Well respected throughout the world, the Vixen GP2 telescope mount is a finely-machined, compact, and portable solution for supporting and navigating your telescope. This mount is so well designed and assembled that it is the standard which is universally copied by many different companies outside of Japan, often known as the 'CG-5' or 'EQ-4'. The copies focus on lowering costs, and in so doing use rougher tolerances and inferior lubricants-a cottage industry exists surrounding improving them via aftermarket changes. Why suffer through such scenarios when the real thing is so easily acquired?
Every geared part on the Vixen GP2 is individually inspected before assembly, and it is 100% manufactured in Japan. Its 144-tooth brass worm wheels dramatically increase tracking accuracy versus 'similar' mounts.
One of the best elements of buying a Vixen GP2 is that it is so modular; Vixen offers a slew of upgrades to accommodate your growing astronomical interests and skills, so you'll use the mount for a long time to come. For superior astronomical tracking, this package arrives with Vixen's STARBOOK-S, which is a "GO-TO" controller with a built-in star chart that quickly indicates where the telescope is pointed upon its 2.6" monochrome LCD screen. The STARBOOK-S' drop down menu of different categories of celestial objects (stars, planets, Messier objects, NGC objects, etc.) exclusively displays objects available to be viewed at the moment you're observing-eliminating entirely unnecessary frustration produced by other "GO-TO" systems which don't let users know that selected objects are currently below the horizon. You'll spend your time at the eyepiece with Vixen's STARBOOK-S.
This package of the GP2 also comes with Vixen's standard tripod, the HAL130. Though this doesn't arrive with a dovetail mounting plate, all of Vixen's optical tube assemblies do include it-so you won't need anything else to begin observing if you're buying a Vixen OTA as well. The Accessory Plate DX can allow almost any other brand of scope to mount atop the GP2.