Two-Axis Balancing Allows Holding Position Without Clamping
The Half Hitch implements two-axis balancing without the use of counterweights. To accomplish two-axis balancing without counterweights, one must be able to shift the telescope attachment point up-and-down as well as fore-and-aft. A machined track on the Half Hitch's saddle plate provides the up-down adjustment, and the dovetail plate makes fore-aft adjustment easy. Together, these adjustments allow the mass of the telescope and saddle to be centered on the altitude axis so that the scope is stable when pointed to any elevation and so that one does no work against gravity when turning the telescope. This translates into the lightest and smoothest tracking and pointing. Using modern (heavy) wide-field eyepieces or a bino-viewer makes two-axis balancing very important!
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Why Adding Friction Doesn't Solve Balance Some claim that if you add enough friction into the altitude axis of a mount, then you do not have to balance your telescope. This is a bad idea for at least five reasons:
No amount of "smoothness" can overcome these effects — especially for small centering and tracking movements. All mounts are affected by unbalanced loads. A mount that resists shifts in balance is a mount that resists turning! That’s the physics. Even mounts with geared slow-motion controls must apply friction through clutches to overcome unbalanced loads and suffer from all the above problems. The Half Hitch eliminates these problems by making complete two-axis balancing easy and by employing true low-friction bearings to make turning forces predictable, intuitive, and controllable. |

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The Balance Trimmer (which attaches to the front of the saddle plate) makes zeroing out the differences in eyepiece weights easy and fast. It has two-axis effect for keeping the balance perfect. (Note: The small trim weight is not a counterweight for the telescope — but only nulls the differences in eyepiece weights.) |
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