Astromaster 130eq mount/tripod

[Grog]

Hello,

Does anyone have or has had one of these. It has a motor drive so you can track the night sky. So in order to do this you need to polar align(facing north). The problem is once you're all set up it can be hard to turn the telescope around and point it at objects. The knobs used to tighten and the motor drive get in the way. I've ditched the slow motion cables too as they also get in the way.

Since it doesn't seem to be able to freely move around, seems kinda pointless to have this motor drive feature. My garden is south facing therefore I'm likely to be searching for celestial objects in this direction.

Any advice? Thank you.

[Knighty2112]

Yes, the addition of the motor for tracking was pointless because to move the scope around you had to undo the link that attached to the drive gear. I used to have one years back when i was getting back into astronomy. NeedleSs to say I took it off the scope completely and never used it.

[Chazwozza]

Or just take the scope off the mount spin it 180 then put it back on

[Padraic M]

I have one of those - I tried the motor drive but never figured it out. Whenever I take it out now I just go manual. The mount is very shaky, and there are certain positions where the ra/dec knobs get caught against the setting circles.