Orion 9055 Min-EQ Tabletop Equatorial Telescope Mount

It is a convenient compact size for travel or quick setup. Perfect for safe viewing and medium magnification of our Sun. No add on sun shield is required that might become dislodged and let blinding light in while observing.

This mini GEM is well-built but only as good as the polar alignment one can achieve - which is very difficult. One has to get the telescope scope or camera exactly parallel with the Right Ascension axis - the black cylinder which has to be pointing at the North Celestial Pole, near Polaris. Then one can try to center the scope (and thus the polar axis) on Polaris (or, even better, the NCP). Unfortunately because of the shape of the polar cylinder it's almost impossible to align it with the scope. It would have been so simple to make the cylinder hollow, either to accept a polar scope or a laser. But it's a nice way to learn about GEMs and PA, and even with rough PA and a clock drive (available from Orion) it does track pretty well for short exposure/low focal length astrophotography.

I won't give this item 5 stars simply because I haven't had it for a long enough time (a month or so, so far) to see how it withstands my demanding abuse. It is solidly built; more so than I expected it to be. As with most instrumentation, I found it easy to assemble, taking the time, of course, to read and understand the instructions (which were clear) before working with the hardware. I have chosen it, along with Orion's 80 mm tabletop refractor, as an inexpensive and very portable (even "backpackable," depending upon one's load priorities) means of recreational stargazing at undemanding objects such as clusters, comets, visual binaries, and the like. So far, from places such as the patio table at home and by "sort of" leveling it on the hood of a car, I would say that it works perfectly. The alt-az mount that comes with the Orion scope should be adequate for manual tracking at lowest magnification, but for me, a non-computerized astronomical telescope without a German-style equatorial mount just doesn't cut it. So, based on my experience to date, I highly recommend this product.

Getting ready for the solar eclipse in my own backyard! I wanted a sidereal tracking mount for my camera that is fitted out with a homemade solar filter using Baader solar film Baader Planetarium AstroSolar Safety Film Visual, 7.9x11.4" (20x29cm) and a pin-camera aiming sight. Just installed the Orion EQ-1 drive Orion 7826 EQ-1M Electronic Telescope Drive on an Orion Mini EQ-Tabletop Orion 9055 Min-EQ Tabletop Equatorial Telescope Mount EQ Mount. Installation was easy and mount and drive work well so far. I opted to replace the battery compartment with a power supply [Upgraded Version] SoulBay Universal AC/DC Adapter Multi-Voltage Regulated Switching Power Supply with 7 Selectable Adapter Plugs, for 3V to 12V Home Electronics and USB Charging Devices - 2Amps Max. I attached the EQ mount via a M10-1.5x45mm bolt and a couple of washers to a Bosch BT-160 Surveyor tripod Bosch BT160 Alum Quick Clamp Tripod - be sure to install a tripod spreader to keep it from splaying out too far on hard surfaces and potentially destroying valuable equipment! I will be adding a tripod hammock soon Guerrilla Painter Tripod Stone Bag. Looking good so far.

well, it's a portable telescope mount, and altho I don't have a telescope to mount on it, it looks like it ought to work for that purpose. However, for astrophotography... for long exposures, it apparently REQUIRES the automated drive, sold separately. The manual tracking knobs turn 1/2 hour in RA from 12 quarter turns of the knob. That means every 30 seconds I need to turn the knob 2/10 of a quarter turn, which means I just about touch it. Since a 30 sec exposure is the most you can deal with without making star trails... it looks not suitable as is for long-exposure astrophotography.

Excellent Tabletop Equatorial Mount for small Maksutov-Cassegrain telescopes. My single-axis RA motor drive works well with this mount when used for astrophotography. I like it for going on trips and campouts because it is compact and light-weight.

This is a very heavy duty table mount, that I use to support my Coronado Solar Telescope. This has great stability and both equatorial and declination fine adjustments using worm gears. Does not have a clock drive, but you may be able to attach one to the equatorial worm gear.The legs are removable, which I find useful for storage. Set up was very easy. Uses screw down mounting plate, which is very secure with the Coronado P.S.T.

I got exactly what I expected. My only qualm is that the base should be threaded for 3/16" 20TPI bolts for use on camera tripods instead of threaded for metric as it is.