Self align eq mount?

Hi guys,

With meade having this true north and leveling technology, when will be the day we can have a self align eq mount?

Not just a GOTO eq mount (LXD55,75, etc), but one which can align to the North celestial pole with reasonable accuracy for astrophotography. I am at the equator and I can't see Polaris. So it's all guessing and compass work to align the eq mount at the start. I believe those in the southern hemisphere are not having easy life with eq mount either.

Arrghh...when is the day we can have that?

I would think it would be fairly simple. Put a motor on the azimuth and elevation adjustments. Then in a similar fashion to a Dob Driver II setup, use the keypad to keep an object centered. The computer decides what adjustments to make in the alt/elevation world to cancel out the non-sidereal motion. Or, to keep with a walk then run theme, you very roughly align, center a star, let 5 minutes pass and then recenter the star. The computer adjusts the alt/az motors to account for the error. Do it again for a longer period of time for a more accurate alignment.

I'm a dob guy and know nothing about eq mounts, so I suspect I am not even close on this one. But I'm waiting for my daughter to finish her nightly reading so I can say good night and this is the only interesting thread that I found. Besides the politics forum

Tom