What's this

[mayberts]

I'm back with another newbie question

I have a SW explorer 130 with an EQ 2 mount and I have noticed a lever attached to a disk, it move left-right, but does not seem to do anything.

Can anyone tell me what it is for I have attached an image

cheers

Nick

[Rui]

I'm not sure, but probably it's meant to engage or desingage a motor drive, when you eventually install one.

[TheThing]

It is the clutch for engaging/disengaging a motor drive so you can move the scope around without damaging it.

[Keiran]

I bought my brother one of these and it came with the motors etc, I dont understand how this clutch works??? never mind

[TheThing]

On the other end of the clutch is a small nub. When you push the big lever in the picture above in a certain direction, it moves the motor against the springs holding it in place until it disengages from the toothed wheel you can also see in the picture above. This makes it safe to move the scope manually or with the slow motion controls, without stripping gears inside the motor.

When you're ready to track again, you just push the long lever back the other way, the nub moves the motor back into touch with the geared wheel and you start it all up again.

HTH?

[Keiran]

Ahhh... Simple when you no how... thanks Hugh

[TheThing]

No worries. It took me a while with my first scope to work it all out as well. And then I used to pick the tripod up and turn it round to change position (it took a while to grasp polar aligning!)

[mayberts]

Thanks everyone