I purchased my first telescope many years ago after saving all my spending money for weeks - it was a small refractor, about a 40mm objective, but through it I saw my first view of jupiter, saturn and a few of the larger deep sky objects - I have loved the stars and the night sky ever since.
I recently
returned to active observing and duly purchased a telescope from the local
camera shop, it was an 8" Helios reflector on an EQ3-2 equatorial mount.
I marvelled at these new views in the 8", but danged if it didn't take
me what seemed like all night to actually locate the objects I was trying
to see - my main interest is observing deep sky, galaxies and the like - planets
were no problem, but trying to find a faint object was a major victory - I
realised I was wasting a lot of observing time looking for objects, and with
the British weather, light pollution etc I decided something had to be done
about this!!
I embarked on a hunt for a system I could "bolt on" to my EQ3 mount, which would give me the "goto" ability I had seen splashed all over the many ads in various Astronomy magazines - this was obviously the way to go to save time hunting for those faint objects, however I drew a blank time and again in my search for such a system, which did not appear to exist - certainly non of the main dealers stocked anything that would suit the EQ3 mount, so It was beginning to look like a lost cause until I happened to come across a site operated by a gent by the name of Lenord Stage, who runs a company called "Goto and Tracking Systems" and is based in Arlington, Texas.
I looked at Lenords site and realised my search was basically over -provided he could fit me up with a goto system that would suit the EQ3. A quick email to Lenord brought a speedy reply that he could certainly supply a goto system for the EQ3, plus shipping to the UK was no problem either. I promptly placed my order, and proceded to bombard Lenord with question after question, which he answered quickly, and with legendary patience.
Basically, Lenord supplies a number of systems which he tailors to suit various mounts - Equatorial, Alt Az and Dobsonians are all catered for, the systems are all driven via a cheap laptop computer, which runs Mel Bartels scope drive software, and drives the mount using low cost stepper motors which are attached to a printed circuit board which contains all the electronic "brains" of the system, and was also designed by Mel Bartels - this in turn connects to the laptop via the parallel port. The system is amazingly accurate, and very simple to set up and run.
My goto system duly arrived from the states, and to be honest it was a far smoother transaction than many I've had from the UK - delivery was quick and the goods arrived well packaged and in excellent condition via USPS, I was able to track the shipment practically door to door with the supplied tracking number.
I could
hardly wait to get going - I ordered the Laptop, printed circuit board, stepper
motors and cables from Lenord, I made the brackets to mount everything myself,
and bought the gearheads - these attach to the stepper motors and thus drive
the mount via the slow motion worm shafts.
Lenord pre-installed
and configured the laptop for me, which meant all I had to do was hook up
the cables to the steppers using the supplied 9 pin plugs (again, pre fitted
by Lenord)
and do a
few easy set up routines - you do get a very good manual supplied with the
system, written by a gentleman called Bill
Wiegert, who explains everything in an easy down to earth manner.
The first test of the system was soon to follow, as soon as the weather was remotely OK I was outside like a flash - I switched on the laptop and set up the system following Bill's instructions in the manual (which I had read a dozen times already - but just to make sure....) and when I was done I was ready for my first "goto" - with nail biting anxiety I selected a star from the systems database and pressed the "goto" button on the laptop - the motors hummed sweetly, and the scope slewed across the sky and came to a halt, then the tracking switched on and the RA motor hummed a little as it tracked - I peered into the eyepiece, and was absolutely amazed to see the star I had selected shining away smack in the middle of the eyepiece - I could have done a cartwheel round the garden, I selected another star - whirrrrr, hummm and bingo - smack in the middle again.
This was amazing - this system is deadly accurate, and so smooth it's a joy to use. It never ceases to amaze me as to the accuracy of the system - it truly oozes quality, which I believe you would not find in many commercial offerings.
I strongly recommend you visit Lenords site, there you will find all the information you will need on what he can do, and what is on offer - he has far more than I could mention here, He is a nice guy too - friendly and patient so don't be afraid to ask him about anything on his site - you will find his site is pretty straight forward too, there is a neat "jump" page that takes you straight to what you are looking for.
I recently upgraded my scope to an 8" Celestron SCT, so in the following photo's you will see both the original reflector and the new SCT - the accuracy of the system is just as good with either, although the SCT has a much narrower FOV.
