Fornax 100

Fornax 100

This is the latest incarnation of the former Fornax 100 mount. The New Fornax 100 comes with much strengthened and improved wormbox that makes it an even more precise mount. The new housing of the worm drive is stronger and it has got an extra unit that holds it in exact position, eliminating any sideway movement that could have occured in earlier versions when changing direction under heavy load.

Robust Body

Fornax Telescope Mounts are a series of German Equatorial mounts for precise positioning and tracking large telescopes. The Fornax 100 telescope mount is a heavy duty German Equatorial mount for precise positioning and tracking extremely large telescopes up to about 80-90kg. Although there are examples of use of even heavier telescopes up to 100kg, the recommended maximum load is about 80kg for this telescope mount when used for imaging.

High accurate tracking

The mechanism of this extremely sturdy mount is being made of aluminium alloy, cast aluminium, bronze and stainless steel. The worm and the electric motor are located in an enclosed, sealed space (waterproof and dust-proof), making it less sensitive to dust and temperature fluctuations, and is practically maintenance free. Thanks to the ingenious solution of the inner drive mechanism this telescope mount doesn’t suffer from any backlash. Typical periodic error (when not guided) is less than +/- 6 arc seconds (one period on the worm gear is 7.5 minutes long!) When using a TDM (Telescope Drive Master), this can be reduced to below +/-0.5 arc seconds. (TDM is an alternative solution to guiding.) When using auto guiding, the mount reacts immediately, so corrections are very fast and completely free of play. This is the ultimate solution for astrophotography with a high quality/price ratio.

Due to its weight and size this model is designed for observatories, not exactly a transportable model.