Made for long observation sessions, Vixen's Sphinx SX2 Motorized Go-To Equatorial Mount comes with the Star Book Ten hand controller and the Hal-130 adjustable-height aluminum tripod to give you a complete observational platform for your OTA. The mount features precision motors and gears for accurate long-duration tracking. Dual stepper motors provide smooth and virtually vibration-free tracking that run at up to 250 pps. Its full-circle brass wheel gear allows the mount to track over extremely long periods with little error. The mount and hand controller are powered by an included 12VDC power adapter that simply plugs into any car/vehicle accessory socket.
The Sphinx comes with the Star Book Ten hand controller to help find, observe, and track celestial objects. It has an updateable database of over 272,000 objects from the Moon and Sun to deep-sky bodies such as galaxies and nebulae. Since near and deep sky objects appear to move at different speeds, the controller features celestial, solar, lunar, and King's rate tracking speeds, in addition to slew speeds from 0.01x to 1000x. An integrated autoguider port adds to the mount's usability.
- Motorized German equatorial
- Payload capacity: 35.2 pounds, excluding counterweights
- Altitude:
- 0-70° adjustment
- High, middle and low latitude zone settings
- Adjustment range: ±15°, in each zone
- Altitude Scale: 2° increments
- Twin T-bar handles with 0.8°/rotation
- 40mm diameter, carbon steel axis shaft
- Azimuth:
- ±7° fine adjustment
- Twin tangent screws/knobs
- 1.2°/rotation
- 40mm diameter, carbon steel axis shaft
- 15 stainless steel ball bearing for smooth low-vibration tracking and slewing
- Integrated 20mm counterweight shaft retracts into mount when not in use
- Includes 4.2 lb and 8.2 lb counterweights
- Vixen-style dovetail saddle
- Two stepping (pulse) motors at 250 pulses per second
- Right ascension:
- 180-tooth full circle micro-movement gear
- 72mm diameter
- Brass wheel
- 180-tooth full circle micro-movement gear
- 72mm diameter
- Brass wheel
- Integrated bubble level
- 6x20
- Integrated into mount
- Field of view: 8°
- Illuminated reticle
- Setting accuracy to within 3 arcsec
- Time graduation circle: 10 arcminutes increments between 16 h and 8 h (the following day)
- Date graduation circle: 2-day increments
- Meridian offset circle: Adjustable between 20° East and 20° West, in 5° increments
- Northern hemisphere: Polaris guide scale, accurate to 2025
- Southern hemisphere: Octant 4 stars pattern
- Allows remote control of mount and automatic tracking for reduced vibration and ease-of-use
- Celestial, Solar, Lunar, and King's Rate Tracking
- Variable slewing speeds from 0.1x to 999x sidereal
- Backlash compensation eliminates 'settling' between gear teeth for precision slewing and tracking
- Periodic Error Correction (PEC) enables tracking errors to be programmed-out for higher precision
- Autoguider port
- Physical characteristics:
- Adjustable screen brightness
- Red LED backlit direction keys