Mounting a telescope with a dovetail clamp is a way to improve the original setup on most telescopes, which often only come with a screw clamp forced into the dovetail bar which eventually bores it full of gouges, becomes too hard to turn, and makes you doubt the telescope is adequately attached.Improving the telescope-to-mount attachment should not cost an arm-and-leg, and there exists about three alternatives for the mount I own (Celestron AVX) each succeeding the other by doubling or tripling in price ($65 .. $130 .. $170). When performing this upgrade, you will also need a new dovetail bar (since the old one is gouged to smithereens) and this will cost about $30. So for the lowest-priced alternative, you are talking $100 just to attach the telescope. This is only a mechanical attachment, no electronics and no optics involved.The $65 clamp sold by Alstar features competitive quality and may even surpass others in regards to the main function of securely (and easily) attaching a 20 - 30 lb telescope to a mount (the max weight is spec'd for 44 lbs).How to make this clamp work for every mount, however, may be another story. For the AVX mount, it will platform to the mount in one orientation, which is where the clamping knobs are on the same side as the mount's saddle lugs. However, the saddle lugs will interfere with the clamping knobs resulting in knuckle abrasion and defeating the purpose of an upgrade. The immediate solution is to extend the length of the clamping knobs (stem thread length) and when searching for a substitute, you will find star-knobs that are 30mm or greater in diameter. Star knobs are normally accepted for clamping, but the close spacing (originally meant for 20mm knobs) will most likely be too tight for most hands and not accommodate the close spacing (again, defeating the upgrade).But one additional stride is to make the two knobs different lengths. This is considered a staggered arrangement - and believe it - a very acceptable design for the context of this type of equipment. This allows easy access to both clamping knobs.Problem over. Almost. You will need take up "expert mode" and finish the end of the clamping knob thread, just like the knob that came with the dovetail clamp. This means tapping a 4mm thread into the end of the stem and also machining or filing a small step onto the end, which allows it to hold the moveable dovetail clamp in place. This is not so difficult if you realize you just need to duplicate the stem-end of the original knob. This involves drilling a hole 1 cm deep but tapping a thread to a depth of 0.5 cm (so the thread "runs-out"). Finally, a step is ground (or filed) to 5mm dia but there is grace for +/- 0.5mm. For anyone with shop experience, this may be no more than routine. Tapping a thread is considered basic (refer online) and I used my electric drill for turning and ground the step with a flat edge of a file.