Help Needed: Single to Dual Motor Drive for EQ5

[Jeff]

Hi,

I recently purchased a used EQ5 mount to learn the basics of astro photography with a 6" reflector and Meade DSI. The EQ5 mount currently has an RA motor drive and hand controller which work quite nicely.


The advice I'm seeking is as follows:

1. Is it possible to add a Dec motor drive, and a hand contoller with ST4 interface for autoguiding?
2. If so, where can I get a separate Dec-Drive kit from? I've seen RA-Drive kits and Dual-Axis-Drive kits available locally (Bintel, Andrews), but not a separate Dec-Drive kit.
3. Do any of you more experienced folks know of an simple dual axis motor controller with ST4 port that can be hooked up to EQ5 drives for use with an Autoguider?

Cheers,
Jeff

[Ian Robinson]

Try http://www.awrtech.co.uk/g-index.htm and you can probably find what you need here http://www.awrtech.co.uk/awr_cat.htm .



Hope that helps.



Also - I might be wrong - but isn't the the EQ5 a Vixen GP-DX clone ? you might be able to buy a Vixen MT1 motor (if your gearing is 144:1 , which I understand it is ??) and a modified for ST4 DMD2 , or add a STARBOOK retrofit kit.

[Jeff]

Thanks Ian for pointing me in the right direction.
The AWR-Tech and Vixen sites both appear to have heaps of motor/controller options for EQ5 mounts.

Cheers,
Jeff