Motor Drives - Pros and Cons?

[Guest]

I was just wondering what the benefits to using a motor drive on an EQ1 or EQ2 mount would be.  What's the pros and cons?

[Cosmic Geoff]

The 'pro'is that your mount will track, assuming you polar align it with sufficient accuracty for the purpose. The 'con' is that your money might be better spent on something else.  Some time ago I had an EQ-2 class mount and a cheap battery-powered drive for it, and I was not impressed either by the mount or the drive.

[Neil H]

Hi I have an EQ1 with motor love it works well I didn't pay a lot for it got it new from EBay £39 free post got it next day took 2 mins to fit when you use it start it tracking you soon know if it needs to be slower down or made faster

[Phillips6549]

I have this motor on an EQ2 mount.   Polar alignment by eye (& compass) is adequate for visual observing.

The motor just has a little knob to twiddle to set a continuously variable speed.  I find that, with a new battery, you get about the correct tracking rate for stars and planets with the speed dialed back to almost the minimum possible.  As the battery voltage drops you'll need to wind the speed up a bit - just play with it until your target stays in the field of view.

 

There is one very important thing to know however.  There is a switch on the motor to select the hemisphere you're observing from to make the motor turn in the correct direction.  If you're in the Northern hemisphere move the switch to ... S !  Yes! South.  The motor is mounted on the wrong side of the mount (at the factory) and needs to run backwards with respect to its labeling.

 

Clear skies

Mark

[joe aguiar]

once you use tracking you will NOT go back with it again

joejaguar

[ollypenrice]

Another plus is that, when observing with others, you can hand over to the next person without losing the object.

Olly

[carastro]

Quote

Another plus is that, when observing with others, you can hand over to the next person without losing the object.

That's very true, I sometimes do Outreach events where I have a queue of people waiting to look through the scope I am using, which is normally a borrowed non motorised one (I never take my imaging kit with me on a public event), and I have to check the eye piece between every person to make sure the object is still there.

Carole