| This dovetail plate has special features to allow you to rigidly mount a large Takahashi refractor or reflector and Takahashi tube clamp rings onto a Losmandy G11 or HGM Titan, Celestron CGE, or AP mounts. It is designed specifically for use with both Takahashi clamp rings and standard split tube rings for the following Takahashi scopes: TOA-130, TOA-150, Epsilon 160, and Epsilon 180. It can also can be use with the Takahashi FC-60, FS-60, FC-76, FS-78, Sky-90, FC, FCT 100, FS-102, TSA-102, FSQ-106, FS-128, FS-152 and TOA-130 clamp ring. Takahashi clamp-style tube rings have 2" diameter raised round pads on their bases designed to fit into 2" round recesses on the top of Takahashi equatorial mounts. They also use two 3/8" bolts to attach the clamp ring to the mount, instead of the more common 1/4"-20 thread bolts used by other manufacturers. These features, unique to Takahashi tube rings, can lead to mounting problems if a conventional Losmandy, Celestron, or AP dovetail plate is used. The top of this unique B-T Engineering dovetail plate has three close-tolerance 2" diameter recesses with 3/8" mounting holes machined into its centerline. These are designed specifically to hold a Takahashi clamp ring. The three center-machined depressions on the centerline of the plate enable you to use either single or dual clam shells for the ultimate secure non-flexing mounting arrangement. In addition, the plate was engineered to work specifically with the following Takahashi telescopes that use a Takahashi double ring tube holder: Takahashi TOA-130, TOA-150, Epsilon 160 Astrograph, and Epsilon 180 Astrograph. In addition to the Takahashi-specific recessed mounting points, the plate also has three pairs of unthreaded 3/8" mounting holes and two pairs of unthreaded 7/16" mounting holes to hold tube rings for use as a conventional dovetail plate. The holes are countersunk on the underside of the plate so that they do not interfere with a mount’s saddle if the holes are used to hold tube rings. The dovetail plate is made of machined solid aluminum, black anodized for good looks and durability. The plate has a dovetail flange on one side that fits into the 75mm dovetail slot in D-series saddle of the Losmandy G-11 or HGM Titan mounts; into a Losmandy GM-8 mount if equipped with a G-11 saddle plate; or into the saddle of a Celestron CGE go-to mount; as well as into AP and Casady saddle plates. The underside of the dovetail has had recesses machined out of it to reduce the weight without compromising the strength of the assembly. The ends of the plate and dovetail have radius corners to make it easy to slide the dovetail into the mount’s saddle plate in the dark without having it hang up if the plate doesn’t start in perfectly straight. The dovetail plate is 1" thick x 5" wide x 12.5" in length, and weighs 3.35 lbs (54 ounces).
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