AOKswiss AYO II Alt-Az Mount

[FLO]

FLO has been appointed UK stockist for the AOKswiss AYO II Alt-Az Mount 

Designed and manufactured in Switzerland by Beat Kohler, the AYO II is the combination of over 15 years of development and refinement. Beautifully made inside and out. If you appreciate good engineering you will be impressed! 

I met with Beat some time ago and was embarrassed to discover we, in the past, have sold rather a lot of what was essentially a copy of his mount! Indeed most similar-looking Alt-Az mounts sold today have 'borrowed' from Beat's design. 

The AYO-II will sit happily on the tripods supplied with Celestron CG-5, Skywatcher EQ5/HEQ5, the Meade LXD75, Vixen GP and Vixen Super Polaris mounts. The excellent Berlebach Uni-18 and Uni-28 tripods made from Ash wood will also work very well. 

We will steadily increase our range of AOKswiss products and will stock a number of their accessories. 

Steve

 

[John]

Oh good - I've been thinking about a nice new alt-az mount for my Tak 100 and ED120

Are other colours available ?

I quite like the red though !

 

[FLO]

13 minutes ago, John said:

Oh good - I've been thinking about a nice new alt-az mount for my Tak 100 and ED120

Are other colours available ?

I quite like the red though !

Beat says Red is the most popular colour, by a large margin, but he also offers black and yellow/gold versions. We will happily source a a black or yellow/gold model if you wish  

[Helen]

I've been drooling over one with DSC...  The fact they work on a standard (heavy duty) photo tripod is a real advantage.

Helen

[Chris]

I spotted these on your site last night and thought they looked like a really nice bit of kit. What other OAK Swiss products do you think you'll stock? 

Lean times for astro spending recently, but it won't last  

[xtreemchaos]

OOOo lovely, any prices yet?, gos well with the Berlebach.

ps ive just seen link not a bad price.

[FLO]

26 minutes ago, Chris Lock said:

I spotted these on your site last night and thought they looked like a really nice bit of kit. What other OAK Swiss products do you think you'll stock? 

We will be guided by you, if people request it we will stock it  

Having said that I think the model with encoders (the one winking at Helen) is a definite. Some astronomers (perhaps most) don't like the thought of encoders in an Alt-Az mount, they feel it isn't in keeping with Alt-Az grab-&-go simplicity, but others have requested it and there is an AYO-II available with encoders for convenient 'push-to' astronomy. The encoders are entirely enclosed, positioned between the azimuth axis and altitude axis, and offer 5000 pic's per revolution on each axis. Because they are enclosed they are well protected from damage. Indeed it was Beat's wish to fit encoders into the AYO's body that led to today's slightly larger AYO-II. The larger size has also enabled larger and stronger bearings. 

[FLO]

8 minutes ago, xtreemchaos said:

ive just seen link not a bad price.

Thank-you for noticing 

[jabeoo1]

These look very nice....Now wishing I got out of the habit browsing the FLO website.  

[DirkSteele]

On 6/8/2016 at 13:02, FLO said:

We will be guided by you, if people request it we will stock it  

Having said that I think the model with encoders (the one winking at Helen) is a definite. Some astronomers (perhaps most) don't like the thought of encoders in an Alt-Az mount, they feel it isn't in keeping with Alt-Az grab-&-go simplicity, but others have requested it and there is an AYO-II available with encoders for convenient 'push-to' astronomy. The encoders are entirely enclosed, positioned between the azimuth axis and altitude axis, and offer 5000 pic's per revolution on each axis. Because they are enclosed they are well protected from damage. Indeed it was Beat's wish to fit encoders into the AYO's body that led to today's slightly larger AYO-II. The larger size has also enabled larger and stronger bearings. 

Any sense of when the encoder model might be available to purchase?

[FLO]

On 28 June 2016 at 18:05, DirkSteele said:

Any sense of when the encoder model might be available to purchase?

We hope to have the encoder versions here on our shelves around Aug/Sept but if you would like us to special-order one before then please email us details of the model you want, we will then calculate a price and ETA. 

HTH, 

Steve 

[nightfisher]

Real numpty question.................what do the encoders do on these mounts

[Helen]

43 minutes ago, nightfisher said:

Real numpty question.................what do the encoders do on these mounts

Measure movement to allow you to measure position.  You add a little box (eg Argo navis, Sky commander) to give you digital setting circles - its like goto except you provide the power for the movement  Oh, and now you can connect to the astro apps too.  I love it, easy, quiet, quick, and effective.

Helen

[JG777]

On 08/06/2016 at 12:45, Helen said:

I've been drooling over one with DSC...  The fact they work on a standard (heavy duty) photo tripod is a real advantage.

Helen

+1 to this, definitely interested in the one with encoders.

[Cjg]

@FLO in December 2015 we talked about a traveller mount, that I suspect got discontinued, this http://www.aokswiss.ch/ayo/vamo_traveler/main_vamo_traveler.html looks as if it could be the answer to many on here who are looking for something to work with their grab and go set up.

Can you please check price and availability Steve? Thank you.

Chris