accuracy of Orion Telescopes clock drives

Can anyone comment on the accuracy of Orion Telescopes clock
drived for their EQ series (1 or 2, in particular) tripods?

The drives I am refering to, are EQ-1m, EQ-2m, etc.

I will be using it for 35mm long term (up to an hour) exposures,
with lenses up to 500mm in size.

Thanks,
-Robb

Robb posted:

Can anyone comment on the accuracy of Orion Telescopes clock
drived for their EQ series (1 or 2, in particular) tripods?

The drives I am refering to, are EQ-1m, EQ-2m, etc.

I will be using it for 35mm long term (up to an hour) exposures,
with lenses up to 500mm in size.

They are not well suited for telescopic photography, other than for
"piggy-back" time exposures less than 30 minutes with lenses in the 28mm to
300mm focal length range. They would work for simple normal lens photography,
but beyond a 135mm lens, I have my doubts that they would track well enough
for exposures longer than maybe 10 minutes. The higher-end mounts like the
SkyView Pro would be better. Clear skies to you.
--
David W. Knisely
Prairie Astronomy Club: http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org
Hyde Memorial Observatory: http://www.hydeobservatory.info/

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On Tue, 09 Sep 2003 01:05:24 -0500, David Knisely
wrote:

Robb posted:

Can anyone comment on the accuracy of Orion Telescopes clock
drived for their EQ series (1 or 2, in particular) tripods?

The drives I am refering to, are EQ-1m, EQ-2m, etc.

I will be using it for 35mm long term (up to an hour) exposures,
with lenses up to 500mm in size.

They are not well suited for telescopic photography, other than for
"piggy-back" time exposures less than 30 minutes with lenses in the 28mm to
300mm focal length range. They would work for simple normal lens photography,
but beyond a 135mm lens, I have my doubts that they would track well enough
for exposures longer than maybe 10 minutes. The higher-end mounts like the
SkyView Pro would be better. Clear skies to you.

I haven't found one yet that didn't require guiding at even medium
powers. That's assuming the original alignment is right on.
Typically I spend the time keeping the target star centered in the
railroad tracks. Of course if using an electronic finder with auto
guiding on a star...that's different. It's also more money than I
want to spend.

Roger Halstead (K8RI EN73 & ARRL Life Member)
www.rogerhalstead.com
N833R World's oldest Debonair? (S# CD-2)