Automated or Motorised Mount Setup

[SniffTheGlove]

I have been thinking quite a while about this question and wonder why it has not been implemented yet. It may be high end mounts but as I have no access to these magnificent mounts I just have to presume.

What I am referring to is where you have adjustment bolts etc on mounts and swap these over to a stepper motor adjustment bolts.

Take my EQ6 for example. If I plonk the tripod down it then takes quite a bit of adjustment to setup the mount perfectly for imaging. You have to sit in an uncomfortable position peering up a small poler scope and wrap you arms around the mount to adjust the Az bolts, then you have to tweak the Alt bolt probably several times depending on how smooth or jerky your movements are.

Now it these bolts had small stepper motors on then you could just use a handset to control the Az/Alt bolts. Even better would then be linking the stepper mounts upto the PC and then have PHP2 do the adjustments automaticly especially when drift align. So much better put to click a button on the PC and the mount aligns up perfectly.

I am sure the manufactures of the mounts could implement this easily (though I expect they would put a heft markup on) and make thing so much eaier especally if you travel to dark sights etc, or maybe an aftermarket addition.

What do others think, am I just being to clever and dreaming

[Gina]

I've been planning to add stepper motors to my NEQ6 for my second imaging rig and using AstroTortilla for PA.  Everything controlled remotely indoors in the warm from the comfort of the settee

[BlueAstra]

On my old EQ6 the altitude bolts were very stiff (even though they had been replaced). I think you need to do the internal mod to add a wedge to the adjustment face to make it easier, otherwise a huge amount of torque is required. You would also need some algorithm to loosen one bolt while tightening the other. Incidentally, once I had replaced the altitude bolts I used the old ones in place of the azimuth bolts. This made altitude and azimuth adjustment very easy with the long levers attached to the ends of the bolts. Putting a webcam on the polar scope helps, and also check the azimuth peg on the tripod is tight since this can also cause problems.

[DrRobin]

I used a webcam to set my polar alignment in the obs, worked really well.  My EQ6 was also very stiff in both Alt and AZ and I doubt a stepper motor would have done the trick.  Also there would be a lot of backlash to cope with.

A better solution would be some type of worm drive.

Actually an even better solution would be to use a guider and multi-point alignment, say 20 -30 points over the region of sky you want to look/image, then with low backlash (preferably zero) you could track well enough for even long exposures.  The really big scopes are Alt/AZ rather than polar mount, okay a lot use a wedge, but there are some that don't and they still track perfectly.

Modern electronics and control equipment could probably overcome all of the set up errors.  I am guessing Celestron's Star Sense has been introduced to perform this exact function.

Robin

[Mukv]

I've been planning to add stepper motors to my NEQ6 for my second imaging rig and using AstroTortilla for PA.  Everything controlled remotely indoors in the warm from the comfort of the settee

Greetings

is there room for two on that sofa?

Andy

[SniffTheGlove]

A good machined worm gear would work well.

I don't know why Synta have not done this.