Telescopes

Fornax 10 LighTrack Mark II Mobile Tracking Mount

Fornax 10 mark II mountThe Fornax 10 LighTrack Mark II Mobile Tracking Mount is – as the title suggests – a mobile tracking mount for astrophotography that can carry a large dSLR with a telephoto lens or even a small telescope up to the recommended 5 kg payload. It will follow (track) the movement of the stars with very high accuracy, so that you can take a long exposure astro photo of the night sky. This can be done with a wide angle lens where tracking precision is not so paramount, but it will also work well with long focal length telephoto lenses up to the officially recommended 200mm, however we believe that if the system is well balanced then it will work with optics of much longer focal length. There as examles for this below thanks to customer contribution. Veijo Timonen from Finland provided some images taken with a 600mm Tamron lens which proves that the Fornax 10 LighTrack Mark II is capable of much more than the designers officially consider to.

The Fornax 10 has been aroung for quite a long time. It has been a good and cheap alternative to the famous Astrotrac mobile tracking mount and was probably the first similar device that tried to solve the same problem, but with a somewhat different approach as the Fornax mount uses a friction driven arm instead of the threaded bar used in Astrotrac. CNC machining can produce a surface with extremely high precision of curvature thus providing a better platform to achieve excellent tracking.

Fornax 10 oldest design from 2011

Fornax 10 oldest design from 2011

As a result, the Fornax 10 was alread tracking better than the Astrotrac back in 2012 when it was tested by Steve Richards of the Sky at Night Magazine (Group Test by the Sky at Night Magazine, April 2012, pages 96-100). The “only” problem was that the appearance of the Fornax 10 was somewhat industrial, with not so nice switches etc. so despite the fact that it would give you better images, customers were more happily buying the more expensive Astrotrac due to its beautiful design.
Although we loved selling Astrotrac and its accessories, the Fornax 10 was designed and manufactured by old friends and colleagues of the trade, so we really wanted to see it receiving attention that it deserves.

Fornax 10 slightly improved incarnation from 2014

Fornax 10 slightly improved incarnation from 2014

Whilst there were some improvements during the last few years, like replacing the black plastic housing with an aluminium one or adding function LED lights and nicer knobs, these changes were not catching the imagination of the audience good enough.
Finally, in the beginning of 2015 we received news that a completely redesigned, new version is coming out and we just received two prototypes in time, so that we could showcase it at Astrofest in London in February 2015.
According to the received feedback we advised the manufcaturer to add some other functionalities, plus the manufacurer’s interaction with other developers resulted in replacing the electronics with a more modern one that further boosted the performace of the already very precise device.
However these changes also meant some delays with manufacturing and so the first batch of the final product came out only in June, and further delivery was received in the end of July only.
Now the new version of the excellent product is available from UK stock.

Fornax 10 mark II mount fully redesigned model from 2015

Fornax 10 mark II mount fully redesigned model from 2015 with 365Astronomy 365651 Mini Wedge and 365Astronomy Ball Head (Model 365BALLHEAD-MEDIUM)

Please note that whilst the old version was available with a Fornax wedge that helped polar alignment, Fornax is working on a new version of a wedge that will be compatible with the new, redesigned Mark II model.

In the meantime we would recommend to go for a Skywatcher Star Adventurer Wedge or our own 365Astronomy 365651 Mini Wedge.

Various versions of a complete Fornax 10 travel system will be available soon from us and from our stockist dealers.

 

USER CONTRIBUTIONS

Please find below images taken by our customer, Veijo Timonen. Whilst he used various short focal length photographic objectives, he also took images with a Tamron zoom lens at 600mm focal length that shows the extreme precision of tracking of the Fornax 10 LighTrack Mark II.  At such focal lenth, the quality of the image will also depend on the stability of the whole system, so a sturdy tripod, wedge and ball head or other head are also incredibly important. The Fornax 10 will certainly be not the weekest point in the system.Cepheus and Cassiopeia H-Alpha image taken with Sony a7s, on Fornax 10 Mk II mount

Cepheus and Cassiopeia H-Alpha image taken with Sony a7s, on Fornax 10 Mk II mountMilkyway and Veil Nebula H-alpha image taken with Sony a7s via a Tamron 150-600mm zoom lens at 600mm focal length on a Fornax 10 LighTrack Mk II mount, courtesy of Veijo Timonen

Milkyway and Veil Nebula H-alpha image taken with Sony a7s via a Tamron 150-600mm zoom lens at 600mm focal length on a Fornax 10 LighTrack Mk II mount, courtesy of Veijo Timonen

NGC281 Pacman Nebula H-alpha image taken with Sony a7s via a Tamron 150-600mm zoom lens at 600mm focal length on a Fornax 10 LighTrack Mk II mount, courtesy of Veijo Timonen

NGC281 Pacman Nebula H-alpha image taken with Sony a7s via a Tamron 150-600mm zoom lens at 600mm focal length on a Fornax 10 LighTrack Mk II mount, courtesy of Veijo Timonen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Fornax 10 LighTrack Mark II on heavy-duty tripod and with Manfrotto MHXPro 3WG geared head

Fornax 10 LighTrack Mark II on heavy-duty tripod and with Manfrotto MHXPro 3WG geared head

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fornax 10 Mark II with Manfrotto head and Manfrotto tripod - courtesy of Veijo Timonen

Fornax 10 Mark II with Manfrotto head and Manfrotto tripod – courtesy of Veijo Timonen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was setup only to track the sun whilst observing via a proper solar filter that was installed in front of the telescope. We are nearly sure that the focal length of a Maksutov would be too much even for the extremem precision of the Fornax 10... ;o)

This was setup only to track the sun whilst observing via a proper solar filter that was installed in front of the telescope. We are nearly sure that the focal length of a Maksutov would be too much even for the extremem precision of the Fornax 10… ;o)

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Posted on September 4th, 2015.