Stellarvue M4 German Equatorial Mount on Heavy Duty Surveyor's Tripod

4.0 A good light to medium duty mount

Nice gearing, light but strong construction, easily tuned.

Needs tuning for best performance, awful aluminum tripod that's easy to replace with wood.

Although no longer sold in the US, this mount is a good value if you can find it on the used market. The actual manufacturer is GSO of Taiwan, and nearly identical versions of the same mount were sold by Orion (as the Skyview Deluxe) and Hardin Optical (back when they were still in the amateur astronomy business). I've heard that the mount is still sold in other countries. The worm gear and worms on both the RA and DEC are substantial and nicely machined. Like many Taiwanese and Chinese mounts the M4 benefits from a little TLC. I took mine apart and relubed it with lithium grease, adjusted the fit of the worm and worm gears, and loosened or tightened bearings as needed. Once this was done the mount was transformed into a very good performer. Mine has the polar scope (which is very nice) and an RA drive and hand controller. Remove these, adjust the latitude setting to 90 degrees and the M4 converts to a nice alt-azimuth mount with slo-mo controls. The only thing I would knock is the shake-prone aluminum tripod--but I replaced mine with wood legs and the shakes and wobbles vanished.