Tall Berlebach Tripods

[John]

Is the Uni 28 the tallest heavy duty Berlebach tripod available or do they do a tall version of the Planet model ?. I'm looking for something that extends to 1.5 metres or so.

While I'm on the subject of wood tripods, is there a similarly priced alternative to Berlebach available in the UK which matches their performance ?

Thanks

[StarryEyed]

I have been looking at tripods myself recently and have been considering their useful height. Previously I had made a tall tripod from some 2by2 which with a tray and some bracing near the top of the legs proved to be very solid and practically free from vibrations.However it was fixed and with wheels on the bottom proved a little difficult to get in and out of the shed.

Having gone through the process of decluterin to sell the house it had to go or ar least taken apart. I am looking foe something suitable for a refractor and portable either a pier on wheels like those skywatcher ones or a solid wooden tripod.

I am using an tubular eq5tripod which has copper tubing with jubulee clips to replace the tray come spreader after the pastic clamps broke. This was a big mistake the flippin thing vibrates from the eq drives tracking its completlt useless unless I turn the drives off and its not quickly colapseable because of the jubulee clips.

I like the idea of a nice berlbach tripod but they seem to come up short compared to what I would like. it would seem I migt need an extension to go with it.

I would consider a concrete pier but that would have to wait until we move and everything in our new homes gets addressed first.

As it stands the berlbach is my prefered option.

[John]

The Berlebach UNI 28 seems to have a max height of 155 cm. You can add a 40cm pillar extension (which I currently already use) to get over 6 foot for the tripod top.

In researching my own query I've found that the Tele Optic wood tripods go to 180 cm and are really solid to boot:

http://www.tele-opti...gd1-tripod.html

Similar price to the Berlebach UNI 28 but I wonder if the Berlebach are of better construction quality ?

My current larger tripod is a 2" steel tubed CG5 tripod which, combined with the 40cm pillar extension mentioned above, is tall enough but won't quite handle the monster of a scope that I want to put on it now.

[StarryEyed]

I have used surveying equipment with these tripids and they do need to very stable. My thoughrs here though are that surveying equipment like a theodolite are not that heavy 5kg at most.

Leica who make top end surveyin equipment do test on their tripods but its for capcity no mire than 10kg. As you know the brlebach have much higher capacities.

I am planning putting a 120mm TAK refractor for visual work and cant rule out astrophotography. so the idea of a extension for visual work suits me and is my prefered choice at this time unless somthing better comes along.

[StarryEyed]

surveyors tripods like lica are cheap enough on ebay and probably worth an experiment.