Dovetails

ASTRONOMICAL ACCESSORIES

Dovetail Systems

Farpoint has a variety of accessories to help you create a perfect and convenient setup. Rather than screwing the telescope or its mounting rings directly to the mount, most are instead attached to a long metal plate with a trapezoidal profile called a dovetail plate. This plate is gripped by the mount in a clamp called the saddle. This standardized dovetail plate-saddle arrangement allows any brand of telescope or rings to attach to any mount. The two major standards for dovetails are Vixen "V" and Losmandy "D". The Vixen-style plates are the smaller of the two, while Losmandy-style plates are wider and flatter. These are helpful when using a range of scopes with one mount.

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