Clock Drive

clock drive

[′kläk ‚drīv] (engineering) The mechanism that causes an equatorial telescope to revolve about its polar axis so that it keeps the same star in its field of view.

Clock Drive

 

in astronomy, a mechanism of a telescope mounting designed to rotate the telescope at a constant speed about its polar axis—one turn for each sidereal day—to allow the telescope to track a celestial body being observed.