. E.g 20mins of ra takes 2.5mins with the handset compared to seconds with the slow-mo knob?

Given the dec knob has a quick release nut I cannot help but feel I am slewing incorrectly to find things because this way seems so slow or hit/miss and resorting to the fiddly Allen key to disengage the ra motor seems even worse?

[Cornelius Varley]

Thats how you do it with the dual axis drives. Unlock the clutches and manually slew the telescope around to the new target, roughly align it using the finderscope, lock the clutches and then fine tune using the drives.

[WaveSoarer]

I have the SW dual axis motors for my EQ5. There should be a clutch on the drive cogs for both the RA and DEC motors so you can still use the fine adjust knobs when you're line up on an object. What I do is disengage the main clutches (levers) for the RA and DEC axes and slew the telescope by hand until I'm pointing at the object, using the finder scope to line up, and then fine tune with the main clutches engaged using the fine adjustment knobs. I then go to the main scope and do any final tweaking and then I tighten up the drive cog clutches and switch on the drive control box so the telescope starts tracking. I only then use the slew buttons to tweak the alignment - particularly when I start using a higher power EP. I wouldn't slew between objects using the motors unless they were very close.

[cantharis]

Yes, declutch and navigate by hand until you are nearly there.