Motorised Azimuth & Altitude

[KyleStoke]

question out of curiosity is there any mounts where instead on manual Alt-Azm knobs its machanical/computorised?

[ronin]

Quite a lot.

In effect any none equitorial goto will be what you describe. The Celestron nexstar's like the 4,5,6 and 8 SE are all motorised Alt/Az.

What are you looking for exactly??

You can buy aftermarket mounts as per the above, TS used to have a number and I expect FLO to have some.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/alt-azimuth.html

Two on the top line.

[KyleStoke]

Sorry I may not of explained properly, I mean on an GEM mount you have the bolts to adjust the azimuth and altitude to polar align and the tend to just be screw in by hand. is there a mount where you can press a button to move them up and down in and out.

Hopefully that explains it better.

[ronin]

If you mean either of the HEQ5 or EQ3 in your details then there is the enhanced motor drives, about £120 I think.

Problem is likely to be that they do not actually move the mount very fast. Fastest is 16x and that is slow in reality. Not sure why they are not faster, maybe the motors cannot handle more steps per whatever unit of time. Most people undo the clutches, move the mount then tighten the clutches and center using the motors. So not really what I myself would expect.

Seems no kit for the HEQ5, this is for the EQ3:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-mounts/sky-watcher-enhanced-dual-axis-handset-upgrade-for-eq3-2.html

There is the full goto Synscan kit also

 

Sorry just realised what I suspect you mean, the adjustments for polar alignment of the mount (??).

If so I cannot think of any. Possible the "force" required is likely to be a bit too great. Likely to need a fair motor and then stepped down to a fine degree.

[John]

I think you mean a motorised polar alignment system ?

There are probably mounts out there that have this facility but I don't know which ones.

 

[KyleStoke]

Hi John 

Yes that is what I mean, it is difficult to adjust the bolts delicately, to me it would make sense to have this motorised but searching the net i cant find anything.

[nightfisher]

I dont think this exists and if it does it is going to be very expensive

[KyleStoke]

Just now, nightfisher said:

I dont think this exists and if it does it is going to be very expensive

Im with you on the not existing part, but i dont see why it would be expensive. There must be a reason they are not about

[John]

Such a mechanism is going to have to be very strong and very, very precise. Once set you don't want the polar axis moving at all despite all the movement of what might be a heavy scope and mount head moving around the RA and DEC axis, wind if the scope is not in an observatory, the changing of accessories etc.. I would imaging that professional observatory scopes have such systems but they might be very expensive to engineer for the leisure astronomer ?

Something like this might have such a facility (I don't know the mount) but look at the price

http://www.mesu-optics.nl/mesu300_en.html

 

[KyleStoke]

10 minutes ago, John said:

Such a mechanism is going to have to be very strong and very, very precise. Once set you don't want the polar axis moving at all despite all the movement of what might be a heavy scope and mount head moving around the RA and DEC axis, wind if the scope is not in an observatory, the changing of accessories etc.. I would imaging that professional observatory scopes have such systems but they might be very expensive to engineer for the leisure astronomer ?

Something like this might have such a facility (I don't know the mount) but look at the price

http://www.mesu-optics.nl/mesu300_en.html

 

Good points well made, I think there would be plenty of small motors powerful enough to move it but having it not then move again may be a big issue.

What if it could be done set in position then locked down somehow, azimuth would be simple with some kind of clamp but not sure about the altitude.

[Peter Drew]

I think the short answer is that there is not generally a call for this facility, your's is the first  mention I've ever seen. High end mounts have a much better engineered means of manually adjusting polar alignment than the rather crude arrangement on the Skywatcher mounts.

[KyleStoke]

Hi Peter

I think i must be extra lazy then Like you say higher end ones are just going to be better, my knobs are terrible on the HEQ5.

[Davey-T]

There was a better custom made mechanical adjustment system for EQ5 / 6 range that appeared a while ago but not seen it mentioned again so may have died a death as it was a very expensive addition.

All that's really needed is a custom made much finer thread on the bolts mounted in steel inserts in the castings but again probably cost too much to implement.

Super precision isn't required anyway is it ? don't know why folk get obsessed with perfect PA.

Dave

[KyleStoke]

1 minute ago, Davey-T said:

There was a better custom made mechanical adjustment system for EQ5 / 6 range that appeared a while ago but not seen it mentioned again so may have died a death as it was a very expensive addition.

All that's really needed is a custom made much finer thread on the bolts mounted in steel inserts in the castings but again probably cost too much to implement.

Super precision isn't required anyway is it ? don't know why folk get obsessed with perfect PA.

Dave

Hi Dave, No I guess it isn't, I just got to thinking when I was trying to turn my altitude bolt and it just wouldn't budge, eventually it did but very reluctantly.

[Davey-T]

1 minute ago, KyleStoke said:

Hi Dave, No I guess it isn't, I just got to thinking when I was trying to turn my altitude bolt and it just wouldn't budge, eventually it did but very reluctantly.

Like most / all mass produced mounts if they don't perform satisfactorily the only way to get peak performance is to strip them down and rebuild them yourself.

All well and good if you have a small engineering workshop, I understand the bolt problem is exacerbated by the slope that the bolt pushes on trying to work at all latitudes and can be optimised for the users latitude and the aluminium covered with stainless steel.

Once it starts wearing away the aluminium it goes rapidly downhill.

Dave

[msh1]

do you mean this 

 

[almcl]

29 minutes ago, KyleStoke said:

 when I was trying to turn my altitude bolt and it just wouldn't budge, eventually it did but very reluctantly.

Not sure if this applies to the HEQ5, but it certainly does to the EQ5, the original bolts are very soft and bend far too easily.  There are better replacments available (EQ5 bolts in an eBay search will probably show several) and it may be worth swapping your original ones? 

[Davey-T]

1 minute ago, almcl said:

Not sure if this applies to the HEQ5, but it certainly does to the EQ5, the original bolts are very soft and bend far too easily.  There are better replacments available (EQ5 bolts in an eBay search will probably show several) and it may be worth swapping your original ones? 

The bolts bend trying to go up the slope, stronger bolts wear away the aluminium instead.

Dave

[Peter Drew]

The tightness of polar elevation pivot bolt is the key to this issue. 

[John]

I was pleased to see that Celestron had installed a much more robust latitude adjustment mechanism and heavy duty bolts on their Advanced VX mount. Better dovetail bolts too.

 

 

[KyleStoke]

msh1 wins they have found exactly what i was on about.

My bolts dont feel soft, possibly have worn away as Davey-T says. To be honest ill just add that to the list of possible issues with it while i try to justify a new mount to the wife. im not sure she will fall for it but you never know

[laudropb]

Good luck trying to convince the wife.

[Devon_Demon]

This is my solution to bendy bolts, allows very fine adjustments 

regards

graham