TTS-160 Panther Lite Mount
– premium manual alt-az telescope mount
At Track The Stars, we understand the challenges of finding time and a perfect location for stargazing. That’s why we’ve developed the TTS-160 Panther Lite – a versatile, portable, and high-capacity telescope mount designed for ultimate convenience and precision.
Key Advantages
- Incredibly lightweight and travel-friendly at only 7 kg
- Versatile mounting for up to three telescopes
- Effortless, and smooth manual control
- No power, cables, or screens needed—pure observing
- Comfort Balancing for perfect stability and eyepiece height
TTS-160 Panther Lite Thread
– A Cloudy Nights Thread
Check out the discussion around the new TTS-160 Panther Lite on the Cloudy Nights Forum. Here is a quick snippet of what is being discussed:
“I’ve known Danish mount manufacturer Niels Haagh for quite a few years now. Niels runs the small company Track The Stars, and produces the well-known Panther alt-az mount, which has become quite popular. Last year, he revealed that he was thinking of making a simplified, manual version of the Panther mount, aimed at the visual observer, who valued simplicity and light weight over tracking. We had many discussions at star parties and over the phone. He specifically asked me, because he knew I was a dyed-in-the-wool star-hopper, and this was the segment he was aiming for. In September, a mutual friend, the Danish amateur Thomas Gera Jensen, brought the prototype mount to the Venø Star Party, as Niels wasn’t able to attend personally…”
Now you can put an 4kg or 8kg counterweight on the arm, and then slide your long refractor forward in its rings, thereby dramatically reducing eyepiece movement! And it works really, really well! By having this laterally movable weight, you can namely also very easily rebalance the scope laterally, when you change eyepieces.
The alt-az movement pattern of the mount is ideal for an observatory used by a large audience. The mount takes up less space than a traditional German Equatorial Mount of similar capacity and the eyepieces and other instruments are always situated in a good observing position.
My TTS-160 Panther mount is much easier to transport. It is extremely fast to setup and only one alignment star is needed with no mechanical alignment involved. … You immediately sense that the Panther is designed by someone who has tried to fumble with equipment in darkness with cold fingers. The mount has many elegant details and is mechanically very well constructed.
Sometimes uncomplicated visual is the way to go, and the TTS-160 Panther is about as easy, accurate and fun a mount for visual you can find and it does visual to with no polar alignment necessary. Imagine an Alt-Az mount designed for accurate go-to, simple and quick setup, and if you want, imaging.
