Celestron Motor Drive for Manual EQ Telescope – AstroMaster, PowerSeeker

It's pretty amazing, I'm just confused a bit on the speed. I'll keep practicing on that and hope I get some good photos in the future of deep sky objects!

This motor came in for me a little over a week ago, and it has stayed on my telescope (Celestron Powerseeker 127EQ) ever since. It has made tracking so much easier and a lot more fun. I do a rough polar alignment when I use the scope so every now and then I have to adjust the declination setting but other than that, the motor simplifies tracking and minimizes the shaking of the telescope caused by constand RA and DEC adjusting. The motor is smoothe unless you crank up the speed but you'll be passing any celestrial objects in the scope anyway. One thing people don't like is that it can limit the range of use because parts of the slow-motion controls on the scope get interfered with by the motor. This can be resolved easily by just removing the cover of the motor unit (which is easy with the two hand screws on the front of it, takes 20 seconds). You then should have full range. The 9V battery that came with it didn't last but a few minutes (I expect that from any 'batteries included' item) and already had a back up. It does make a little hum but I listen to it to help get back to a certain speed for tracking. I'd recommend this for anyone with a Celestron Powerseeker!

The Celestron motor drive is very cool and very, very "small".... Received it overnight.. as usual.. from Amazon.com Had already downloaded the insructions from The Celestron website. so I was familar with the unit and the installation instructions.... Proceeded to install the unit... OH MY!!! the RA shaft is TO BIG for the coupling.. a defective unit.. you say.. bad engineering....I was NOT a Happy Camper ... Called Celsetron "CS" and was greeted with a 20 minute wait.. was finally connected to a fellow.. explained the issue... He said.. I don't know what the problem is as I have a unit right in front of me and the hole is fine.. it should fit the RA shaft with no problem... I mentioned it looked like the hole had a metal sleave which made the diameter to small to fit.. .. Too bad.. He said...send it back.. to us or Amazon.. So.. being a "problem solver" by nature... I removed the coupling from the motor shaft and took a closer look at at the rubber coupling which has two screw holes... one at each end.. I reversed the two screws and it fit.. The screws were assembled in reverse order at the factory... in China..of course.... as they are both the same diameter.. How "nice" for them. So being a good "Amazon" customer... to help save my fellow customers some grief.. I called back to Celesrton and informed them of my findings.. AND... What do you think they said... OH YES... we are aware of that problem.. Well.. it appears I talked to the guy who did not get the memo.. as the second person was female... who knew all about the issue . good job... young lady.. and she expalined the fix... I called to tell them about.. When you receive your unit.. look at the rubber coulping at one end.. if the large finger screw is on the end with a metal sleave .. it is reversed... remove the coupling from the motor shaft . and reverse the screws.. replacing the small "allan set scew" at the end end with the metal sleave... THEN... the other end of the coupling will fit the RA shaft.. the one with the finger screw as as it has a larger diameter. This may sound like "greek"..BUT, when you look at the unit you will understand.. and the unit will function as designed.. If the end with the "finger screw" has no metal sleave..you are "good to go".. I was told a significant number of unts have this flaw.. the luck of the draw...for you Hold your applause.. please

I have purchased two of these, one for use on a Tasco 60mm telescope that I bought three decades ago, and one for use on a much sturdier Celestron - PowerSeeker 80EQ that I bought from Amazon about a year ago. Both of these scopes have equatorial mounts, which are necessary for a motor drive like this. This motor drive fits very well on both of them, since they are very similar. The motor drive comes with two brackets, to fit two different spacings of equatorial mount, and one might be able to make a special bracket if their equatorial mount is a little different. This motor drive takes away the very tedious need to hand turn the adjustment for the right ascension (“time”) axis in order to keep a celestial object in the center of the view as the earth rotates. The drive uses a clock motor, adjustable in its turning speed and strong in its torque, to subtly synchronize the movement of the scope to the movement of the earth. This enables a person to put a camera on a telescope and follow an object smoothly, without the jerking and center fixing that is inevitable when one follows an object using hand adjustments. While I do have a small computerized telescope, adding this motor drive to a manual telescope is simpler, lighter, more compact, and quite similarly satisfying. It isn't that difficult to find an object and focus in on it, if one uses a star chart or program as a guide, but with this drive it is also not difficult to keep the object centered in the scope as the earth continuously turns. What a relief.

I recently bought a Celestron 127eq. So I purchased this with the hope that it would assist me in tracking objects through the night sky as I venture into the realm of astronomy/astrophotography. Here's what I found out. The Good: Cheap - It's definitely cheap compared to your $500-$1000+ motorized equitorial mounts. Lightweight - As far as extra equipment goes, this is a small add-on to improve your telescope without adding a lot of weight. Battery operated - 9 volt batteries are easy and small to carry. Tracking - Well... it tracks. Point your scope at Saturn, or Jupiter, adjust the speed and you're good to go. It will keep your scope pointed at them. The Bad: Construction - It's made from plastic so you get what you pay for. It's going off of a 9 volt battery so you really can't expect too much. Tracking - Yes... I said it tracks but if you're under the impression that this will accurately track for you to be able to take long exposure shots with a dslr attached, it won't. Trying to fine tune the speed to exactly match the rotation of the earth is next to impossible. Strength - Adding the weight of any camera equipment slows the motor down and makes it struggle throwing off your previously set speed. The battery draining also has an effect on it. Conclusion: This is great if you're just wanting to observe things. It does excellent for that. But if you plan on any kind of photography, you would be better off saving up and getting a better tripod and mount. If it seems like everyone says that, it's because they are right. I didn't listen to them and opted for cheaper with this. Well, I came back to say that they were right and I was wrong(I can't believe I just publicly admitted that). You don't wanna be stuck with this. Just get the better mount unless accurate tracking isn't too important for you.

Works great on my Orion 130ST EQ. I had to use Southern hemisphere setting due to way previous owner set up the mount. Worked perfectly after that.

Takes a little time to master but once you learn how to adjust it with very small increments you can keep any stars, clusters, and nebula in view almost motionless if you have setup your Equatorial Mount properly and aligned with the North Star. Planets, The Moon and The Sun will stray just a bit but stay in view MUCH longer than not using this Motor. Great value for the price and like I said it's essential if you intend to do any astrophotography.

I’m not giving this 1star due to its functionality, it’s because Amazon and the Ai recommended this product. This does not work with my Solomark 130 EQ as the Amazon Ai suggests. I could get it to mount, but that would require a bit of modification to both my telescope and the motor mount bracket. That’s not going to happen.

Alles sehr gut

Muy bien equipo para los que no nos conformamos con ver sólo la luna. Se ven los anillos de Saturno a la perfección incluso se ven galaxias y nebulosas con una buena óptica. Las lentes que trae son las propias para iniciarse. Le he acoplado el motor de rotación y va genial

I need to drive my telescope for planet and moon pictures. I've not set up the 10Mpixel camera yet, but manually adjusting the drive speed, gets real close to ideal. Just fine for simply viewing the stars. Ran for hours on a 9 volt battery and still going. Note, you have to readjust the telescope every1/2 hour to avoid interferrence and parts running into each other. Guess a manual telescope is just not made for hours of continuously running on a motorized drive.

On time delivery. Easy to install.

Easily fitted to my Cellestron telescope. Works well. Thought it didn't work at first but the whole reason of this item is to track the movement of planets. Forgot that the movement is so slow. Once I realised this I found it very accurate in following planets. I am more than happy with the purchase.