To continue the overview of the history of the Hitch mounts, I will add the following notes about the Nova Hitch.
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The Nova Hitch that is being delivered today is absolutely not the same mount that was originally announced as the "Nova Hitch."? In fact, it shares not one single part with the "Nova" that was originally described and for which I initially solicited orders.? The only thing that wasn't changed was the name.? I like "Nova" as the designation for the new mount because it signifies that the new mount was being based on a different architecture than the original Half Hitch mounts.
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The forerunner of the Nova Hitch is the original Mini Hitch -- but the Mini and the Nova are at different ends of the spectrum in terms of the refinements.? There is basically a one-to-one correspondence between the major components of the Mini and the Nova, but there is a world of difference in the details.? The Mini Hitch proved that the basic concepts for the Nova were valid -- but it also showed how those concepts could be honed to perfection.
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Originally, the first-announced Nova Hitch was going to be nothing more that a slightly scaled-up version of the Mini Hitch -- with essentially the exact same implementation.? However, at the time I was receiving a great many inquiries from people wanting a good mount for 5-inch class refractors.? At first, I considered simply scaling-up the originally specified Nova Hitch a bit more.? But I began to see the possibilities for a much better implementation that (in my opinion) would produce the world's premier visual observing mount for large, portable refractors -- not just superior to other choices of alt-az mounts, but also offering a very tempting alternative to high-end equatorial mounts (employed for visual observation).
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At that point, I completely redesigned the Nova Hitch.? Some folks who are not aware of this history that have speculated that the originally announced pricing for the Nova represented a dramatic reduction for promotional purposes -- and they lament about "missing out."? But nothing could be farther from the truth.? The changes to the originally announced price occurred simply because the cost to build the Nova doubled with the more sophisticated design.
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Current pricing for the Nova Hitch actually does represent an "introductory price."? When?the inventory?from the current production run is exhausted, higher prices will (by necessity) immediately go into effect.? Those new prices are now listed on the ordering page of the website -- just to give folks fair notice of the changes that are inevitable.
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The Mini Hitch II reverses the direction of flow of design ideas -- this time flowing from the Nova Hitch down to the Mini Hitch.? The Nova Hitch became a better mount because of lessons learned from the original Mini Hitch.? But now the Mini Hitch II is inheriting refinements from the Nova Hitch.
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In between, there will be the Plus Hitch -- sized more or less the same?as the originally specified Nova Hitch (that wasn't actually built).? The Plus Hitch will be more like the Mini Hitch II than the Nova Hitch, but?as with?the Mini Hitch II, the Plus Hitch benefits from refinements developed for the Nova Hitch.
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I have in the past mentioned the possibility of a Super Nova Hitch -- but I am no longer leaning in that direction.? The Nova Hitch is proving to be capable of handling many of the loads envisioned for the Super Nova.? I would not be surprised to see the Nova routinely carrying 180 mm refractors in the near future.
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Once all three mounts have been introduced, additional development will focus useful accessories for these mounts.? Each mount is envisioned as the enabling foundation for a system.
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Charles
Howard Gao