Vixen’s GPD2 Equatorial Mount is the latest in a long line of Polaris mounts the company has produced. // photo courtesy Vixen Optics
If you’ve read any of my Astronomycolumns in , you know that I do a lot of astroimaging and value high-quality equipment. And next to a telescope’s optics, the most important piece of equipment is the mount.
I installed a permanent mount in my home observatory. It’s large and routinely carries telescopes like my 14.5-inch Cassegrain reflector. But I also like to shoot with smaller wide-field telescopes and camera lenses, especially from ultra-dark sites like Alturas in California.
For those times, I need a portable mount that’s more than just a tracker, one with an accurate polar-alignment scope and a reasonable price tag. After I saw Vixen’s GPD2 Equatorial Mount at the 2012 Northeast Astronomy Forum, I decided to buy one.
