Astro-Tech 7" Short universal dovetail plate for Vixen-style mounts, black

$30.00

Availability: Out of stock

This black-anodized Astro-Tech 7" universal dovetail plate lets you mount short focal length optical tubes on any altazimuth or equatorial mount that uses a Vixen-style dovetail saddle . . .
Our Product #: ATVUPSB
 

Product Description

This black-anodized 7" Astro-Tech short universal dovetail plate fits the dovetail slot of the Vixen-style saddle used on current Vixen and Vixen-style altazimuth and German equatorial mounts. Such mounts include the Astro-Tech Voyager altazimuth; Celestron CG-5 and Advanced Series equatorial mounts; Meade LXD-75 equatorial mount; and Vixen Polaris, Great Polaris, and Sphinx equatorials, or Porta altazimuth mounts.

The Astro-Tech universal dovetail is designed primarily to hold the mounting rings of short focal length Astro-Tech, TeleVue, Parks, Takahashi, and Meade refractors, plus those of the smaller Astro-Tech, Questar, Meade, and Celestron catadioptric optical tubes.

The dovetail has two unthreaded 6.9mm diameter mounting holes at the ends of the dovetail and a 0.25" wide x 5" long slot on the plate's centerline for attaching rings and other accessories using 1/4"-20 or metric bolts. The configuration of the slot and mounting holes is shown in the engineering drawing in the feature image below. This combination of the slot and the mounting holes allows you to install virtually any configuration of mounting rings.

The underside of the dovetail is routed out to a depth of 10mm so that the mounting holes and slots are all effectively countersunk into the underside of the dovetail. This assures that the heads of the bolts holding the mounting rings will not protrude and keep the dovetail plate from sliding back and forth in the mount saddle for balancing.

There is also a 1/4"-20 thread hole at each end of the plate. This lets you install 1/4"-20 bolts in the holes to act as safety stops. These will keep the dovetail from sliding out of the mount saddle unexpectedly should the mount's locking knob loosen accidentally.

The 5/8" thick dovetail is precision-machined of aluminum stock. It measures 15" long x 42mm wide at its widest point (36mm wide across the top ring mounting surface) and is hard-anodized black for durability. It weighs 6.4 ounces.

Tech Details

Weight 6.4 oz.
Warranty 1 year

Reviews

Review by:
I have quite a few of these and they all work great. Look good too. On all the various mounts we have, they are always a good fit without any slop and there does not seem to be any large size variations between samples. (Posted on 10/11/2019)
Review by:
I purchased this dovetail plate to mount my TMB short focal length refractor to a Vixen SXD mount. It worked perfectly. The finished has been very durable and I especially like the continuous slot for mounting bolts. It's very easy to fit any bolt spacing and balancing needs. (Posted on 9/23/2019)
Review by:
I purchased this dovetail plate to mount a TMB short focal length scope on a Vixen SXD mount. Worked great. I really like the full length slot. Makes balancing the scope on the mount easier. (Posted on 9/22/2019)
Review by:
I bought this dovetail plate to mount an 80 mm wide field refractor on my alt/az mount that came with my Celestron Evo 8"SCT. It work s perfectly. Nicely machined black andonized aluminum. The mounting slots are nice if you need to mount something with non-standard spacing for the mounting bolts. Definitely a good value ! (Posted on 9/9/2019)
Review by:
This dovetail plate is very nice. The fit and finish is great. It allowed me to balance/mount my AT60mm and it's really been a great addition. I may even use it for other situations. (Posted on 11/1/2018)
Review by:
Purchased this dovetail as a rail extension in February, 2018 to improve the balance the OTA on my Celestron 8SE scope. (the "Ron's Rail" mod described in the NexStar Forum in cloudynights.com). The dovetail worked perfectly for this application, it's solid, well made and attractive. Very satisfied. (Posted on 10/30/2018)
Review by:
The slot allows fitting many different bolt spacings. I have used it to mount my ETX90 base and my ST80 rings. (Posted on 10/25/2018)
Review by:
I bought the 7" slotted Vixen dovetail plate, and found it was very versatile for fitting odd-spaced attachment bolts, due to the two long mounting bolt slots. The dovetail seems very tough too, and doesn't seem weakened by the slots. (Posted on 10/19/2018)
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