New tripod needed

[happy-kat]

I did not read up on that but my assumption is it knows the tracking speed automatically.

It is slewing speed that I expect you can alter but that is for when you press the buttons and alter where the telescope is pointing.

[Charlie_132]

Oh, yeah that sounds about right

Thank you. I'll let you know how it goes

[Charlie_132]

Hi, just tried that method tonight on the moon and the tracking still does not work. Very frustrating

[happy-kat]

Is it tracking at all?

Is it that the tracking movement is off?

[ronin]

Is there not a Low Slew and High Slew mode ?

And what may be happening is if it is in "High Slew" then it does not track.

Recall reading the manual for these about a year ago for someone and thinking that nothing made sense.

Also something says there is a terrestreal mode and then it is asked not to slew.

My impression was someone tried to save money by using the least number of buttons possible and so functions and states were selected by pressing 2 buttons on what remained.

[happy-kat]

Ah

Top of page 8 talks about turning tracking on and off.

Assume you did the steps outlined in earlier post.

Assume moon in centre fov and it is not tracking press buttons 1a and 2b simultaneously.

However the manual suggests that on turn on tracking is the default setting page 10.

[Charlie_132]

1a and 2b sounds like it could be promising, but then again the mount was beeping twice which is nmeant to mean it is tracking.

Maybe if I turn the tracking off - guessing by pressing 1a and 2b together so it beeps once, then turn it off.

Then level the mount at 0 degrees, aim north, turn on, set to the north star/52degrees, press 2b and 3c, find an object, centre it then press 1a and 2b then see what happens?

Does anyone know a decent object I can look at that will fly out of the fov fairly quickly though? (As the moon has gone from my garden now)

[happy-kat]

Yes why not try turning tacking off and on again. It may beep and flash the light on the buttons. But no point doing this yet as it is a setting per turn on.

In theory doing the above and then 1 and 2 will turn tracking off but then pressing the buttons again together after a pause should turn it on again.

Is it worth checking your clutches are set OK not too tight perhaps.

So I would go through what you have summarised. When it is aimed north the telescope must still be horizontally level at that stage and off.

Slew speed is mentioned on page 5 but out of everything it is clear as mud. I would hazzard a guess it is SET button then 1 button then GO button. 1 alowest speed 5 fastest but I don't think this should affect tracking though.

Is the mount actually trying to track in your goes so far?

Is it trying to track but just not managing to keep the object in view?

If it is trying to track I would perhaps look at is the mount level and is it really pointing at north (when level).

[rolpol]

Hi Charlie, happy-kat pointed me in this direction as I have the Virtuoso mount; unfortunately I don't think I can be of much help as it looks like you're setting it up right (or at least in the same way I did, which may not be the same thing!)

Once I'd entered the latitude mine seemed to track ok automatically, no need to change slew speed. When I am using the scope with power (sometimes don't bother and just resort to 'nudging', if I am looking at something specific for a short time), all I have to do is centre Polaris and switch the power on. I try to get the star as central as possible in my highest mag ep, go off to have a cigarette and swear at the weather forecast, and see if it is still there when I get back. However, I have found the tracking is visual only, I still get lines instead of stars if I mount my dslr on and expose for anything above 10 seconds or so, and of course rotation is an issue too.

Furthermore, if I get the initial centring of Polaris wrong, or do something dumb (like switch the power on, decide not to centre and subsequently forget to switch the tracking off), then the auto-tracking is a definite hindrance, and things disappear very quickly from view. Sometimes I nail it, (like when it kept the moon in view for the hour I spent all goggle-eyed at the eyepiece, only occasionally nudging around when I spotted another crater I wanted to marvel at), sometimes it just doesn't want to play ball and I have to keep recentering.

So, if you are using the power (especially without centring on Polaris) and the mount is not pulling the scope away from what you're looking at (as opposed to the natural drift out of your eyepiece view) then it seems the tracking simply isn't working as you'd feared - sorry to be the bearer of bad news...

[happy-kat]

Old post but I have one of these now. What I have found is that it is very easy to have the clutches too tight. If too tight it drains batteries really fast. Mine is tracking ok but as soon as the batteries are low tracking goes haywire. 

[glowjet]

Do not know the scope. but if it has an external supply socket, perhaps you should consider a regulated power supply, if your observation site is near hand to a power source, or if not, using such as a 17Ah dry cell rechargeable battery, such as the Power_Sonic. There is also the Maplins power tank. Might be a bit of an expensive outlay to start with, but your observing sessions tracking should no longer be effected by batteries running low, you will also be able to stop feeding the beast with batteries in the future