scope drifting

[hobbit]

I'm trying to take some shots of the moon with the AVX mount and when looking through the 2.5 powermate, the image is drifting at quite noticeable rate. I've checked that tracking speed is set to lunar but it doesn't seem to be helping. Any Ideas?

Thanks.
Pete.

[Amaranthus]

Confirmed that you are polar aligned correctly?

[hobbit]

Actually that's probably it.

[raymo]

Unfortunately there is a price to pay for the extra magnification. The 2.5x
Powermate will increase the rate of object drift in the eyepiece by 2.5x,
as it effectively increases the scopes focal length by 2.5x. Polar alignment becomes ever more critical as the focal length is increased.
Setting lunar tracking rate won't help with your problem, as the Lunar rate is only very slightly different to the sidereal rate.
I suggest that you become competent at polar alignment at the scope's
native focal length before using a Powermate for imaging.
raymo