Manfrotto 405 geared head

[ronb]

When I got my Equinox 80 Peter at Opticstar recommended the Manfrotto 405 geared head as a lightweight mount. The problem with this photographic head is that it only tilts from -90deg to +30deg which is fine for it's intended use. To achieve the angles needed for astronomy I initially used it "back to front" ie with the alt knob facing away from the user giving +90deg to -30deg and which meant groping at arms length around the front of the mount. The next stage was to make up a bracket from two pieces of 6mm aluminium plate bent to an angle of around 155deg screwed and superglued together which made use of the mount much easier and now goes from horizontal to past vertical.

For some time I used the geared gead on my Manfrotto 055XPROB tripod which made for a reasonable portable system but it only came into regular use when I got my Solarmax II 60. However the tripod does suffer from considerable vibration especially in anything other than a light breeze. Mounting my CGEM on a pier had left me with a spare Celestron tripod which to my surprise only needed a 2" x 3/8" Whitworth screw and washer to fit the Manfrotto head. I now have a very stable mount for either scope and can easily revert to the Manfrotto tripod if I really need to go lightweight.

Originally I mounted my scopes using an Ascension mounting platform and Vixen dovetail bar - hence the size of the bracket - but I have recently changed to a 1/4" Whitworth screw fixing which I am finding just as easy to use.

The Manfrotto 405 geared head will carry up to 7.5kg. Manfrotto also provide the 400 geared head carrying up to 10kg and the 410 up to 5kg.

[ronb]

Correction, the plate is bent to about 100 or 120 deg not 155!