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Mel M
member
Reged: 05/04/08
Posts: 50
Loc: southern Oregon
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Using a GM8, I can grab my scope and move it without having to loosen the clutches. What other mounts have similar clutch systems?
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gnowellsct
professor emeritus
Reged: 06/24/09
Posts: 733
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The major lever clutch mounts are CI700, Takahashi, early Astro-physics, and Vixen.
The major non-lever mounts are Losmandy, MI-250, Astro-physics after about 1995. I believe Paramount ME does not have clutches: However, with go-to systems this is somewhat academic, if you move the mount manually the go-to system "loses track of where it is."
This is mainly an issue for non-go-to mounts and their users.
It must be said that Losmandy got out in front of this one and let eveyone know how nice a non-lever system is. There were non-lever systems on the huge honking GEMS of the 1960s, but there seemed to be a temporary movement to clutch levers on the higher end 1980s GEMs. Then Losmandy moved it all back to clutchless.
Greg N
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"Aperture will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no aperture."
featuring selected astrojunk:
bunch o' widefield eyepieces
bunch o' narrowfield eyepieces
couple o' Barlows
couple o' scopes
couple o' mounts
couple o' tripods
and a pier 'n' stuff
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Patrick
Postmaster
Reged: 05/16/03
Posts: 7811
Loc: Franklin, Ohio
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At the GM8 price point, I don't think there are any. Orion Atlas, Sirius, and SVP mounts all have lock knobs. Same with Celestron CG5's, and CGEMS, Meade's LXD75's, and Vixen's GP2 and GPD2 as well.
The clutches on the Losmandy mounts are one of the things that sets them a part from the pack. If a person is doing a lot of starhopping (and not using goto) then they can be a very good thing.
Patrick
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10" f/6 Truss Tube Newtonian
Celestron C6S-GT SCT
AT66ED Refractor
Oberwerk Ultra 15x70 Binocular
475B Geared Tripod & 501HDV Head
Celestron Regal 8x42 Binocular
Canon XSi; Meade DSI;SPC900-NC
Vixen GP2 Photo Guider Mount
My Astronomy Pages
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Charlie Hein
Postmaster
Reged: 11/02/03
Posts: 7971
Loc: 26.06.08N, +80.23.08W
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One of the cool things they did with the Gemini go-to system is to allow you to install a second set of encoders on your mount and use them to manually move the mount and not lose your star alignment on the Gemini. Not many people actually do it but I've always thought that it is a cool thing that isn't available on many systems at all - for most, if you move the scope it completely loses where it is in the sky.
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"He's dead, Jim - I'll get his wallet, you get his tricorder." - Leonard "Bones" McCoy
Weston CSC:
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weezy
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 02/13/04
Posts: 1049
Loc: Colorado, USA
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BTW- my engineer asked the same question about my GM8- I asked in the Losmandy group for an explanation of the clutch system for a more techie-type person. Apparently the group owner himself replied "Don't let an engineer touch it"
Weezy
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3 cats - 2 ferrets
2 Cockatiels
Orion 120ST
Stellarvue Nighthawk
Stellarvue 102APO
MiniBorg 50
PST
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gnowellsct
professor emeritus
Reged: 06/24/09
Posts: 733
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Quote:
BTW- my engineer asked the same question about my GM8- I asked in the Losmandy group for an explanation of the clutch system for a more techie-type person. Apparently the group owner himself replied "Don't let an engineer touch it"
Weezy
Someone may have said that but it wasn't me. I like engineers. Greg N "Losmandy honcho"
--------------------
"Aperture will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no aperture."
featuring selected astrojunk:
bunch o' widefield eyepieces
bunch o' narrowfield eyepieces
couple o' Barlows
couple o' scopes
couple o' mounts
couple o' tripods
and a pier 'n' stuff
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gnowellsct
professor emeritus
Reged: 06/24/09
Posts: 733
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Quote:
One of the cool things they did with the Gemini go-to system is to allow you to install a second set of encoders on your mount and use them to manually move the mount and not lose your star alignment on the Gemini. Not many people actually do it but I've always thought that it is a cool thing that isn't available on many systems at all - for most, if you move the scope it completely loses where it is in the sky.
It is a cool thing but there are two conceptual problems. First, the resolution of the encoders on the mount (not the servos) has never matched the servos so if you reset to the mount encoders you'll be introducing an error of several arc minutes.
Second, I have monitored posts on this topic for years and I have *never* seen anyone say they got this feature to work. MANY people try it and fail.
So, it's a nice idea, but one that hasn't panned out. Nor does there seem to be a demand to get Rene Goerlich to fix the algorithm. I very much like the G11, but we have to call things as they are, and this dual encoder feature doesn't cut it, unfortunately.
Greg N
--------------------
"Aperture will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no aperture."
featuring selected astrojunk:
bunch o' widefield eyepieces
bunch o' narrowfield eyepieces
couple o' Barlows
couple o' scopes
couple o' mounts
couple o' tripods
and a pier 'n' stuff
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kalafrana
member
Reged: 05/27/09
Posts: 70
Loc: Jo'burg, South Africa.
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Quote:
BTW- my engineer asked the same question about my GM8- I asked in the Losmandy group for an explanation of the clutch system for a more techie-type person. Apparently the group owner himself replied "Don't let an engineer touch it"
Weezy
Obviously he thinks engineers are those blokes that drive steam engines.
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Rick
C14 + Argo Navis
CGE1100
Meade 2080LX3 + Argo Navis
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