The Astelco NTM-500 research grade telescope mounting is available for £30,586.99 including custom sized NTM-Pro anti-vibration steel pier.

We intend to expand this page but in the mean time click the text below to visit the NTM-500 homepage:

Astelco NTM-500 homepage

The use of state of the art Torque drive motor technology with this mount leads to maximum dynamic function offering extremly accurate tracking and extremly rapid positioning, and also to the possibilty of very high acceleration at all slewing and tracking speeds with very short response-times and therefore allows for the first time tracking accuracies like professional large telescopes without periodic errors and well known problems with gear backlash and friction at various temperatures.

The two-axis mount system consists of three main components: mount, control-unit and software.1.2 Mechanics1.2.1 MountThe mount consists of a very stiff and rigidly designed housing of the two large dimensioned hollow axles, the motor-encoder-unit, the bearings and the brakes.The two axles are mounted perpendicular to each other with high accuracy. The residual errors will be taken into account from the built-in pointing model of the software and will be corrected.The housing of both axles are made of a special aluminum alloy and are anodized (colour to be chosen by the customer).The axles and all other parts of the mount are made of stainless steel and therefore rustproof. The load capacity of the NTM-500 will be at least 50 kg (telescope tube weight plus additional counter balancing weights).The base plate of the mount is suitable for connection to either tripods, piers or DIMM towers.1.2.2 Drives, Encoders and BearingsPositioning, pointing and tracking will be performed by high dynamic torque-motors which are designed as absolute backlash free direct drives without any gears. Together with the high resolution encoders which are mounted on both axles, these motor-encoder units guarantee precise pointing and tracking. Depending on the mode of the installation (equatorial or alt-alt), all azimuth and elevation, as well as all RA and DEC angles respectivly, can be reached.Both axles are equipped with large high precision conventional roller bearings.The direct drives together with the high precision bearings guarantee a smooth and backlash free movement of the axles at all slewing and tracking speeds which are necessary for the observing operation.

Although not recommended on safety grounds the NTM-500 is capable of 100 degree/second slewing. Don't belive it? Click the following link for an eye-popping video demo!

100deg/sec with the NTM-500