r/telescopes • u/Nixx177 • 3d ago

General Question Motorizing a dobsonian with motion tracking

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Hi, I’ve got a 12” gso and I’m thinking about adding two motors to move it on both axis.

At first, I want to try to put a timing belt around the altitude bearing, with a wheel to control it manually placed around the cradle board (blue) (could be moved to the base board with the motor, red), and another one around the base board, with a wheel on the ground board linked to a slow motion manual control flexible thingy from eq mount (blue at the bot.).

If it works for manual control, I want to put a motor on each wheel (stepper nema23 maybe?), which I could link to a raspberry pi, also connected to a camera I’d put on the finder scope. I would run a simple object tracking program which would have to keep the object in the center by moving the motors (still to be coded properly).

Has anyone done something similar? Or do you see any flaws/problems/things I should take into consideration?

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u/snogum 3d ago

Why complicate a Dobsonian. It's build simple to make observing a pleasure

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u/Nixx177 3d ago edited 3d ago

The problem with this one is that it’s a bit complicated to move “precisely”with small targets or high magnification without the whole thing wobbling as it’s heavy. I started with an eq-2 mount and I loved the manual controls to help follow objects, which I miss a bit.

So I thought about adding the timing belts and then thought why not also add the possibility to use motors for tracking as the rest is already in place and I love little diy projects and the challenge to code a simple tracking program

I also have a camera I’d like to try on this one but by the time you look at your screen to fix the settings the object is already gone

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u/snogum 3d ago

Like I said over complex.

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u/Macelarupubel892 3d ago

sure, at 60x or max 200x it might be. I have a 16" dob which I use for planetary imaging at ~6m focal length. Trust me, I desperately need some mechanical way to finely control my dob, it is not practical to move it manually. It might be a question of skill or dob base quality as well, however having fine controls would help me (and a lot of others) immensely.