Software Bisque Paramount Series 6 Taurus 400 Equatorial Fork Mount - With On-Axis Absolute Encoders
High Payload Capacity with Uninterrupted Horizon to Horizon Imaging - Now with Paramount Series 6 Upgrades!
Software Bisque has been offering Paramount mounts since 1996, and with their development, they set the standard for stability, performance, and reliability. The Series 6 Paramount is the next step to improving on a mount series that already offers everything you need to get the most out of your astrophotography sessions! The Series 6 Paramount models feature an updated Telescope Control System (TCS), a dual-axis DC servomotor TCS called the MKS 6000. The MKS6000 features expanded communication options, including USB Type-C, Ethernet, and WiFi. It also comes with improved reliability through hard-wired communication options along with the wireless computer control the WiFi offers!
High Quality Construction and Precision Features
The Taurus 400 Equatorial Fork Mount is constructed from high quality materials throughout, with a 6061 & 6063 powder coated aluminum body construction and brass worm gears - which Software Bisque makes and assembles, along with all other mechanical components, right in Golden, Colorado USA. This mount can carry large, heavy, setups, supporting telescopes with an outside diameter of 14"-22" and with a maximum weight capacity of 150 lb. With single-stack NEMA 23 servomotors providing consistent torque at speed and bearing surfaces on all moving parts, this mount can move your setups quickly, smoothly, and quietly. Equipment can be slewed at maximum rate of 3.5° per second on both axis, achievable in optimal conditions and with balanced setups of 75 lb. or less.
With its equatorial fork design the Taurus 400 eliminates the need for meridian flips, allowing you to image uninterrupted for hours on end. This mount is built to have, at maximum, 7 arcsecond peak-to-peak periodic error, which is lowered to 1arcsecond or less after just one training session in the included TheSky Professional software. To virtually eliminate backlash, Software Bisque uses belt-driven gears with spring loaded worm gears, further adding to the precision of this system. For cable management, the Taurus 400 Equatorial Fork Mount features cable channels and cutouts to allow for seamless connections from the fork arm back to the main housing. To make managing power simple, this mount provides three XT60 power connectors to deliver 12V at up to 60A max power. XT60 power connectors are lightweight durable, rated to carry up to 500V at 30A maximum (15 KW) and accept up to 12 AWG wires. XT60 connectors can power all the 12V DC equipment on your telescope.
Absolute On-Axis Encoders and Powerful Software
With these included encoders, no homing is required and the periodic error is insignificant. These on-axis absolute ring encoders feature 26-bit Renishaw encoders with 0.02 arc second precision, the effective elimination of periodic and other gear-based errors, fewer Tpoint calibration points are required and an extended temperature range. These encoders help exact even more precision from the excellent Paramount Series 6 Taurus 400 platform (and are available as a separate upgrade for non-Absolute encoder equipped models), however the powerful included software helps elevate this system's performance as well.
The Paramount Series 6 mounts now include TheSky Universal Bundle, which has the following software: TheSky Professional, Cameras+, Domes, TPoint, and Weather modules. The additional Multi-OS+ module lets you install TheSky on macOS™, Ubuntu™ Linux (ARM64), Ubuntu™ Linux (x86_64), and Windows™ operating systems. For motor-encoder operation, TheSky Professional offers advanced periodic error correction curve fitting to minimize gear errors. The precision temperature-compensated internal oscillator ensures accurate tracking rates over a wide temperature range while the built-in temperature sensor lowers the slew rate when the temperature drops.
All of these incredible Series 6 updates, excellent software, and precision mechanics, Software Bisque states that their Paramount series can deliver pointing accuracy of 30" RMS (to the entire sky, not just a portion) and unguided exposures that can reach up to 20 minutes under optimal conditions. With these incredible capabilities, it is hard to argue with Software Bisque's claim that this is "one of the world’s finest robotic equatorial-fork mounts"!