Seeking an Azimuth Mount

[Dragons Egg]

Hi - I'm thinking of buying a 6" Mak-Newtonian 'comet hunter' scope and I'm looking for a suitable portable azimuth mount for it. The problem, though, is that the scope, while very compact, weighs about 8 to 9 kg and all the so-called "heavy duty" mounts available simply can't take the load. There are, it's true, mounts that are designed to take two scopes (binoculars style) but that's no good for me - or am I missing something? Many thanks.

[Cornelius Varley]

Something like the SW Sky Tee would be the recommended mount http://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-mounts/skywatcher-skytee-2-alt-azimuth-mount.html . The AZ4 or Vixen  Porta II would probably be overloaded with the MakNewt.

[Wobbly Bob]

Or the Ioptron Mini Tower with a 25lb load.

[damnut]

Hi Graham,

A friend had this mount before me, its a skytee II, loaded with a 10"SNT, 150mm frac, 120mm frac....This would make a great mount for a mak-newt

[John]

I used to occasionally use an Intes 6" F/5.9 mak-newtonian on the AZ-4 mount with the steel tripod. The Intes weighed around 9 kg I think. The mount was OK at low to medium power but there was too much vibration at higher power to make it really satisfying. A Skytee II on a 2" steel tubed tripod would be better. Do upgrade the dovetail clamps though before putting a nice scope on there.

[RobertI]

I have little experience of other manual altaz mounts but I've been happy with my Skytee 2. Unfortunately the ADM Saddle Upgrade is a must for heavier scopes which makes it not such great value, but they often come up for sale used on Astro Buy and Sell as they are quite popular, often with the ADM upgrade already done.

I came across this mount on the 365 Astronomy Web Site the other day which looks quite interesting, no slow motion controls though, which I would find a problem as I use them all the time.