Tele Vue Tele-Pod Advanced Alt-Azimuth Telescope Mount with Sky Tour Computer

A complete, lightweight telescope mount featuring smooth alt-azimuth motions and optional Sky Tour object locating capability. Perfect for our smaller, travel-easy refractors. Telescope height ranges from 29" to 60+". Aluminum tripod legs are 3-section, black anodized, rubber-tipped feet and spiked feet included. Features include bubble-level, glove-friendly locking clamps and included carry bag. The self contained head comes with a handle, is Sky Tour ready and can be used on any camera tripod with either a 1/4-20 or 3/8-16 stud. It is the most portable DSC mount head available. We highly recommend the Eyepiece Caddy Set accessory since the Tele-Pod Mount and standard camera tripods do not have accessory trays. Sky Tour The Tele Vue Sky Tour computerized object locating system integrates seamlessly with our mounts to put 2,000+ objects within your grasp. Quick setup 2-star alignment allows observing fixed objects without fiddling with latitude, longitude, date or time inputs. Easy to use Guide mode shows you the direction to move the scope in order to center the selected object. Sky Tour adds R.A./Decl. digital position readout (resolution: 1' R.A, 0.1-deg. declination) to mounts. For even more objects, Sky Tour can now interface with TheSky astronomy program from Software Bisque, Inc. through your PDA or laptop. Add "brains" to your Tele Vue mount The Sky Tour object locator adds "brains" to your Tele Vue mount. With its exclusive Lorenzin 2000+ database and refinements such as dimmable red light display, backlit button names, 10-character speed-adjustable scrolling display and advanced "identify" capability.Sky Tour brings the hand-held computer to a new feature/performance level-a Tele Vue level of convenience and ease of use. When Sky Tour is added to Tele Vue mounts, the total system is simple enough to encourage beginners, yet deep enough for experts to maintain a lifetime of observing enthusiasm. For the amateur telescope maker, you can purchase the Sky Tour computer and encoders for integration into most any telescope mount. The Sky Tour computer can be initialized and custom calibrated for the following types of mounts: altitude-azimuth, German equatorial, fork mount and equatorial table. Locate 2000 Objects More than just a star listing, Tom Lorenzin's 2000+ database is a collection of interesting and observable double and triple stars, bright and dark nebulae, galaxies, star clusters and colored stars most suited to Tele Vue telescopes. The 2000+ objects are organized into six catalogs: NGC (New General Catalog), M (Messier), IC (lndex Catalog), ST (Star), NS (Non-Standard) and PL (Planets). For quick reference, an additional FAV (Favorites) catalog is available to store 99 of your favorite objects. Sky Tour Fun Tele Vue believes that the fun of astronomy is in the observing. Sky Tour's functions are organized into nine "modes." They are: Star Fix, RA DEC, Catalog, Guide, Align, Identify, Timer, Install and Encoder. Once Sky Tour is aligned, you'll enter the Catalog mode and choose an object to view. Catalog mode displays location, brightness, size and other object information, including the chart number that contains the object in the popular Sky Atlas 2000.0 star atlas! Then switch to Guide mode to show you the direction to move the scope in order to center the selected object. Finding over 2000 objects is as simple as that! Sky Tour also gives you digital setting circles by converting Alt/Az positioning into Right Ascension and declination. The RA DEC mode lets you hunt for any object in the sky just by looking up its RA and DEC position. Sky Tour: the Teacher As you scan the sky, the Identify mode will point you to the nearest object of your choosing. For example, say you wanted to know if there was a galaxy in a nearby field-of-view. Enter the Identify mode, choose "Find GX" from the nine object types. If there is a galaxy nearby, Sky Tour will identify it and guide the way. It's a wonderful way to learn about unfamiliar regions of the sky. The Identify mode is fun for explorers who like to scan the sky just to see what they can find. When you think you've found something just ask Sky Tour's Identify mode to "Find Any ". Sky Tour Meets TheSky Versions of Sky Tour from 1.86 onward can interface with TheSky astronomy program from Software Bisque, Inc. Connecting your TheSky equipped Pocket PC, Windows or Macintosh computer, to Sky Tour yields instant access the TheSky's copious object database. Locating and identifying celestial objects is easy, as your screen displays a sky chart indicating exactly where your telescope is pointing at all times. TheSky's real-time centering display easily guides you to the target.