A really dumb question from a confused newbie

I still continue my struggle with my Orion Skyview Pro 120 mm EQ dual axis drive scope. I can't seem to get the drives to track. So I'm backing up from the start here to see if I'm overlooking maybe the simplest solutions to my problem. Any help and advice anyone can provide will be greatly appreciated.

So I get the scope and RA axis polar aligned. The tripod and scope and RA axis are all pointing north and polaris is in view in the eyepiece. At this point, I still don't have the drives turned on. At what point do I turn the drives on? I know to keep the switch on the drive on the "N" position, the clutches are engaged, the gears aren't too tight, and fresh batteries are in the powerpack.

Now I want to move my view from sighting Polaris to looking at Arcturus or any other star that is 90 degrees from my view of Polaris. To do this, I have to move my optical tube 90 degrees from its current sighting of Polaris. How do I do this without "ruining" my polar alignment and how do the tracking drives know what to keep in alignment and that the view has changed from Polaris to Arcturus or any other star?

I just don't seem to understand what mechanism is telling the drive to actually "start" and that it was aligned with Polaris but now it's pointing to Arcturus and that it now must keep Arcturus in the center of the eyepiece.

As it is now, the automatic tracking of the drives aren't working for me, but the manual "push buttons" on the controller do move the RA and DEC axis when I push the controller buttons. My problem seems to be with the alignment issue, the principle behind it and how it relates to the dual axis drives operations, and how to get it to actually track something that isn't pointed north.

I know this must seem like a really dumb question, but I can guarantee you that as I learn more about this wonderful hobby, I'll come up with even more spectacular dumb questions.

Thanks in advance for all your help and suggestions.

Also, make sure the tube is ballanced. Sometimes "from the factory" is only approximate, and it could be if things aren't ballanced enough that the motors aren't strong enough. The problem is usually with the tube mounting point. I use 4 oz. nails and velcro on one of my scopes, but I am sure there are prettier solutions.

Charlie

Bruce,

The act of polar alignment insures that the RA axis of the mount is aimed at the north pole, since that is the point in the sky that everything else rotates around. Once that is done, as long as you don't move the tripod, the mount is still polar aligned regardless of where the scope is pointing. Polar alignment refers to the mount, not the optical tube.

Now you can disengage the clutches and move the tube manually or use the controller and let the motors move it to point anywhere you want. As long as the RA clutch is reengaged and the motor is running, whatever is in the eyepiece should remain in the eyepiece as it progresses overhead from east to west. RA motion is all that's required to track. Declination motors are only useful (on an EQ mount, alt-az is another story) to slew the scope to different objects, since the declination of an object doesn't change as it moves overhead, only the RA changes.

I think you are confusing a motorized tracking scope (like your Skyview Pro EQ) with a computerized goto scope (like a Celestron Nexstar, Meade LX or ETX, etc.) which does need alignment to know exactly what point in the sky, RA and dec, that it is pointing to. Tracking doesn't care where it's pointing. You point it at whatever you want to look at and all it needs to know is how fast to move from east to west to keep up with the earth's rotation.

Now for the short answer:

1) polar align as you have done

2) point the scope at whatever you want to look at

3) engage the RA clutch

4) turn the motor on and leave it on

5) enjoy the view!

If everything is working, the view through the eyepiece should stay the same. If objects are drifting across the view, either you're not truly polar aligned, or the motor isn't running, or the clutch is not engaged. Some slight drift over longer periods of time (minutes vs seconds) could be attributed to the motor running slightly fast or slow, but this can be adjusted.

Jeff