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 Starmaster™ Portable Telescopes
 Rick Singmaster

Sky Tracker Goto and Drive System


The eyepiece side of the rocker box showing the altitude drive and other components.  Click on the picture to take the Virtual Tour.

The Sky Tracker drive system is the most important advancement in large aperture telescopes for amateur astronomers since John Dobson introduced his mount!  You just can't imagine how cool it is to view Jupiter at 1,000X through a 24" telescope and have it stay in the center of the eyepiece without having to keep nudging the secondary cage.  And the amount of additional detail you can see is amazing!  It's just as amazing on a 14.5" scope, too.

How does it work?
In a word -- Easily!

Simply enter the object you wish to view into the Sky Commander, then push the Goto Button on the Sky Tracker's hand controller.  That's it!  The scope will automatically slew to the object and begin tracking.  If the object is off to one side of the eyepiece, use the arrow keys to center it.

The Sky Tracker operates off a small gel cell battery stored in the rocker box that will run the system for about 8 hours.  The Sky Tracker adds only 11 pounds to the weight of the rocker box and 3 inches to its width.  It's completely self contained -- no wires running from the scope to an external computer or battery to get wrapped around the scope or for you to trip over.

 Want to move to a nearby object?  Switch to Utility Mode and power slew to it.  Then switch back to track mode, no matter where you are in the sky, and the scope will track properly.  When you're done, simply hit the Goto Button and the scope will go back to the last object had entered into the Sky Commander.

Want to do a little old fashioned star hopping?  No problem -- the Sky Tracker does not effect the scope's balance or motions!  All you have to do is turn a small lever to disengage each of the two drive motors and have fun.  When you're finished, reengage the motors, switch back to Track Mode and the scope will keep whatever object is in the eyepiece centered -- no need to realign as the Sky Tracker still know where it is!  And if your hit the Goto Button, it'll go right back to the last object entered into the Sky Commander.

That's the nut shell view.  To learn more, click on any of the pictures to take a  Virtual Tours of the components (Flash plugin required -- if the logo at the top of the page changes colors, you already have it).  All of these pictures are of a 16" scope, but the components and installation are the same for all truss scopes.


The rocker box showing the Azimuth drive and other components.  Click on the picture for a Virtual Tour.

Click Me for a Virtual Tour with FlashThe Sky Tracker's hand controller.  Click on the picture to take a Virtual Tour of its functions.

The hand controller attached conveniently to the secondary cage with Velcro®.


All major components of Starmaster Telescopes are made with pride in the United States of America by small, community based companies.

Note:
-Cancelled orders will be subject to a restocking fee which will be equal to 15% of the BASE price of the telescope, NO EXCEPTIONS.
-Orders are not transferable without permission of Starmaster Telescopes and will be subject to additional fees.
-We are now accepting international orders for telescopes 22" in aperture and under.

For comments or questions about this site, email Starmaster Portable Telescopes.

Rick has a second passion besides astronomy - Click here to see what it is!