Motor drive / tracking problems on an EQ2 mount

[Astro Adj]

Hi everyone,

I'm slowly getting to grips with my scope and have had some fantastic observing sessions of late. I'm now at the point where I'd like to really study what I'm looking at, especially Jupiter. To help me achieve this I've begun sketching, but in order to do this I need to use a magnification of at least 100x. The problem I'm having is at that magnification the planet moves through the FOV quite quickly which is making sketching tough as I'm constantly adjusting the scope using the control cables.

I have a motor drive that works on the RA axis, but so far I've not really had much luck with it. It seems to slow the speed of the movement, but definitely doesn't eliminate it altogether.

I've had a little think as to what could cause this, and popped a few ideas below:

Poor polar alignment

Poor balancing of scope

Tripod / mount / scope not level

Finally, the other night the drive was making a strange 'clunking' noise every 10 seconds or so, and this was accompanied by a big judder that caused the image to dance around.

Would any of the issues above cause these problems? Or is there something else I'm missing? Any help would be very gratefully received!

[marcos]

Hi,

I'm trying to find a motor drive for my scope and I also have an EQ2 mount.

Could you please tell me where you bought yours?

Thanks!

Marcos

[brantuk]

Try this page for RA motors:

Skywatcher

You should find one for an eq2 mount there.

The mount should be level and polar aligned if you want to do tracking. The cluncking may be due to balance issues or slipping gears. Make sure you know how to balance the mount in both RA and DEC even if you're only tracking in RA. Examine the gears and make sure they are complete (no missing teeth) and properly engaged.

If the cluncking continues then it there may be a problem inside the mount (eg bearings).