what's the story with vibration pads...?

[ollypenrice]

Phil Harrington (of Star Ware fame) rates these pads and is a man who knows his onions.

Personally I'm a bit sceptical about the 'ten tons of concrete going down eight metres into the ground' syndrome. All the scopes here stand on solid flat pads of concrete, varying between about half a ton and six tons, and I'm not sure what problem I'd be trying to solve by changing that. It must be said, though, that we are five miles away from anything bigger than a Fiat Panda and have a ground base made of big boulder and clay. This does not ring like a bell! Also, we DS imagers are mighty fussy in some ways but don't pump up to 500X and then stamp our feet to fend off frostbite!!    As for making Sir Isaac (the 20 inch Dob) vibrate, all I can say is that he wouldn't vibrate if you bolted a hundred horsepower Mercury outboard onto him...

Olly

[John]

Don't get me wrong, i love it. I've found it a lot more friendly in use than an AZ4 i had. It's on aluminium tripod and you could of course use a steel or wood one for extra stability. But for me i want to keep things ultra light and portable, and the tennis balls do help.  On the porta 11 head you can put most tripods on it.

andrew

I reckon the tripod is the weak link with most lighter weight mounts. I've tried a number of different mounts on my 2" steel tubed CG5 tripod and their capacity and stability has improved quite dramatically. Those aluminum tripods are really portable but are prone to twist when put under the sort of load a longer tubed scope can exert. This is from someone who tried to use a 6" F/8 refractor on an EQ5 mount on an alu tripod for a while   

I was pleased to see that the Porta II head could be moved onto other tripods - that will give it some more potential.

[robert_l]

a few years back we got a meade  12 inch SCT  for our observatory ( Mills Observatory Dundee)  I was amazed despite how heavy the meade was it was unusable when someone enters the dome !  the old 10inch Cooke telescope is rock solid ,mount is not attached to the floor but on a pillar which go's down to the bottom of the building  so no vibrations . we ordered a set of compression pads and while not perfect make the telescope useable   However we now have a 16 inch Skywatcher Dobsonian which has obsoleted the meade and I no longer have any vibration problems !

[Nibor]

I observe from a balcony which is essentially the roof of the car port. It is reasonably stable but the scope can vibrate if I move around.

I did make up a set of vibration dampers from running shoe inserts - which did help but then I purchased a Celestron set from Astrobuysell and have found that they improved vibration damping significantly.

My S/W AZ GOTO has had its original tripod legs replaced with those from an EQ3/2 and when in use it has a couple of counterweights on the eyepiece tray - it all rests on the Celestron pads and provides - I think - a pretty stable base for my Orion ED80 'frac.

In my situation I certainly find Astro anti vibration pads helpful.

[brantuk]

I've asked several serious imagers about these pads and it seems they are invaluable. I don't image yet, but I got a set of them anyway as a social accessory to go with my gear - they provide a great talking point at star parties, and makes the setup look like I know what I'm doing lol.

(A bit like a small dog in a gal's handbag hahaha!)

[Rockrae78]

I think its important to remember that not everyone has the ability, the know how, or the materials to make their own suppression pads.  To them, they probably would be worth £50.  However, to all you lucky people who have the know how and the right stuff, then I think they probably are overpriced.

I have seen them in action recently and they certainly do the job they are meant for, so I don't think they are a waste of money.

I really don't need them with the CPC 800 - the sheer weight of the scope minimises vibrations (living on a main road, and using a scope on a patio and the SLT 130 really suffers, but not a problem for the CPC 800).

I would consider them for the SLT 130, but as that is my grab and go setup, I only really use it on grass and seem to get less vibrations there anyway. It certainly wasn't a problem at SGL8, and that's with me wandering around the scope and others coming to take a look etc.

I would only buy them if I had nothing else left to buy (could be waiting a long time!), or if I could only use the SLT 130 at home. 

[tonylumley]

If that's the case I guess you haven't heard of the road that's made out of paper !!! 

 The A4

and its smaller brother, the A5, sorry getting silly now

[Space Dragon]

a few years back we got a meade  12 inch SCT  for our observatory ( Mills Observatory Dundee)  I was amazed despite how heavy the meade was it was unusable when someone enters the dome !  the old 10inch Cooke telescope is rock solid ,mount is not attached to the floor but on a pillar which go's down to the bottom of the building  so no vibrations . we ordered a set of compression pads and while not perfect make the telescope useable   However we now have a 16 inch Skywatcher Dobsonian which has obsoleted the meade and I no longer have any vibration problems !

I'm just over the river in Newport.......I've been meaning to come to Mills for long enough but now i know you've got a 16" Dob in there....I'm certainly coming over !

[LeeB]

I have made/constructed a variety of pads and anti vibration systems , but to be honest , even the last set that were constructed from high density sorbathane (spelling?) didn't work very well as while they do suppress the higher frequency vibration, they allow through their compression an instability in the system as a whole. Hope that makes sence. I even tried a damped central mass arrangement, which was better than pads but in my opinion not worth the hassle. Hanging a bag of sand from the centre of the tripod is just as good.

[cotterless45]

Grass is a good vibration damper, it's free and there seems to be a lot of it,

Old Nick.

[emadmoussa]

I noticed with my C11 on NEQ6, I get a good deal of vibration but tends to settle quickly. When you're hunting for faint DSOs, vibration is a killer.

[LeeB]

The other thing to try if the vibration is high frequency is a archery bow dongle ( I know ) I have tried with some success. Not the long dampers the bits that go in the end and have a weight that is damped and free to move in all directions.