Description

Adapts male Vixen-style bars for use in D-Style saddle plates

This 12" plate fills the void for Astro-Physics customers whose telescopes use the Vixen-style mounting plate. Now there is no need to replace your existing Vixen-style bar, rings, or clamshell to accommodate your Astro-Physics mount.

The top portion is a female plate that accepts Vixen-style bars. In order to retain the tilt-in feature of the dovetail, the sliding bars must have an approximate width between 1.65" (4.2 cm) and 1.8"
(4.5 cm) and that have a 75 degree bevel.

Please note that we have not tested all plates that are currently available on the market. We recommend you check your plate for a good fit in this saddle without an instrument attached!

The bottom dovetail of the plate has the ubiquitous D-style male dovetail, allowing it to be clamped into any saddle plate which accepts this size plate. This includes the following Astro-Physics plates:

As well as these discontinued, older style saddles:

DOVELM

DOVELM16

DOVELM16S

The saddle portion of this plate has a hole in the center to relocate one of the knobs for use with a shorter sliding bar (as pointed out in the rollover image above). With a knob in the center and in one of the outer holes, you can use a plate as short as 4.5" (11.4 cm) and still maintain two clamps engaged on your sliding bar.
This plate ships with one 1/4 - 20 x 1/4" socket head screw to use in the bottom of the SBD2V plate as a safety screw for this plate. Please install it in the appropriate end to function as a safety stop. The screw packet also includes a 1/4 - 20 x 1/4" low-profile socket head cap screw for use as a safety stop in the bottom of your Vixen-style, male sliding bar.

Note that the top portion of this plate is not designed to be used with our SB0800, SB1000 or SB1500 sliding bars. Can't tell the difference between the Vixen and Astro-Physics sliding bars? comparing each of the bar profiles.

Weight: 2 lb. (0.9 kg). This plate is ribbed on the bottom to remove excess weight yet maintain strength.