AVALON M-ZERO HQ MOUNT

Testar Australia is a technical assistant dealer for Avalon Instruments. Our staff has been trained at the Avalon Instruments factory to provide assistance, repairs and maintenance on their products. 

The Avalon M-ZERO HQ has been designed to revolutionize the world of portable astronomy. The unique and innovative design, the light weight and small dimensions, greater versatility and high quality make the M-Zero the perfect portable mount. New version with high resolution (HQ) stepper motors in either red or matte black.

Several mounts in one

The M-Zero mount is a versatile and compact mount for visual astronomy and astrophotography. For astrophotography it can be configured as a standard equatorial mount or a single arm fork mount while for visual observation it can be configured in alt-azimuth mode.

Double Telescope Setup

With the Dual-DEC system, you can install a second telescope on the opposite side of the declination axis. Considering this capability it is possible to use a great range of optics starting from a small refractor up to a double setup with a total weight of 12-13 kg.  Avalon offers a vast range of accessories that can be connected with the Dual-DEC system such as Vixen saddles, Losmandy Saddles or the X-Guider.

Meridian flip, something of the past. 

Like the Linear, the motion transmission technology is based on pulley-tooth belt without play, while its geometry makes the imaging easy at the meridian without having to wait for the object to cross the meridian.

Counterweights goodbye 

Why use counterweights if the mount itself can be a large counterweight? That is the concept behind the Avalon M-Zero mount: shift all the mount mechanism on the counterweight side and reduce the dead weight to be carried. The declination axis can be quickly balanced like in an equatorial mount, while for the RA axis there is a small 0.5kg counterweight that can be placed in different positions.

No gears for high guiding performance 

Unlike other mounts, the Avalon M-Zero has such a low guiding RMS error that it makes astrophotography possible with telescopes with focal lengths up to 2m such as 8" SCTs.

Pulleys and toothed belts, zero backlash!

The majority of telescope mounts employ a worm drive gear system. This system however may produce a poor guiding performance due to mechanical errors in gears such as periodic error, rough gear surfaces and a play between gears (backlash).

Avalon mounts incorporate a much more accurate transmission system using special toothed belts and pulleys. This results in no backlash and extremely quick response to guide commands. 

No wear, no friction!

No wear since no relevant friction occurs. In fact, all the pulleys and the axes rotate on roller bearings allow to reduce the total friction almost to zero.

Since there are no gears, there is no need for periodical lubrication of the internal components and therefore the maintenance is much reduced and limited to the external cleaning.

Specifications

 Included items

• Single Fork Equatorial mount,
• Vixen Style dovetail saddle
• Mini counterweight bar
• 0.5kg kg counterweight
• Tripod T-Pod 90

Downloads

Avalon M-Zero manual

Avalon StarGo manual

In order to download mount firmware & StarGo software:

1. Register for an account on the Avalon Instruments website.

2. Once registered, log into the support page.

3. Next to the "Manuals" tab, the "Software and App" tab will appear - click on this to find the firmware and StarGo downloads.