The Astro-Physics Mach-1 is a great mount, beautifully engineered and very functional. However, in my opinion, one area could be "even better" - the arrangement how the mount head is attached to the tripod. I understand that there must be a tight tolerance on the fit of the mount base to ADATRI, but this also leads to some field problems, with the mount head binding in the ADATRI even at small deviations from "straight-down" or "straight-up".

Therefore I have designed and got manufactured a set of adapters which provide a better quick-release attachment, not compromising the rigidity and far less critical in terms of settling the mount head on the tripod.

As an added benefit, once the knob is slightly loosened, one can rotate the mount head on the tripod, so precise placement of tripod legs allowing one to reach Polaris within the available azimuth range is no longer critical.

Legal note. This design is copyrighted and is displayed here for AP users reference and could only be copied for private use.