Tired of struggling to slide the Losmandy dovetail bar into place on your G-11? Want extra support for a long dovetail bar? These heavy duty dovetail plates are what you are looking for. Each jaw opens wide enough to tip the Losmandy bar into place and has two stainless steel guide pins to keep it aligned and running smoothly. A spring keeps the jaw open when you are mounting your scope. Stainless steel threaded inserts and stainless steel threaded rods are used for the clamps. There are no aluminum threads to strip.

Fits Losmandy D Bars: These saddles are designed for the 4" wide Losmandy bars used on the G-11 mount. The 8" saddle will work with 8" and longer dovetail bars. The 12" saddle will work with bars 13.5" and longer bars. The 14" will work the 17.25" and longer bars.

By using standard allen screws, instead of knobs for the safety stops on the bottom of the dovetail bar, the end of the bar will go flush with the end of the saddle. So, subtracting the length of the saddle from the length of the bar will give you the possible adjustment travel distance. A 14" saddle will give you 3.25" travel with a C11 dovetail bar, while the 12" saddle will give you 5.25" travel.

If you have a tail-heavy scope (loaded with cameras) the 14" saddle might be a good choice. With the AP offset holes you can get as close to the end of the bar on the 14 as the 12. From the center of the DEC axis of rotation to the end of the saddle is 4" on both the 12 and 14 saddles. The difference is that the 12 will give you more adjustment travel than the 14. If your setup changes with different camera and visual setups you may want to use the 12 for the greater adjustment travel.

C11, etc. on G-11: With the G-11 holes the 14 saddle will get you closer to the end. So, it is a good choice for tail-heavy SCTs. However, it only allows 3.25" of adjustment distance with the 17.25" dovetail bar. If your setup changes with different camera and visual setups you may want to use the 12 for the greater adjustment travel.

Refractors: Some of the Astro-Physics refractors use a 13.5" Losmandy dovetail bar. The 12" saddle is good for these bars because Dec balance can be attained by sliding the OTA in the rings. For refractors using the 17.25" bar, the 14" saddle is a better choice.

Offset Mounting Holes: There are two options for mounting the saddle on the mount. It can be mounted in the center so that an equal* amount sticks out on both ends. Or, it can be mounted offset so that one end sticks out much further than the other. The purpose of mounting the saddle offset is to balance a tail-heavy SCT while still providing lots of support for the dovetail bar. When an SCT has a lot of camera weight loaded it can be very heavy at the back. In the past, a short dovetail saddle had to be used on a long (and somewhat flexible) dovetail bar. The only other solution was to add weights to the front of the OTA. Now, you can balance the camera laden SCT and provide the dovetail bar 12" or 14" of support, without the need for extra weights.

The knobs on these saddles are machined aluminum with stainless steel threads. There are three colors available on the aluminum. Anodized blue, anodized red, or clear anodized that looks like bare aluminum. Pick the knob color below when you order. Clear, red, or blue anodized knobs are available.

Knob Anodized Color
Clear 1.25"	Red 1.25"	Blue 1.25"