Quote:
Originally Posted by gregbradley
I am not really trying to bash Vixen as they generally offer very good value for money. The Sphinx may have since been fixed up but when I had one it was bugged. I had to do fixes to it to correct Vixen's errors. It was a step up from a Meade Alt Az mount but it needed some work. Also at the time I was brand new to autoguiding so that added to the frustration. Autoguiding got added later to the mount and cost extra even though it was originally marketed as doing autoguiding.
I could not get the autoguiding to work but then I was using a ToUcam for guiding.
The axes were too stiff out of the factory and needed correction to loosen them. The Starbook is very bright and dazzles your night vision. It also attracts bugs like crazy in summer. It had a very limited database as well so only the well known objects were available (may since have been improved).
Mechanically the mount looked the part but for the price (AUD$3600) I think a G11 would leave it in the dust. It was also only capable of a light payload. It could not handle the light Tak FS152 for example. I'd say at a guess it would be limited to about a 110mm refractor for payload and probably nothing by Tak (which tend to be quite solid) beyond an FSQ.
Greg.
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Hi Greg
I own both sphinx mounts, the SXW (the type you had??) and the SXD. They may look similar but are two very different mounts. The SXW has stiff axes because it does not have bearings on either the dec or RA axes (I have pulled mine apart) nor does it have bearings on the worms. Mine does have autoguiding, perm Pec etc etc. I have managed to take some nice pics with this mount. The SXD, however, has bearings in all axes as well as the worms. This along with more powerful (but noisier) drive motors and more precise worm gear/worm wheel has significantly increased payload and accuracy of the mount and it is a breeze to use for AP. The PE on these mounts has been measured at +5/-7 which is fair and I have no problems with 15min exposures when autoguiding. The latest software update has been specially written for the southern hemisphere and fixes all the bugs the previous version had in tracking in the south. Sure they are not in the same league as the Tak or Paramount mounts but are very light and portable which is why I bought it. They certainly are no junk by any measure of the stick.
Cheers
Mark