Portable Photo Tripod Setup

[andrew63]

I have been using a portable setups recently, to use with a small grab and go telescope, so thought i would pass on some info. for anyone interested.  The main problem with any of these options, ball and head, fluid etc. is at the zenith - as they are not really designed for this purpose, but even astro atl az mounts can be awkward to use overhead.   I found it helps if you can put the weight of the telescope as near to the central axis of the mount as possible as with a porta, az4 or giro.   

With a normal pan and tilt head, not really ideally good to use because of the difficult position of the handles, they do have the option of locking the head at 90 deg. to the side, and just using the up and down handles as with an alt az mount.  This works well and holds the telescope with fairly smooth movements.  I think you could use a lighter tripod and head than mine, which would be more portable again, but there is always a trade off with portability and stability.   I have included some photos which will give a better description. The first is in normal position with telescope mounted, and the rest are mounted to the side at 90 deg.  

The main advantage i find, is the extra height you can get with photo tripods, which make viewing with refractors, even short tubes ones much more comfortable !  The head shown is a Manfrotto 029 and 074 tripod which i have had for a number of years, these are no longer available, but many combinations would work.

andrew