Help with my motor drive

[ajc0502 1]

Hi everyone!

I've recently bought a R.A Motor Drive and it's meant to track the object so it stays in the FOV but it seems to make the object move up!

I don't know why?

Please help,

ajc0502

[CraigT82 2,897]

Seems like a sillyquestion but have you definitely got it attached to the RA axis and not the dec axis?

If so, have you got it switched to N (for northern hemisphere)

[ajc0502 1]

Yes everything is set right but it goes up no matter how much I change the speed

[johnfosteruk 12,438]

Another silly question - have you set your latitude and aligned your RA axis to north? 

And what object are you talking about. I've found I can get pretty good tracking with stars and dsos but solar system objects will still drift a little. 

[Cornelius Varley 2,751]

13 minutes ago, ajc0502 said:

Yes everything is set right but it goes up no matter how much I change the speed

Could you post a couple of photos of the drive attached to your mount ?

[Cornelius Varley 2,751]

Might be a silly question. Have you put a battery in the drive ?

[Roy Challen 1,000]

Sounds like a polar alignment error to me.

[ajc0502 1]

Yes I've done most of it. I've set my latitude to about 51 degrees (where I live) and I may need a recap on how to align the scope to the north.

And yes of course there's a battery in it, here are some pictures

Thanks

[michael8554 1,286]

If the star still drifts up, as you have described, with your ra drive switched off, then as mentioned you have a PA error.

Michael

[spaceboy 1,583]

This may help http://www.astro-baby.com/simplepolar/simple_polar_alignment.htm although I'm not sure the EQ2 is capable of accurate polar alignment so your always going to have a small amount of drift which will be more noticeable the higher the magnification.

HTH

Edited July 12, 2016 by spaceboy