From the legendary Atlux range from Vixen comes the Atlux Deluxe (AXD), the flagship among the astronomical mounts!
In the past, there were two different mount models such as, for example, the Atlux mount. There was also the Star Book control unit. Each of these devices were, in their time, innovative and high-performance. With the recent increasing use of highly sensitive DSLR cameras which enable breathtaking images to be captured, the demand for more accuracy and modern technology has increased. Vixen responded to these changes with the development of the AXD mount. The aim was to achieve a high-performance mount with a high degree accuracy, which was developed with both astro-photography beginners as well as professional photographers in mind.
Even advanced astronomers will appreciate that the top performance and accurate tracking during observation and photography pays off, and superb photographic results can be achieved.
Beginner astronomers will appreciate the user-friendly operation offered by the AXD mount, giving them the opportunity to produce successful astrophotography without having to be an expert in this field. No matter what kind of astronomy you are interested in, whether photographer or observer, you will find this mount easy to operate.
- Rugged construction and a light body: the A7075 super alloy, which is the strongest aluminum alloy, is used for the RA and Dec axes. The stability of the A7075 super alloy is greater than titanium, which is well-known as a lightweight material with high strength. Its density is 38% lower than titanium. The use of the A7075 super alloy for the axes makes the AXD mount light and yet stable.
- 21 bearings: the moving parts of the AXD mount have a total of 21 bearings. This makes for a very smooth motion, in order to slew to objects and to follow them.
- Stepper motors: Vixen chose more accurate stepper motors for the mount, in order to be able to realise the full performance potential. The disadvantage of stepper motors with large steps has been eliminated through the micro-step motion control system. This system delivers 400 pulses per second at high speed. This ensures smooth tracking without vibrations. The AXD mount stepper motors have sufficient torque. This is most evident when working at high levels of magnification and CCD photography with small pixel sizes.
- Worm gears: the size of the worm gears was increased in the latest Atlux version. The AXD mount has 270 teeth in RA and 216 teeth in DC. Both axes are 50 mm in diameter. With this, the mount achieves a high degree of accuracy and stability.
- Low backlash: Due to the Vixen micro-step motion control system, the stepper motors run from low to high speed very smoothly. This eliminates the need for reduction gears in the motor and thus reduces backlash in the gear train.
- Original motor layout: the solid RA and Dec motor units are arranged in the lower part of the mount. In this way they automatically act as counterweight . Therefore you need much less weight on the counterweight shaft. For example when using smaller equipment no counterweight is needed at all. The counterweight shaft can be retracted completely into the housing.
- Polar finder telescope: the AXD mount is fitted with a 6x20 polar finder telescope as standard. With the polar finder’s built-in scale polar alignment in the northern hemisphere is simple and accurate. For observation in southern latitudes the Octans constellation is displayed, which can then be superimposed on the real stars.
- Periodic error correction VPEC: periodic errors are usually measured and corrected by the user of the mount. Since the old Star Book did not permanently store this error, this issue has been resolved in the Star Book Ten. The mount’s periodic error is measured during production and corrected prior to despatch. This is called VPEC and works automatically as soon as you use the mount. With it you can achieve an accuracy of +/- 4 arcseconds. You will be able to further increase the tracking accuracy, by saving your own recorded periodic error.
The German structure is retained in the development of the robust but light AXD mount. All electronic parts in the mount are in a printed circuit board in order to simplify the wiring. The mount is equipped with a particularly reliable printed circuit board.
The Starbook Ten is much more than a hand controller with GoTo functionality!
Here are a few features of this extraordinary astronomy computer
- Large colour LCD monitor: The Starbook Ten's monitor has a 5-inch TFT colour liquid crystal display with high WVGA (800×480 pixels, 65,535 colours) resolution. During astronomical observations at night, the observer's eyes adapt to the darkness. For this reason, the display can be switched to red backlighting. The red light does not interfere with this adaptation to darkness as much as white light. All command and direction buttons can be illuminated in red so that you can keep track of them even in the dark. The illuminated buttons can be switched on or off.
- Moon map: You can view a map of the visible part of the moon on the screen. All important landmarks on the moon's surface are highlighted and can be selected for the GoTo function.
- Fast CPU: The Starbook Ten has a CPU with a clock speed of 324 MHz, which is about 5 times faster than the CPU of the old Starbook. This means that the star chart loads faster and makes the screen more vivid.
- Simple menu: With the Starbook Ten, you can call up your celestial bodies in both scope and chart mode. You can also select your objects by scrolling through the star chart in chart mode. Frequently used menus can be found on each of the ten buttons. This allows you to quickly and easily access the most important functions directly at the touch of a button.
- Large database: The Starbook Ten contains more than 270,000 celestial objects, including 258,977 stars from the SAO star catalogue, 109 Messier objects, 7,840 objects and NGC 5386 IC objects, the sun, the moon and the planets of our solar system. Simply call up objects using their common names.
- P-PEC function: You can store a periodic error correction to improve the tracking accuracy of the mount. This is stored and retained even when you switch off the instrument and start it up again the next time.
- Hunting for satellites and comets: You can enter the orbital elements of a satellite or comet directly into the Starbook via a PC's LAN connection. You can store up to 10 satellites or comets in your Starbook.
- User-defined objects: The Starbook Ten is capable of storing user-defined objects. This allows you to store other interesting celestial objects that you would like to observe or photograph. You can enter the position data of up to 10 objects directly or via the LAN connection of a PC.
- Different tracking speeds: It is possible to change the tracking rate depending on the type of object you are observing. The movement of the sun, moon, planets or comets can be tracked at different speeds.
- Advanced alignment algorithm: You can achieve precise alignment of the mount by simply moving to two stars at least ten degrees apart and saving their positions. You can enter the position data of up to twenty stars on the control. If you save additional stars for alignment within ten degrees, the control will notify you in the dialogue box, as this would not result in more accurate positioning.
- Starbook Ten has a large backup memory in which your information can be stored. This allows you to switch off the instrument and save the batteries. When the mount resumes operation, the data remains stored.
- Atmospheric refraction: This option allows you to compensate for or reduce atmospheric refraction on celestial objects near the horizon.
- Cross Over Meridian: The mount has a safety feature that rotates the optical tube in the opposite direction when the observation object reaches its highest position to prevent the optics from hitting the mount. However, you can freely select or disable this feature if you want to take photographs with your equipment.
The Starbook Ten also has an expansion slot where you can add an additional module. With the optional module, you can operate an autoguider for automatic object tracking during photography.
