motorising a telescope

[Mr Mag00]

I have taken on a job where we have a Helios telescope on sky scan 2001 mount which i assume is the same as this 'Skyscan 2001 EQ3-2 Mount' having done a little googling.
Now we want to use this in the future for evenings and thought a motor would make things easier. does anybody know what motor we would need and is the correct mount and how can i tell??

thanx in advance.

[carlos_dfc]

Hi

Helios telescopes are the same as 'SkyWatcher' (the name was changed some years ago)
If the mount is the same as the EQ3-2 then these are the motor kits you need...

As you can see - you have the option of a single or dual axis drive system.
All you actually NEED is the single axis drive (RA axis) - as long as you correctly polar-align the mount, the single drive alone will be able to track a star's siderreal motion across the sky.
The second drive (Dec axis) is only required to make minor adjustments, if your target drifts slightly due to inaccurate polar alignment of the mount.

Personally - I have the dual-axis kit for my own EQ3-2, but I only ever use the RA axis drive (I correct the Dec axis manually, on the odd occasion it is neccesary) - I use mine away from home quite often, at a dark site - so I restrict myself to only the one drive for the simple purpose of making the batteries last longer.

If you are unsure as to whether it IS an EQ3-2 or not - if you post a pic I will be able to confirm (or not) ..........and if it isn't, I can probably tell you what the modern mount equivalent is.