Tripod options

[BillPickle]

I've been putting together a basic astro photography rig that's portable.

I'm using a star adventurer fitted with an ST-80 refractor 1.3kg, canon 500d 0.5kg, counter weight1 kg also a fairly lightweight L bracket and finderguider. 

The payload of my star adventurer is 5kg and im under that load by about 1.5 kgs so can maybe add a second dslr for widefield shots.

At the moment i have been using it with sucess on a skywatcher AZ3 mount as it screws right on and its fairly stable and i havent had any problems so far.

I would like to have a dedicated tripod for this setup though and would like it to be a bit more stable during focusing etc as the weak point seems to be the actual AZ3 mount and not its tripod.

Any recommendations?

I would say when i buy it i would spend up to £150 or there abouts.

Stability at a height would be good also.

[glowjet]

If you want a good solid tripod as a separate item, you could do no better than an s/h surveyors tripod, they do them in alloy and wood, the wood have less vibration and are really very solid when set up. The rather nice Berlebach are based on these, but at a price. You can usually find them on the Bay, within an approximate price range of £40- 80, the higher price for the wooden outfits. You would need to make a dedicated mounting plate for your AZ mount, as most surveyors units just have a flat top with a hole in the centre, as far as I remember