Overall Rating: 9
Performance:9 Ease of Use:9 Value:10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date: 06/09/2016 12:19:43 am PST
By: Anonymous (xxx.xxx.90.14)
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=611717

>Excellent mount.  Can easily carry my C8 tube with piggyback 60mm, and DSLR camera.  Very low periodic error.  Once drift-aligned I can shoot up to 25x without needing to track a guide star.  I have mine mounted to an HD Meade field tripod using a Losmandy pier adapter.  I've shot at least hundred hours of images with this mount with temps down to 10 deg F.  It will be a sad day when this mount quits working.  Much more stable than the Losmandy GM8 I had previously.  It was a good mount but had more periodic error and could carry less weight.  CI-700 is highly recommended, if you can find one!
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 I found one with an Astrophysics Starfire 152 F9. OTA that is poorly documented on the net. In late 2017 it went for $3155USD on e-bay. The mount needs connector repairs but the OTA is fine with the AP photographic focussers. Altogether the package is quite nice even if though twenty years old.
 I'll have to troll for some expertise in getting the mount to function as new, or as a modern GOTO.