SVBONY SV225 Alt-Azimuth Mount, Adjustable Angle Alt-Azimuth Mount, Load-Bearing 10kg, CNC Hollow Structure, Telescope Altazimuth Fine Adjustment Shift, Telescope Accessories with Variable Speed Gear

Very solid construction, easy to reconfigure the alignment of altitude / azimuth and slow motion controls, very smooth slow motion controls.Just to be aware, if paired with the SV225 tripod, which is relatively short, the center line of the mounted telescope is 41.5 inches / 105.4 centimeters high. That is fine for seated viewing, but a bit short for most people when standing. If that is a concern, you might consider pairing this mount with a different tripod.

I was surprised by the quality in this unit. It's well built, and the controls are very smooth. It can also be assembled in different ways for different configurations, which is convenient. I bought it for a small refractor, but after I got it and noticed how well built it was, I thought I would test it to see if it could work with larger telescopes. I managed to mount a 6" Schmidt Newtonian telescope with a corrector plate and large, computer controller focuser, and it did fine. It was at the limit, but it totally worked. I don't plan to use it that way, but it's nice to know it's overbuilt for what I'm using it for. I was able to repurpose an older telescope tripod that came with a cheap telescope and manual EQ mount, which now makes for a very excellent and ultra-portable tripod for my small refractor. It's always setup as a "grab and go" scope with a solar filter and a couple of eyepieces. I've been waiting for years for something affordable to come along so I could make a nice, cheap, tripod and mount for my small refractors, and this really fit the bill.

Ni-i-ice! The SVBONY SV225 Mini turned my very old, very unsmooth tripod into a precision platform for my 20-60x80 spotting scope. The mount plate of the SV225 isn't ideal for my scope's Arca Swiss foot but they do work together. AZ/EL adjustments are smooth and mine actually has 85° of elevation rather than the advertised 60°. Construction & finish seem top notch.

This could have been a top of the mark mount head for a telescope. Its features are great and concept fantastic. Sadly from the production point of view there are problems. The digital marked dials are on backwards. The brushing inside is cheap plastic causing after a few uses the mount to not hold steady with drifting. The outward appearance is nice but beauty is not skin deep.

I'm really picky about recreational astronomy equipment. There is a lot of poorly designed stuff out there that either doesn't work that well, isn't durable, or is user hostile. The SV 225 mount is great. It came very well packaged, I've used it on top of an Artcise AS90C carbon fiber tripod with a 102mm aperture Maksutov and with two different 90mm aperture refracting telescopes.The mount holds the telescope steady and the slow motion controls make it easy to zero in on an object and then keep it from drifting out of the eyepiece as the earth turns. In fact the weaker point in the system is the tripod. The SV 225 works even better when I've had it on a heavier and more rigid tripod.The SV 225 gives exceptionally good performance for a value mount. The locks on each axis work well and the slow motions are smooth. I find it very easy to set up and use and it is well built with good knobs and finishes.I did customize it with two additions. I bought a 1.25 inch bubble level on Amazon and put it on the mount with double sided tape. This makes it easier to level up the tripod. I also put on a clamp type telescope dovetail bracket - the part that holds the telescope. The screw type bracket that comes with the SV 225 is perfectly adequate, except there is some risk that the screw will leave pressure dimples in the mounting rail on the telescope. Dimples in no way impair the function of the telescope, the are just aesthetically displeasing. Both of these additions are nice to haves and not at all necessary to make the mount work well.If you need a small, quality, affordable alt-azimuth mount that represents a good value, I can highly recommend this one.

I have recently ordered and received 3 of these mounts - 2 from Amazon and one directly from Svbony. All 3 had a problem with the clutch screws in that you could not get the handle to reposition when pulling up on it. The retention screws were not properly sized and in order to get the clutch handles to reposition (so the handles don't interfere with scope movement), I had to back the screws out 2 or 3 threads then loctite them in place so they wouldn't continue to back out. On the unit I bought directly from Svbony, the rubber cover on the panning handle would not stay on the handle - I had to glue it on using some 3M weatherstrip adhesive (great stuff!). One unit had too much play in the Azimuth axis and I had to take it apart and tighten the axis pivot nut so the mount wouldn't wobble. Another unit had a poorly threaded hole for the panning handle and wouldn't accept the handle when you tried to screw it in. Fortunately, I had the correct tap, cleaned the hole out and now the handle screws in nicely.If it were not for these small, easy-to-fix quality issues, I would give the mount 5 stars as once put together correctly, it's a great value for a 10kg alt-az with slow motion controls. But I had to fix something on all 3 - somebody at Svbony needs to do some inspection on their outgoing products.