The Paramount MX+ Equatorial Mount provides Paramount ME-like homing, tracking and pointing performance.
The Paramount MX+ has a broad range of exciting features and capabilities that will keep you focused on the stars and not your equipment. We urge you to compare the Paramount MX+ against any other commercial mount in this price range before buying a mount.
Hardware
Every single component of the Paramount MX+ is custom machined from 6061 aluminium at Software Bisque’s production facility. The worms are precision machined from brass.
Brass worms and aluminium gears that have a maximum 7 arcsecond peak-to-peak periodic error before periodic error correction. When periodic error correction is applied, the resulting peak-to-peak periodic error should be approximately one (1) arcsecond or less.
The Right Ascension and Declination gears are 190.5mm (7.5″) with 375 teeth and both axes incorporate 6-inch contact ball bearings – unlike other mounts on the market the Paramount MX+ really can handle the stated 45kg payload – even during long exposure imaging.
GEM design allows the right ascension axis to track past the meridian for up to 2 hours (time).
Two 9kg (20lb) counterweights included.
41 cm (16″) counterweight shaft included.
Standard Paramount MX wedge can be adjusted to reach latitudes from ten (10) degrees to slightly higher than sixty-five (65) degrees.
Azimuth axis polar axis adjustment range is plus or minus 3.5 degrees from center position (seven degrees total).
Altitude and azimuth polar alignment knobs are calibrated, so that making adjustments using the TPoint Polar Alignment Report simple and accurate.
Control System and Electronics
Software Bisque’s fourth generation dual axis motion control system (the MKS 5000) includes:
- Integrated USB 2.0 computer to mount interface controlled via TheSkyX Pro on either Mac OS X and Windows out of the box.
- Integrated two port USB 2.0 hub at the camera-end of the telescope, right where they’re needed.
- Hand paddle has an integrated “thumb stick” for single-handed operation and a configurable rate, five position switch.
- Programmable PEC with “seeing agnostic” periodic error curve fitting resulting in sub arcsecond PE
- Built-in autoguider port on the Instrument Panel.
- Built-in focuser port on the Instrument Panel.
- One 12V and one 5V power port on the Instrument Panel.
- A generic “power source” port on the Instrument Panel backed with 18-gauge wire to supply the power your observing equipment needs through the mount.
- AutoHome™ homing capability.
- Configurable park position.
- The right ascension and declination motors can be run from 0 to 4000 rpm and virtually anywhere in between, providing precise tracking, rapid slewing. This gives you the ability to track on comets, asteroids and even fast- or slow-moving objects such as LEO satellites or any object that moves above or below the sidereal rate.
- Single-reduced belt-driven worms, mean the Paramount MX+ has backlash so small it is difficult to measure.
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