Polars Mount Tracking

Greetings all,

I have a somewhat unusual situation. I recently bought a Polaris mount from a local dealer. He had a brand new SD-1 RA motor for it as well. When I tried it last night it didn't seem to be tracking well.

After several thoughts, I realized the motor was tracking in reverse i.e., setting the tracking for South fixed the problem. So I then compared the direction of motor rotation on the SP to my CG4 and, sure enough, the SD-1 motor was tracking in reverse.

Today I went back to the dealer who had two other SD-1 motors, all tracked in reverse. The CG4 motor rotates clockwise for the North setting, but the SD-1 tracks counter clockwise in North.

Anyone else encounter this issue? Anyone know what's going on here?

By the way, this SP is mint and what a wonderfully made instrument (except for reverse tracking). The build quality is in another league. To bad Vixen didn't continue to make this smaller version of the Super Polaris/Great Polaris mount.

Thanks,
john

John:

I've had one of these great little mounts for about 6 years now. It holds my Brandon 94 APO and makes for a great grab-n-go package.

I don't know WHY this these drives do this because mine did too. I discovered simply mounting the motor on the opposite side solved the issue, otherwise I left my drive controller switch in the "S" position.

FYI- If you are handy with simple tools, and want to experiement with making your mount a GO-TO, check out Gary Russell's website. He has a couple kits consisting of Meade Starfinder controllers and motors. I recently bought the kit with motor mounts and adaptors, and modified it to fit my mount. I haven't tried the GO-TO part yet, but even without it, its handy to have dual drives with selectible slew speeds. It does take some changing of the drive ratios in the controller's set-up menu, but it tracks great! The only warning is the drive's motor uses plastic gears which cannot take much in the way of unbalanced loads. Shear a tooth and you must replace the whole motor albiet at only $10. Telescope Warehouse has the replacements.

Clear and nicely tracking skies.
Tom M