Telescope Mounts

Mounts are invaluable, in not only taking the weight of the telescope - for even the lightest device can become heavy and cumbersome after a few hours - but in positioning the telescope and keeping it steady.

By mounting telescopes, the instrument can remain fixed on a set position in the sky. This also frees up your hands, so you can keep records and more easily adjust the telescope when focusing on a new object.

There are two differing types of telescope mounts. The Alt-Azimuth enables you to alter the vertical (altitude) and horizontal (azimuth) axes to locate an object in the sky, but is otherwise similar to a camera tripod.

There are two kinds of the Alt-Azimuth mounts. The Ball and Socket mount which allows for movement in all directions. And the Rocker Box, which is made of plywood and consists of a horizontal circular base and Teflon ball bearings that act as the altitude axis. These have a low center of gravity and are excellent for heavier telescopes.

The second type of mount, the Equatorial, uses two axes, which line up with the poles to track an object through the night sky. The axes can be either right ascension, polar or declination depending on the object you are trying to track. The axes of equatorial mounts are towards the Earth’s axis of rotation and thus can follow a fixed object across the sky as long as it is lined up properly.

Again there are two styles of this type of mount. The German equatorial mount, which is shaped like a T with the longer axis of the T lined up with the pole. And then there is the fork mount, which as its name suggests, is shaped like a fork, again lined up with the earth's pole with one axis being the base of the fork and the prongs the other.

If you are planning to take a lot of photos through your telescope, Equatorial mounts for telescope are excellent for taking pictures, as they allow for long exposures.

News About Telescope Mounts

Brother of famed Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher dies
The Associated Press
It was revealed a half-century later that the Giants installed a telescope-and-buzzer system at the Polo Grounds to spy on catcher's signals. ...

and more »

ReporterHerald.com

Newly installed 24-inch telescope nearly ready
ReporterHerald.com
... box of the telescope in the coming weeks, visitors and students will be able to gaze through the high-optic instrument once located at the Mount Wilson ...

It was in the stars: Observatory becomes national historic site
Victoria Times Colonist
It was officially named the Plaskett Telescope in 1993. Plaskett's creation was quickly supplanted by the Hooker Telescope at California's Mount Wilson ...

and more »

A Telescope for Tatakoto
Sky & Telescope
Donated by Celestron and shipped to Tatakoto by Jen Winter's StarGarden Foundation, the AstroMaster 90AZ refractor came with an alt-azimuth mount on a steel ...

Europeans seek to build world's largest telescope
Examiner.com
... Wilson and Mount Palomar in California, USA. Recently, China revealed to the world a giant telescope and announced that it was the largest in the world. ...

Earth-like planets may be discovered soon
Cambridge News
... future astronauts going to Mars and other planets more likely to be akin to those who climb Mount Everest, and not scientists on state-backed missions. ...

and more »