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John in SD
John in SD's Stats
- Review Count1
- Helpfulness Votes3
- First ReviewApril 14, 2008
- Last ReviewApril 14, 2008
- Featured Reviews0
- Average Rating5
Reviews Comments
- Review Comment Count0
- Helpfulness Votes0
- First Review CommentNone
- Last Review CommentNone
- Featured Review Comments0
John in SD's Reviews
The Orion Min-EQ Tabletop Equatorial Telescope Mount is perfect for traveling or camping. Just set up your small telescope on this mount and you can view for hours from anywhere. Also makes a great tracking platform for astrophotography with a DSLR.
Rating
Lightweight and flexible
PostedApril 14, 2008
John in SD
I got this mount with my Apex 90, and for the money it's a good deal. I spend about 10 seconds doing a rough polar alignment and am able to track objects just fine. Now, it's kind of wiggly and roughly assembled and probably won't support much more weight than my small Mak, so don't expect an Atlas for the price. It *does* break down small enough to fit in a small tool bag, which is great, and it's lightweight enough to just grab and go. One big improvement I made within a couple of days is to replace the Philips screws that secure the slow motion knobs with M4 X 7mm Allen cap screws (real thumbscrews would be better): this allows tool-free assembly and the ability to quickly shift ends on the RA axis when it interferes with the Dec knob. A couple of things to note: (1) the Dec axis is not a full worm gear and has a limited (20 degrees?) range of motion--you'll have to reset the axis from time to time, but it's not a big deal in practice. (2) Contrary to Orion technical support's statement, there *is* a 3/8" thread in the bottom. This is really nice since it will fit most photo tripods like my Manfrotto 3021. If you're looking for a cheap, small, and light EQ mount for visual observing, I think the Min-EQ is as good as you'll find. (Note from Orion: Upon further review the thread pitch at the bottom of the head is a metric thread pitch (10M-1.5). It is a similar thread pitch but not an exact match.)
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