Vixen Sphinx Mount

Hi All,
I'm thinking of getting a Sphinx mount has anybody used one yet and has
good things to say about it or is it so good that they want to sell it
to me for a good price ?

Regards Mark C

In article ,
Marcus wrote:

Hi All,
I'm thinking of getting a Sphinx mount has anybody used one yet and has
good things to say about it or is it so good that they want to sell it
to me for a good price ?

Regards Mark C

Hi Mark,

My wife wanted a simple goto mount for her 4" refractor, so I bought a
Sphinx this time last year, one of the first sold in the US. The short
story is that it is a VERY solid mount, easy as blazes and fun for a
novice to use, but the starbook has a few shortcomings. Recently there
have been some software upgrades and it's better now. The much-too
-bright display can now be turned off from the hand control, the mount
now supports autoguiders, and the slew rate is faster, with better
ant-backlash control.

Would I buy one again? Sure, especially now with the upgrades, but I'm
not sure it's a serious mount yet.

A couple things still bother me- the fact that there is no numeric pad
for directly punching in things like RA and DEC. And that there are no
setting circles- hey, I like using circles.......

Starry Skies,
Rich

Any other questions, don't hesitate to ask.

"Marcus" wrote in message
...
Hi All,
I'm thinking of getting a Sphinx mount has anybody used one yet and has
good things to say about it or is it so good that they want to sell it
to me for a good price ?

Regards Mark C


I have used one since may 2004 and I like it a lot. It's a good, solid
mount, at least as stable as the Vixen GP-DX. My C8 and ST80 combo is very
happy on it. The Star Book is easy to use, but it lacks some advanced
features. The mount's software is updated regularly and keeps getting
better. It has a compact design, with few external parts, which makes it
rugged and very portable.

It has no setting circles, but it's still possible to move to arbitrary RA
and DEC coordinates by using the Star Book. There's also an ASCOM driver
available which makes it possible to control the mount from TheSky, Starry
Night, Cartes du Ciel and other astronomy software.

See my review on http://www.smaal.info/astro_en/index.php/sphinx

Regards,

Jeroen