PDA

View Full Version here: : Unknown equ. mount?


dikman
01-08-2019, 04:02 PM
I just bought this wee beastie and wondered if anyone can identify it? There are no markings whatsoever on it. I figure it's pretty old. It weighs 5 kgs and the weight is 4.4 kgs. Shaft diameter for the weight is 20mm. It has one of those generic ebay motor drives fitted (no markings) and appears to be working ok. I haven't stripped it (yet) and assumed it would have bearings in it but I'm not so sure as it feels similar to my Manfrotto fluid head drive. It moves very smoothly and has very little play in it.


The guy I bought it from said he thought it was a Skywatcher Eq5, but I don't think so. It has a custom aluminium baseplate and I reckon it was probably pillar-mounted. The baseplate wasn't attached to the mounting (just sat there!!) so I turned a rebate in the bottom to bolt it to the mount and made another baseplate to fit it to my Manfrotto tripod.


I bought it to use with my Celestron 102SLT (bought from another member here, thanks Bob) so while it may not be a super-dooper modern thingy for $150 I think it will suffice.


Just curious what it is.

LewisM
01-08-2019, 04:46 PM
Looks like a very early Chinese copy/knockoff of the Vixen GP

dikman
01-08-2019, 05:17 PM
I was looking at pictures of various mounts via google and noticed a resemblance to some of the Vixens, but being relatively new to all this I have no idea who made what and when in the long ago.