Grab and Go Mount

[Stephen]

Can I get some suggestions of the "least" mount I can get away with for grab and go with my ED80? Purely visual.

Thanks in advance

[Caldwell 14]

An AZ4 with Ali legs, £135 quid.

[sologuitarist61]

Yes I am with the AZ4 also, although I have the old type with the slide section legs, I still find it quite stable and quick to throw into the car when needed.

[Alan_B]

AZ4 Alu works for me with Equinox 80 - although I do have balance issues due to the 1/4 20 mounting system used on the Equinox 80. I use the supplied "L" bracket but balance is off making slow mo tracking awkward if required.

As I use it mainly for wide field its not an issue but I would need to sort some sort of counter weight at the front end if I wanted to constantly track

[Stephen]

Seems pretty unanimous on the AZ4 so far then, thanks for the input

[Dodge]

I've got the steel legged AZ4 and I'm really pleased with it. Much more manageable than the EQ5 it replaced.

[andrew63]

on an ed80, with a fairly compact tube, a porta mount would be fine - much lighter than a az4 and the slo mo controls work very well. I use mine on a 4" F7.

Although more expensive, you see them up for sale ABS often.

andrew

[E621Keith]

Manfrotto 410/405 on a photo tripod may be more compact, may be a Borg SW2 / Kenko Alt-az on a photo tripod too. Johninderby use a 405 with his 100f6.

http://stargazerslounge.com/showthread.php?t=164574

You can only shrink an astro mount so much before the tripod becomes your limitation. However, you can get very small photo tripod if you need it.