Losmandy 14″ V Series Universal Dovetail Plate – VUP14 Losmandy

Losmandy V Series 14″ Universal Dovetail Plate

Losmandy has designed this Vixen-style dovetail to fit a vast array of telescopes, including Meade, Tele Vue, Takahashi, Parks, Questar, and of course Vixen refractors. The Losmandy VUP14 dovetail is 14.0″ long, 1.7″ wide, and weighs 1.3 lb.

The Losmandy V-Series consists of dovetail plates and other accessories that have the same dimensions as a Vixen-type dovetail, which is standard in the industry, for the most part. Losmandy V-Series can be mounted to many Celestron, Orion, Vixen, and Meade systems, and it all starts with the dovetail plate. The V-Series Dovetail plates can be mounted to the top and/or bottom of your tube assembly, which will in turn accept all V series accessories, making it possible to use both sides of the tube for equipment. The V-series dovetail plates, like all accessories in the Losmandy line, are machined for lightness and rigidity from aluminum stock, then black anodized for a tough, corrosion-free surface.

About Losmandy

Losmandy mounts and dovetail systems have long been acknowledged as a pioneering force in the industry. With two mounts: the lightweight GM-8, and the universal G-11, most optical tube assembly can be supported by a Losmandy mount. Unlike most of our competitors who only use stepper motors, Losmandy has both entry level mounts with stepper motors, as well as more sophisticated servo motors that are otherwise only found on competitor mounts in the $10,000+ range.  Losmandy mounts driven by servo motors provide far more torque and accuracy than mounts using stepper motors. For example, the GM8 has an 8°/sec slew rate and 5 arc-second positional accuracy.

Known for their stunning design and their ultra-precision mechanics, the mounts also lead the way with their powerful Gemini 2 Go-To software, onboard computer modules, and hand-controllers. The Go-To positioning system is unique among its competitors with its full-color graphic touch-screen display. The software has over 40,000 pre-programmed objects to choose from, which makes finding the desired portion of the sky amazingly simple. And as things evolve, firmware upgrades are available over the internet so your system will always remain current. It also can be switched between English, French, Spanish, or German, to better accommodate Losmandy’s worldwide market.

A truly industry-changing innovation was introduced by Losmandy way back in 1986, shortly after the first Losmandy mounts came on the market. This was the concept of the dovetail accessory system that has become the industry standard. This wide array of different size dovetail plates and mounting rings solved the various problems users were having as they tried to interface tube assemblies to mounts, piggy-back scopes, mount cameras to optics, etc.

Owner/designer Scott Losmandy first opened a small machine shop in Hollywood, CA in 1981. After five years of producing for others, often making products that were not especially interesting to him personally, he began developing his own line of products to sell.
His first design challenge came about almost by accident, as a result of joining a local astronomy club. After listening to members constantly complain about the price and quality of the telescope mounts on the market, he off-handedly remarked, “Why, I could make a better mount than these,” to which the universal reply was, “Well, why don’t you?” And so Losmandy Astronomical Products was born and Scott Losmandy found his true calling as a design engineer. Lucky him–lucky the rest of us interested in viewing the magic of the night sky.