Vixen Mount Advanced Polaris AP-SM Starbook One

The Advanced Polaris equatorial mount is ideal for beginners, but also for more experienced observers who are looking for a light travel mount.

The Advanced Polaris not only has a very stylish design, but also some powerful features under the hood, as the illustration on the right shows. An aluminium gearwheel with a 58.4mm diameter and 144 teeth allows fine adjustments to the axes, as well as 9mm diameter worm shafts, each supported by two bearings – that’s precision engineering at its best!

What is special about the Advanced Polaris is the adjustable slipper clutch: without having to unlock anything, you can simply move your telescope in the direction in which you want to point it. The exact centering of the eyepiece is then done using rotary knobs. The slipper clutch works even if your Advanced Polaris is equipped with motors (AP-SM). This allows you to quickly and intuitively navigate the sky.

In order to align the mount to the north, you can use either a polar finder scope, or the compass of the of the Vixen Polarie photo mount. The Advanced Polaris has connectors for both options. The compass has the advantage that you do not need to bend down under the mount, and also don’t need a view of the Polar Star for alignment. The polar finder and compass can be found under “recommended accessories”. In summary: thanks to the extensive accessories available, the mount can be enhanced to suit all your needs.

The Star Book One is a versatile yet easy-to-use control, which allows tracking in the R.A. and Dec axes with variable speeds. Among the tracking options available are not only the important sidereal tracking, but also speeds for time-lapse recordings and lunar and solar observations. In addition, the control system offers many useful functions, such as backlash compensation, autoguider port, PEC, and a built-in red LED light.

The Star Book One control is intended for, among others, the Vixen Advanced Polaris and SX2 mounts, and is an integral part of the Advanced Polaris R.A. motor module. Please note: if the Advanced Polaris mount is also to be motorised on the declination axis, then the declination motor module is additionally required. In contrast, all motors are already already installed in the SX2 mount.

The motorisation of the right ascension axis is sufficient for tracking the mount during observations or photography. The tracking of the right ascension axis ensures that the movement of the celestial sphere is compensated for.

• Dimension of the Star Book One: 13.7 x 6.5 x 2.1cm
• Weight: 110g
• CPU: 32-bit CISC Processor.

Most important features at a glance:

• The four arrow buttons on the Star Book One directly control the motors.
• The two-line LCD display has an adjustable red background for night-time observation, so that you will not be dazzled and lose your eyes’ dark adaption.
• The menu language is English.
• A variety of tracking speeds are available, in particular the direction of rotation can be changed depending on the hemisphere.
• In order to home in on celestial objects there are four different speeds for you to choose from.
• The backlash compensation ensures that the control is more responsive if the motion direction is changed. This is very welcome when trying to center a celestial object in the eyepiece at high magnification.
• The Star Book One can be used for autoguiding.
• PEC Control: The tracking compensates for the inevitable errors that inevitably occur in each gear. This periodic error correction is important for images requiring long exposure times.