The FTX is a TOTALLY unrelated design to the older Half Hitch (and Super?Half Hitch) mounts. The FTX and Half Hitch have completely different?missions.
The Half Hitch was developed as a high-end, pure grab & go mount for?small telescopes (80 to 90 mm refractors primarily) -- intended for few?(if any) eyepiece changes, mostly between modestly-sized eyepieces not?varying too much in weight. It was also intended to be an excellent?mount for 100 mm angle-view, binoculars. The Half Hitch was designed as?a "sweeping" mount -- for scanning over regions of the sky, as people?often do with grab & go scopes and binoculars.
Although the purpose of the Half Hitch was made abundantly clear in ads?and on the website, the mount was often misappropriated to more?general-purpose observing with larger than intended scopes. Some?observers even insisted on adding and subtracting a binoviewer?on-the-fly -- and many others changing from huge "hand-grenade"?eyepieces down to tiny, very high magnification eyepieces, back and?forth on-the-fly.
Although I continued to promote the mount for specialized grab & go?usage in combination with lightweight tripods, small scopes, and zoom?eyepieces or fixed-eyepiece deep-sky observing, many people continued to?employ the Half Hitch for larger scopes and general-purpose observing?involving many eyepieces changeovers, adding and subtracting?binoviewers, and larger than intended scopes. I attempted to provide
accommodations to people who were using the Half Hitch in ways for whichit was not intended -- but this was an uneasy compromise of a pure?concept. Of course, there were individuals who better understood the?Half Hitch and its intended use -- and many of these individuals are?still happily using the Half Hitch today.
These considerations led me to develop a completely new general-purpose?mount -- and completely new design with a completely different?architecture -- not an evolution of the Half Hitch. The first?manifestation of the new direction was the Nova Hitch. While having?many technical innovations and being extremely elegant in its details,?the Nova Hitch did not quite align with the heart of the potential?market. But the Nova Hitch fathered the FTX -- and the two mounts are?related. Neither the Nova Hitch nor the FTX bear any relation to the?earlier Half Hitch design, in any of its slight variations.
The V.2 FTX is merely a refinement of the V.1 FTX. These are two
variations of the same basic mount -- and I produced an upgrade kit for?the V.1 FTX that transforms it into the V.1+ FTX, which lends the V.1?FTX the most notable upgrades found in the V.2 FTX.
There were adjunct developments for the Mini Hitch and FTQ -- both of?which are also related to the Nova Hitch. These were sidetrack?developments intended to test high-end multi-purpose and grab & go?markets. These sidetrack developments quickly showed that, for small?instruments, cheaply-built mounts made in China would dominate and not?leave commercially viable space in the market for a high-end choice.
That's it! That's the history of mounts made by Half Hitch. I've read?GROSS exaggerations of many different models with extreme variations and?constant tinkering. All such rumors are completely false and somewhat?maliciously intended. The fact is that over almost ten years, there?have only been three mount designs. There were two slight variations of?the Half Hitch -- and then the larger Super Half Hitch using the same?basic design and aimed mostly at the A-P 130 GT (which had become the
largest segment of my user base). But there were simply not enough?high-end, grab & go purists to support the Half Hitch design -- and so?it was discontinued. The Nova Hitch was produced very briefly -- and?explored new concepts and a new architecture. The Nova Hitch led?directly to the FTX, which was more in tune with the general market.
The V.1 FTX (and especially the V.1+ FTX) and the V.2 FTX are
essentially the same mount. Functionally, the V.1+ FTX and V.2 FTX are?almost identical. And they have the same dimensions and are nearly the?same weight. But the V.2 FTX does contain some nice refinements.
In my opinion, the V.2 FTX is nearly a perfect, general-purpose, alt-az?mount for amateur astronomy. It was created with the idea that it would?remain in production for many years without any need for further?evolution. Of course, the market for astronomy gear has taken a huge,?undeniable hit in the past year and a half or so. So, I can't say?exactly what lies ahead for the V.2 FTX. But I do know that it is still?the near-perfect, highly versatile, lightweight but solid, elegant but?rugged and beautiful mount that it was intended to be -- and needs no?evolution to make it the gold-standard of manual alt-az mounts. It's
truly in a class by itself -- and the numbers alone prove it -- but the?eye confirms it.
Charles
Howard Gao