APM GE-300 (Direct Drive)

Our professional APM GE-300 mounting starts at a point where the carrying capacity of other mountings is too low. This mount has been developed for large Cassegrain telescopes and Hypergraphs from 24" aperture onwards, but it is also a perfect match for long and heavy refractors like our large APM-LZOS apochromatic refractors. Hollow shafts with a inner diameter of 90mm and a outer diameter of 140mm provide a very high carrying capacity of 660 lb. If requested, the mount is also available in a complete stainless steel version.

The APM GE-300 is available in two variants depending on the field of application, here:

Direct Drive model

This version of the APM GE-300 is a directly driven mounting with torque motors. It has a built in Renishaw Absolute Encoder.

A directy driven mounting has is strengths when an extremely precise tracking is needed, e.g. for astrophotography setups. But a accurate balancing is required for this purpose. So this version type of our biggest mount should be used for fixed telescope setup without changes.

In the basic configuration you will get this mount with

SiTech Control: High end features (Windows/Ascom driver) for controlling the mount with servo motors,
or you can use RTS2, the Linux driver for the SiTech Control

Technical data:

Material	Steel / Stainless Steel
Type of mount	Parallactic GOTO mount
Motor control	SiTech Control
Motors	Torque Motors
PEC	exists
Weight equatorial head	990 lb without Counterweights
Length / Width / Height	1209mm / 370mm / 1112mm
Payload max.	660 lb Photographic / 880 lb Visual (depending on using and demand)
Polar hight adjustment	0 - 90°
Telescope attachment	Optional
Periodic error	+/- 3 Arc Seconds RMS
Counterweights	3 x 88 lb inclusive
Tripod	Equatorial Pier
Weight over all	ca. 1255 lb

Mounting Blueprints

Observatory installation example with 12" F/12 LZOS Apochromat

Configuration and Shipping

Equatorial Head incl. 3 Counterweights á 88 lb
Encoder for both Axes
Motors and Controllers as described above
Power Supply
Delivery time is 6 months

Equatorial pier

The GE-300 can be configured as an equatorial pier version with 1,5m height. All other features are identical to the regular GE-300 mounting, except a more heavy weight.

Equatorial Pier Mounting Blueprints

Fork version

The GE-300 can be configured as a fork version. All other features are identical to the regular GE-300 mounting, except a more heavy weight. The fork width can be adapted to the telescope of the customer.

Fork installation example with 24" F/8 Ritchey Chrétien

Prices on www.apm-telescopes.de!