About 10Micron Astro Technologies

10Micron designs and manufactures every mount entirely in-house in Italy — the family-owned successor to a precision mechanics company that has been building to exacting tolerances since 1960, now producing mounts trusted at Caltech, the Max Planck Institute, and the Galileo National Telescope.

What Separates a 10Micron Mount from Everything Below It

Most telescope mounts — even premium ones — use incremental encoders that track position relative to a starting point. If the mount loses power, is bumped, or experiences a software error, it has to re-home before it knows where it is. 10Micron mounts use absolute encoders on both axes. The mount always knows its position. Power it up and it's ready to point — no homing sequence, no lost calibration, no waiting.

That's the most immediately practical difference. But the deeper engineering advantage is in the pointing model. 10Micron mounts build a sky model from up to 100 alignment stars — a model that corrects not just for polar alignment error and cone error (the classical sources of pointing drift) but also for the flexure terms in your specific optical tube. The mount learns your setup's mechanical behavior and corrects for it automatically. The result is pointing accuracy around 20 arcseconds RMS — good enough to place a target on a camera chip without manually centering, night after night.

HPS: High Precision Speed

The HPS series is 10Micron's flagship German equatorial and alt-azimuth line for serious amateurs and observatory builders. HPS mounts combine absolute encoders, a precision worm-and-gear drive machined to tight tolerances, and 10Micron's star-model pointing software. Periodic error on an HPS mount is typically below 1 arcsecond peak-to-peak — a figure that makes autoguiding unnecessary for most imaging applications, even at long focal lengths. The mount tracks; the camera images; the guide camera can stay in the box.

DDS: Direct Drive System

At the observatory end of the lineup, 10Micron's DDS (Direct Drive System) alt-azimuth mounts eliminate the gear train entirely. A direct-drive motor couples directly to the axis without any intermediary mechanism — no worm, no gear, no backlash, no periodic error by definition. DDS mounts are designed for applications where the instrument payload is measured in hundreds of kilograms and where tracking stability requirements are set by scientific programs rather than personal preference. They are also the system of choice for satellite tracking, laser communication programs, and other non-astronomy applications where slew speed and pointing accuracy are both critical.

Star-model pointing and atmospheric correction

10Micron's pointing model is one of the few in the amateur-to-professional market that incorporates real-time atmospheric refraction correction, adjusting for the current local pressure and temperature to compensate for how the atmosphere bends light at low elevations. This is not an approximation — it is the same correction approach used in professional observatory software — and it means that pointing accuracy near the horizon is consistent with accuracy at the zenith, rather than degrading as the target drops.

Connectivity and integration

For observatory and remote operation, 10Micron's connectivity options are unusually complete. Ethernet and RS-232 are both standard, and the native ASCOM driver means the mount slots into any Windows-based automation stack without a workaround. Dome control runs through the same serial connection — no separate computer or relay box required. The hand controller has a deep object database and can track moving solar system targets, including objects you've loaded orbital elements for yourself. For remote operation, the control box includes a relay connector that allows external power management of the mount — useful for automated shutdown and startup sequences at unattended sites. Meridian flip behavior is configurable to a maximum of 30° past the meridian, giving imaging sequences room to breathe without manual intervention.

The 10Micron Lineup at Deep Space Products

10Micron produces two mount families: the GM equatorial series (German Equatorial, HPS and HPS EP Enhanced Performance) and the AZ alt-azimuth series (HPS and DDS). Contact Deep Space Products before ordering — lead times vary by model, international shipping must be quoted separately for South American customers, and we want to confirm the right configuration for your payload and pier before the order is placed.

Accessories, cases, counterweights, tripods, and pre-owned 10Micron systems are also available. View the full 10Micron catalog →

Deep Space Products and 10Micron: What "Certified Servicer" Actually Means

Most astronomy equipment dealers sell you the product and hand you a phone number for the manufacturer. Deep Space Products' relationship with 10Micron is categorically different. DSP is the exclusive certified Technical Assistance Dealer for 10Micron in North America — the only entity on this continent that is authorized by 10Micron to service, repair, and provide warranty support for their mounts. When you buy a 10Micron mount from DSP, your service relationship stays domestic. You are not shipping a heavy precision mount to Italy for warranty work. You are calling us.

