Mounts

10 Micron GM1000HPS --- My Experience

My first setup was working OK for me. I had a Celestron 11 inch HD scope a Hyperstar, Atik camera and a Celestron CGEM mount. I was getting images that I thought were wonderful and was overall very happy. The one major pain point I had was set up time and accuracy of the mount using was not always a fast fun experience. I found the CGEM mount overall worked well but there were some things that frustrated me which I will not go into here. I also wanted to do more advanced imagery… namely Satellites and Comets and I wanted it to be as easy as possible of course.

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The iOptron MiniTower - Part 2

First, I am convinced that iOptron, a young company, wants to develop quality products and, since my March review, it has engaged in a program of quality control improvement. For example, Dr. Hou contacted me shortly after my review was published to

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Universal Astronomics Unistar Basic Mount

The mount arrived well packaged in about a week and had a small instruction manual (2 pages really). The first thing I noticed was that

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My Adventures in Fixing a Meade LXD75 Mount

I purchased the LXD75 mount used in June of 2006 and I'm not sure if the seller was the original owner so I'm not sure of its vintage. The mount did not come in its standard configuration as it had

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Sunpak Platinum Plus 7500TM Tripod/Monopod

The tripod serves its function with flying colors in my book. It is just a little shaky with 8.5 lb. binoculars on it, but it steadies out soon enough (a second or so). I find that the tightening screws

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Manfrotto 501HDV Head with the Oberwerk L- Adapter

The 501 is one fine piece of engineering. Designed for the heavier HD camcorders, it provides more than ample stability for most large astronomical binoculars. The all-metal construction with a 13.3 lb payload limit gives it the ability to

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Vixen Mini Porta Mount

What I received surprised and disappointed me. But more on that later. Let’s start with the basics. I set up the mount with my Orion ST80 for a quick photo shoot

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Vixen Porta Mount

The Vixen comes in what seems to be three models. First is the Mini Porta Mount which weighs 6 pounds and is rated at 8 pounds of load capacity, and sells for around

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Orion Sirius Goto Mount

I have used the Celestron C8 and C9.25 optical tubes and an Orion ED 80 refractor. For imaging I use the StarlightXpress SXVF H9 CCD camera with a TruTech Filter wheel. I use a

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Updating the Sirius Dovetail Base

First let's see what the new dovetail looks like and compare it to the original. Figure 2 shows the original Vixen dovetail as shipped from Orion and Figure 3 shows Anthony's upgrade

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