Motor Drives or Goto for eq3-2

[CGolder]

I am looking to put either motor drives on single or dual axis, or going full goto on my eq3-2. my eq is literally only used as a stable platform for some webcam imaging on my mak127. the standard az mount is good but very much prone to vibrations.

so assuming i have decent polar alignment and only wish to track solar system objects.. including the moon.. will a single axis drive be enough? what's the point of dual axis? .

if anyone has experience with these drives i would appreciate some advice.

Thanks,

Colin

[Cornelius Varley]

If you are planning on using the mount for imaging the moon, then the dual axis drives have a definite advantage over the single RA drive. With the dual axis drives you can pan across and down the moon without having to move away from the laptop screen to adjust the Dec axis on the mount. The goto drives are a big step up from the basic dual axis drives with more slew speeds and different tracking rates (solar, sidereal and lunar), the single axis and dual axis drives only have a single (sidereal rate) tracking speed plus two other slew rates.

Peter

[Capricorn]

The advantage of dual motors is mainly convenience. A lot easier to use a keypad to move the thing. As said you can look at a laptop or peer down an eyepiece or finder scope while changing targets.

A single motor is about £70, dual motors about £90. So you are not saving a lot and fitting later makes £140.

Being honest is a full goto really worth it on an EQ3-2. Not the best for astrophotography.

[NickH]

I have the NEQ3 with goto and as a compact travelling mount it's superb. Imaging, if you keep the weight very low (I have an WO66 and ST80 on mine) works fine..goto for me was the kicker!

[CGolder]

its a tough one considering the price of the goto upgrade the mount certainly feels solid enough to work well with my mak127. I guess i dont want to buy the motors and wish i brought the goto i dont need the goto for locating objects.