Orion 7956 Narrow Side-by-Side Plate

With an Orion Narrow Side-by-Side Plate you can easily mount two telescope optical tubes to a single equatorial (EQ) mount. The Wide Side-by-Side plate attaches to an EQ mount equipped with a narrow, or Vixen-style dovetail saddle, and accepts optical tubes outfitted with a narrow dovetail mounting plate. You can also mount an optical tube that is equipped with tube rings attached to a narrow dovetail mounting plate. Having two telescopes mounted side-by-side is a great way to expand your visual observational abilities. You can, for example, attach one telescope optimized for wide-field views and another for high magnification use. Once you have the mount trained on a target object, you can alter between wide-field and high-magnification views by looking through the two different telescopes. Imagine going to a star-party and showing off a powerful view of Jupiter's red spot region through one telescope AND a wider view of Jupiter's disk and bright moons through another telescope on the same EQ mount - talk about a crowd-pleaser! For astro-imaging pursuits, an Orion Narrow Side-by-Side plate allows you to mount an imaging telescope and guide scope next to each other instead of in a "piggyback" orientation. This can help reduce tracking errors and simplify your astro-imaging setup. What's more, you can easily swap out telescopes when using a Side-by-Side Plate if you wish to change your imaging or guide scope instruments in the middle of a lengthy imaging session.