Mounts

The mount is the componet which holds the 'telescope' The telescope is usually referred to as the Optical Tube Assembly (OTA) and although most telescopes come with a mount, the mounts are separate from the telescope and can be changed with some minor effort. Some astronomers actually mount one telescope (ie a refractor) to another telescope (SCT) to take advantage of some mount's ability to track stars and planets in the sky or to act as a guiding scope for astrophotography. The main mount types are: - Altazimuth Mountings (Dobsonian) - Equatorial Mount - Fork Mount All of the above mounts can have motors to permit tracking ("follow the stars" or planets) as well as to find objects for you ("go to"). Most GoTo scopes will also track objects but not all tracking scopes will provide GoTo functionality. Many people just want to be able to track objects for longer viewing opportunities and once you learn the night sky you may not need a 'go to' capability. GoTo scopes also require additional set up and costs.