Mini Tower Pro - Pre-orders taken

[Waxing_Gibbous]

FWIW,
i-Optron are now accepting pre-orders for their latest version of the mini-tower. It looks promising. No $$ figures yet but over 1200 seems to be a safe bet.
They seem to genuinely act on feedback & criticism and if their blurbs are to be believed, it represents a big improvement over earlier mounts, so I'm going to take a punt.
Fingers crossed.

[jjjnettie]

The original Mini Tower is a fantastic mount.
It will be interesting to see how the pro performs.

[casstony]

Did you get your mount yet Peter? I've been told that the clutches are the same as the standard mini-tower, but bored out to fit the larger shafts, leaving only 1/4 of the suface area of the clutches in the standard mount.

[Waxing_Gibbous]

Casstony,
Nope.
Sent my pre-order back to iOptron but no joy. In fact its been conspicuosly hard to get any further info on it, other than whats posted on OPT. Certainly the retailers don't seem to know and as to $$$? Who knows. Anything from $1300 - 2000 seems to be the guess.
As to its performance I believe there are one or two early adopters in the US who have posted in the interweb. Could be worth a Google.
I feel we should sick JJJ onto them as she seems to have them under her thumb! :D

[casstony]

You can order directly from Gilman for US$805 + shipping, but I'm not going to order until the issue with the clutches is resolved. Perhaps 1/4 of the cluth surface area is enough, but if it isn't alignment might be lost if the scope isn't perfectly balanced.

Paying $2000 is too much IMO when you consider that you could buy a discmounts DM6 instead with computer.

[Waxing_Gibbous]

Casstony,
Gilman?
I hear you on the clutches, but the big complaint seems to be highly variable go-to and sporadic 'failure to proceed' instances.
At the very least, they seem to listen to criticism and TRY to make good, unlike most other companies.

Discmount - Mmmmn.:D

[casstony]

That's Gilman at north optics where people have been buying the 127ED triplets from.
gilman@northgroup.cn

[Waxing_Gibbous]

Ta!
PJH