GoTo for SW StarAdventurer?

[kbrown]

Hi,

This is probably not feasible at all but I thought I'd ask anyway. Has anyone seen anyone attempting to add GoTo feature of any sort to the SkyWatcher StarAdventurer? I know as a project it would be very ambitious and the result probably wouldn't be awesome but still it's intriguing me. The SA only has RA tracking (quite poor PE btw) and a very slow "slew" backward and forward buttons. With the DEC axis you'd have to get more creative. I have the optional L-Bracket DEC thingy that potentially could be motorised albeit it has rather large backlash on the gearing. Maybe that could be taken into account in software.

Anyhoo, just throwing the idea out there to see what responses I get

[david_taurus83]

It would be easier to get an AZGTi and use the SA wedge and counterweight bar with the AZ in EQ mode.

[wimvb]

With all the extras you’d need to buy and figure out, it’s probably easier to just get an eq3 Pro.

[Avocette]

5 hours ago, david_taurus83 said:

It would be easier to get an AZGTi and use the SA wedge and counterweight bar with the AZ in EQ mode.

Exactly right.... I had planned to buy a Star Adventurer for a small grab & go rig, but then realised how much I would miss GoTo. And then with a RPi4 and Astroberry you can have back-friendly polar alignment and full platesolving.

[Jonk]

I wondered a few months ago why they didn't fit a belt rather than 3 brass cogs - surely better and cheaper?

Anyone fancy doing this?

[jmrp]

A manual GoTo was described using the values for RA/Dec  

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4363903

Alternatively I have done a similar GoTo using the Hour Angle (HA) Circle settings and a graduated setting circle on the Dec bracket - I then use the HA Stellarium value for any DSO

[Brutha]

If you have a 3D printer and fancy a bit of DIY, you could try building one of these:

https://openastrotech.com/

I have the structure built, and am working on the electronics now.

You get goto with the basic electronics, then with Astroberry and a RPi4 you’d get platesolving and other stuff too!