EQ-6 / Orion Atlas issues

I know that there are a lot of people using these mounts out there...

A trio of topics for those of you who do.

I notice with my EQ-6 that the Go-To accuracy on planets is not very good. It usually gets in the general area, but is off by a bit. That is not a problem for the brighter planets, but I tried a few times to find Uranus and Neptune and have never been successful. Has anyone else out there has this experience? IT baffles me a little, because the accuracy seems much better on deep-sky objects. I don't have the newest version of the controller and software. The mount is a couple of years old.

Second...When I polar align, i find that I'm not able to align the OTA on Polaris, it is off a little. I've never worried too much about it, but is this something that I should adjust for?

Third...There are three allen screws that tighten down the dovetail mounting area on the end of the declination axis (at 120 degree intervals). These seem to come loose frequently, and I have to re-tighten so that the OTA doesn't start slipping and rotating on its own. Anybody else have this irritating problem, and found a way to solve it?

If your polar axis and OTA axis are not aligned, you will not have accurate GoTo, especially on planets which tend to be off more than deep sky objects due to the difficulty in tracking their positions.

It is your MOUNT that aligns on objects. If your OTA isn't aligned with the mount, then definitely will have problems. Your manual should have told you this (my LXD75 manual does) and there should be alignment procedures as well.

Is your polar scope aligned? You need to be sure it's aligned to the mount to be sure the mount is aligned with Polaris. AFter both are accomplished, align the OTA with Polaris and you should be good to go.