Orion SkyView AZ Telescope Mount
Reviewer: Neil Kelley
I purchased the SkyView AZ mount to
provide a Quick set-up alternative to the
german equatorial mount(modified
Celestron Advanced series) I normally
use for my smaller scopes.
The largest scope I have tried on this
mount is an Astrotech 8IN, the 8" f/4
Newtonian, which weighs-in at about
23lbs with finder and a heavy eyepiece.
This mount does provide a lightwieght
solution for my purposes, keeping the
eyepiece in a convenient orientation for
viewing all areas of the sky.
In general, the mount's motions are
smooth and I have used powers of up to
160X. At that magnification the object
being viewed is still easily followed and I
am satisfied with the smooth operation
of both axes.
My only concerns with the unit involve a
bit of rough motion in the altitude axis at
higher elevations, and the fact that the
azimuth tension knob never really
tightens as much as I would desire. This
makes it more difficult to mount a scope
weighing more than 10 or 12 pounds, as
the azimuth axis tries to turn while
mounting the scope.
Aside from these two minor points, My
experience with the mount have been
very satisfying, and it is a welcome
addition to my mounting options.
Orion SkyView AZ Telescope Mount
Reviewer: Jesse R. McGlown, Jr.
I'd had a Celestron EQ-4 mount for
some years ( originally supplied with my
150mm refractor ). When I upgraded to
the CG-5 for that scope, I relegated the
EQ-4 as the mount for my Orion
ST120mm refractor. Even with the
smaller payload, the EQ-4 aluminum
tripod legs were just about shot,
so...enter the Skyview AZ mount! One
secret of this gem is that, even though
it's touted as an AZ dual mount, you can
indeed put an equatorial head on it
(I cannibalized the original EQ-4 head
from the tired aluminum legs). Best of
both worlds! I'm currently using this
mount for my Orion ST120 scope. It's
sturdy 1.75" diameter tubular legs are
more than adequate for a small
refractor...ironically, I've actually yet to
use it with the AZ head in place! When I
finally get that Maksutov (Orion, of
course ) to complement my
ST120 "richfield" refractor, I'll simply
switch out the heads and make it an AZ
mount. Considering just how
outrageously expensive some mounts
are these days, the Skyview Pro AZ
mount is a bargain.
Orion SkyView AZ Telescope Mount
Reviewer: John Chabot
I've been very impressed with the
mount - smoothness, consistency of
movement and tension settings, ease of
use, intercompatability with other Orion
mounts and accessories. As steady as
the Sirius Eq mount since it shares the
same tripod and base, and the head is
well-machined. I have the EON 120
refractor on it and the mount handles
this with flying colors. No vibration of
consequence for alt-az viewing -
something a few of the competing alt-az
mounts in the $250-$500 range can't
say. One popular single-arm mount I
tried shook poorly due to the length of
the 120 simply leading to too high a
radius from the balance point and the
arm wasn't rigid enough to keep things
steady. It was unusable really.
I'm a big fan of slow motion controls, but
this mounts feels so nice in movement it
won me over in that area. And to think,
it's rated strong enough that I'll be able
to stick a C 9.25 SCT on the other side
of the head. Looking forward to that.
I had read over at Cloudy Nights that the
Orion SkyView mount extension - an 18"
pier that sits between the mount base
and the head - works with this one, so I
bought it, and it surely does. It adds
some weight since the piece is really
solid, but I like having the extra height
as an option. The extension would work
with the Sirius too, but I suspect it might
cause things to be too top-heavy for the
precision needs of the EQ mount. I'll
comment on that some time in the Sirius
review section.
Thanks Orion, good stuff.
Orion SkyView AZ Telescope Mount
Reviewer: Chris Edwards
I special ordered the Orion Skyview AZ-
mount because there are no dealers who
stock them in my neck of the woods. I
was excited at the prospect of a big,
simple, smooth, and stable mount for an
Orion 8" reflector I just bought. The
mount is impressive looking and appears
to be well constructed, however it was
lacking in the little things, like directions
and a troubleshooting guide for the
inevitible difficulty. Sure as China sells
cheap poor quality everything this AZ
mount that came from China exibted it's
fatal flaw almost instantly. The mount
comes with it's head removed and after
hooking it up and installing the 8"
reflector I noticed that it sticks when
you start it's vertical motion in either
direction. No matter how much and how
often I'd move the scope and dove plate
in an effort at reaching balance, no
matter how often I loosened the hand
screw clutches it sticks after coming to a
stop, so much so that you must really be
careful when applying pressure to get it
going again. it makes it literally
impossible to track any object, this is
why many many people are so turned
off with the hobby. I have a Vixen Porta-
mount that cost half the price of the
Skyview and worked flawlessly from the
box, something that I'm not becoming
accustomed to from Orion! Alt/Az
mounts are simple and excellent when
done correctly, this one's not one of
them. Further the acces. tray acts as a
stabilizer which is just fine, however it
must be removed to close the mount up
which most must do just to swing it out
of doors or to transport it which is a real
pain in the backside on those cold nights!
At this price range on up you can do a
lot better then this. Caveat Emptor!
Orion SkyView AZ Telescope Mount
Reviewer: Gregg Meade
Overall, good mount, light and easy to
use. A couple of areas of concern:
1. Although I have 3 scopes with Vixen
style dovetails, scopes are never looking
at the same object. I wanted to use a
fast refractor on one side as a
super-finder. If you put an Orion style bar
on both should work better.
2. AZ head should lock better to allow
easier mounting (of) larger scopes.
(Note from Orion: Orion Dovetail bars are modeled on the
Vixen style.)
Orion SkyView AZ Telescope Mount
Reviewer: John Johnson
I am very happy with this mount it holds
both my 8" Nexstar and my 102mm
Stellarvue. The only thing it lacks is a
handle. The Mount needs a handle to
move heavy scops.
Orion SkyView AZ Telescope Mount
Reviewer: william sharpe
When the SkyView AZ was first
introduced
I thought "WOW" this can't be as good as
it looks for the price. Well when I
received mine and mounted my 140
Vixen
on it I knew I had found an alt-azimuth
that could handle this big refractor.
Thank you Orion.
Orion SkyView AZ Telescope Mount
Reviewer: Layne T. Oliver
This mount is a great Az mount as it is
simple fairly light but vastly stable and
smooth. I have been looking for a set up
like this for about a year, williams optics
has a similar mount but the tripod looked
suspect to me despite great reviews. I
have owned one telescope that had an
jittery mount and a poor focuser (my etx
90) I repaired the focuser but not the
jittery mount, but did put the etx tube on
a losmandy G-8 mount and wow rock
solid views at the highest powers aka fun!
Its worth noting that if you try to mount
a refractor to (non Orion brand) you
may need their guidance on a dovetail
and rings as mixing and matching these
two components can be troublesome if
they are from differrent manufacturers.
Since I own losmandy mounts and am
set up with Losmandy style plates and
heavy duty rings I was able to fix the
orion/vixen dovetail to the Losmandy
plate (Stellarvue TP-6) using existing 1/4
20 holes. I did however had to drill one
1/4" hole in the vixen plate and presto, I
had a plate that serves two purposes by
simply un bolting the vixen plate I can
use the scope in the EQ mount with the
losmandy plate. William optics does sell
a plate that is the width of the losmandy
plate but with a vixen dovetail
underneith, its 88.00 bucks. I think Orion
should offer this fine mount with the
option of a Vixen or losmandy saddle as
these are two of the most used types of
mountings! what do you think? I'm open
to questions/ suggestions about various
mounting combo's I want to learn from
you! Layne
