Need some help ASAP

Newbie here, I have attached a picture of my mount. I received a Galileo 114x900 reflector scope (no longer in business) from a friend and have been starting to do some observing and lunar imaging I would like to fit my mount with motor drives for tracking Can some one help me with some info, I have no idea where to even begin

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Orion and others make motors that can be retrofitted to a mount. That looks like a CG3 or so. Call them and ask them.
Alex

Hi Mike,

This is a "German Equatorial Mount" or GEM. You only need a single drive motor on the polar axis (PA) to track objects. The PA needs to be parallel with the earth's axis-of-rotation in order to track properly. The drive will move the telescope in the same direction that the sky is rotating (due to earth's rotation) which makes the object you're viewing appear to stand still. A rough alignment of the PA is adequate for visual observing by pointing it towards the star Polaris AKA the "North Star". Your picture shows the PA pointed straight up (90-degrees). Once you install a drive motor, you will need to lower the angle of your PA to equal your latitude which is about 43-degrees for Massachusetts and point the PA towards Polaris.

- Tom

Mike,

BEFORE you buy a drive, set your GEM mount correctly and see if the manual control is sufficient for what you want.

You will have to set up the polar axis, also called the Right Ascension axis (RA), in order to track with a motor. When the mount is set up for a single drive motor, it will also be very easy to track by hand using the single slow motion manual RA control. You might as well set up the polar alignment and try the manual control first.

For precise imaging, you are in a whhhhooooooole different ballgame. Your best bet for info on this is to post your telescope and mount picture in the photography forum.
You will want a more accurate polar alignment than what you would need just for visual work. The mount should be in good working order to minimize any slop in movement. You can lightly weight the scope balance to favor slight tension on the drive so that the gear favors the rotation of the worm (your scope has a worm gear for RA).

Well, step 1 is done, I have purchased a ASGT CG5 Mount Should be arriving soon, next up is a Celestron c8 OTA (plus ring mounting hardware) the a Meade DSI II or III mono is being searched for!

Ok I have upgrade my equipment since I posted this, tell me what you think please
Equipment purchased:
Celestron ASGT CG5 Mount
Celestron 8” SC OTA
Celestron F6.3 focal reducer/corrector
Meade DSI II pro Monochrome CCD
Meade RGB filters
Farpoint flexible dew shield

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