That relationship also shapes what happens before the sale. We work with 10Micron mounts every day — in our own observatory systems, in the setups we configure for customers, and in the mounts that host at DSP Remote in New Mexico. When you ask us how a GM2000 HPS II will perform on a 16-inch RC with a 10-pound camera train, we are not reading the spec sheet to you. We know.

DSP Remote: Observatory-grade skies under a 10Micron mount

DSP Remote is our telescope hosting facility in southwest New Mexico — Bortle 1, SQM above 21.7 mag/arcsec², and an average of 286 fully clear nights per year. A large share of the instruments hosted at DSP Remote run on 10Micron mounts, and for good reason: the star-model pointing system, the absolute encoder architecture, and the Ethernet control interface make 10Micron mounts among the most reliable platforms for unattended remote imaging. A session that starts with a slew to a guide star and ends six hours later with a full sequence of data — lights, flats, darks, meridian flip included — is a routine operation on a properly configured 10Micron system.

Customers purchasing a new 10Micron mount from DSP are eligible for a hosting discount at DSP Remote. Contact us before you place your order; we will issue your discount code and can discuss how the mount will be configured for the facility's pier specifications, power infrastructure, and automation environment.

Learn more about DSP Remote →

Who Uses 10Micron Mounts

10Micron's customer base spans from serious amateur astrophotographers who have outgrown their previous mount, to universities, research institutions, government agencies, and private observatories on six continents. The GM and AZ HPS series serves the upper end of the amateur and semi-professional market; the DDS series serves observatory and research-grade applications. There is no hard line between those markets — some of the most demanding astrophotographers in the world run GM2000s. The deciding factor is always payload, precision requirement, and what the system is expected to do night after night without intervention.

Serious astrophotographers

For an imager running a 14-inch RC, a full-frame mono sensor, and a filter wheel on a permanent pier, the GM2000 HPS II is one of the most capable platforms available at its price point. The absolute encoder architecture means a meridian flip is a non-event — the mount knows exactly where it is before and after, the pointing model re-engages instantly, and the sequence continues. Autoguiding is optional rather than mandatory. The mount does what mounts are supposed to do: it stays out of your way and lets the optics do the work.

Observatory builders and integrators

For a permanent installation — private observatory, club facility, or hosted system at a remote site like DSP Remote — the 10Micron platform offers a level of remote operational reliability that is difficult to match. Ethernet control, dome sync support, multi-park positions, and robust power management mean the mount can be operated and monitored entirely over a network connection. We have configured systems that run fully unattended for weeks at a time, handling weather closures, meridian flips, focus compensation, and sequence management without a human at the keyboard.

Universities, research institutions, and professional observatories

10Micron mounts have been installed at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Munich Technical University, Caltech, Potsdam University, Ghent University, Kazan Federal University, and dozens of professional and university observatories around the world. The same absolute encoder architecture and star-model pointing that make these mounts attractive to advanced amateurs make them equally practical for programs where the observer is often not present and where pointing failure costs observing time that cannot be recovered. Contact Deep Space Products for institutional and educational inquiries in North and South America.

Satellite tracking and non-astronomy applications

10Micron's DDS series — the AZ5000, AZ6000, AZ8000, and AZ2500 — have been deployed for satellite position monitoring, directed energy programs, laser communication, and atmospheric research at arctic stations including the AWIPEV Arctic Research Base on Svalbard. The combination of direct-drive zero-backlash axes, sub-arcsecond pointing, and high slew rates (up to 40°/sec on DDS models) addresses requirements that go well beyond conventional telescope tracking. For these applications, contact 10Micron directly; Deep Space Products handles the astronomy side of their lineup.

Frequently Asked Questions About 10Micron