c80ed mount?

[gary1968]

What with the oncoming of winter I am now thinking about astronomy again. I have my HEQ5 and scopes for imaging but would also like a set purely to look through.

So, with that in mind, I have a C80ED with very little miles under its belt sitting downing nowt. I got to thinking that I could get a wee mount for that and use it as a grab n go set up.

My question is this, if it were you what mount would you buy and why? EQ or Altaz, even suggest a make/model.

I look forward to reading your thoughts.

Gary

[John]

For grab and go visual it's hard to beat a light weight alt-azimuth mount I reckon. The Vixen Porta would suit the C80ED very well and is very light weight. I use a Skywatcher AZ-4 as my "grab and go" with my 4" F/6.5 ED refractor - it's heavier than the Porta and has no slow motion controls but it's less expensive and sturdier. Even a simple Skywatcher AZ-3 would be enough for the C80ED and you could lift the whole lot outside and be observing within a couple of minutes !.

I've owned all 3 of the above at one time or another and they all do the job pretty well. If money is not an issue then my ideal lightweight alt-az mount for the C80ED would probably be the Vixen Porta II.

[rwilkey]

Another vote for the Vixen Porta II, I use it with a C100ED and it's perfect, lightweight and no messing about underneath screwing on the rod and accessory tray etc, slow motion controls are great and you can stick it up and mount the telescope with no faffing about.

[gary1968]

Cheers for that guys. The Vixen is a bit more than I wanted to spend, I do like the look of the AZ3 though...... with a camera adaptor plate as I dont have a decent tripod for normal photography, so that would kill 2 birds with 1 stone....

Gary