Sky watcher stainless steel tripod for EQ5

[mark RD]

Some time ago one of the members of stargazers lounge recommended me the Sky watcher stainless steel tripod to replay the alloy one I was using.

I was alittle sceptical at first how much of an improvement it would make but I went for the dive anyway. £67.00 and five days later a stainless steel tripod

drops though my letter box :shock: It was well rapped but eagerly unwrapped, I did notice at that point the extra weigh over my old alloy tripod.

First Problem

The Base of the EQ5 did not fit in the recessed part of the mount, It was only about half a mm out overall, using my DIY skills ( don't tell the Miss's ) and a

grinder the base of the EQ5 was ground down alittle. now dropped down into the tripod with enough movement for adjusting the pole align bolts but

a snug fit.

The bolt supplied which held the EQ 5 to the tripod fitted perfectly and the accessoires tray fitting to the same bolt underneath, The accessoires try has two jobs, one is to hold your eye pieces 5x 1.25inch and 2x 2inch the second job it does is to push the legs out making the tripod even more stable.

First night

If you plan to keep the mount attached to the tripod its a good idea to take the weight off from the mount, and attach when your in position as the extra weight of the tripod is felt much more when you try to move the whole thing. The legs extend nice and smoothly It has a feel of quality to it.

This tripod does its job very well, There was very little wobble from the stand even more noticeable on high power eye pieces and for the price I would not be without it.

Mark

[Ant]

Nice one Mark. Glad you had the skills and the angle grinder to make the EQ5 fit!

The HEQ5 tripod does make so much difference... But I have to admit if I had received the tripod thats didn't fit the mount - I would have been scratching my head for days before I plucked up the courage to doi anything about it!

Ant

[orion f6.3]

to all tripod owners! especially the skywatcher 3 section type ie, EQ3 & AZ2 / AZ3. i filled mine with sand. it added 10lbs, absorbing far more vibrations than before and adding greatly to the stability ORION

[FLO]

Excellent idea Orion

[Naz]

Great idea, an alternative but possibly not a total solution, is to hang a sand bag or other heavy weight under the tripod. I know that the problem is that the legs are prone to movement / flexing, the above might just load them enough as a tempory solution.

My problem is simple, woodworm!

nabban

[GazOC]

The extra weight helps, but you can never get rid of that flex in my experience, it's just too "easy" for the tripod legs to make that movement.

[orion f6.3]

I did also stick this mod in astro workbench, and to be fair is only meant to be a bit of an upgrade to a grab `n` go setup. I never use tripods myself for anything but fun and a bit of astro photography, all my serious work is on solid DOB bases or pillar mounted EQ heads.

[Donkeiller]

"Some time ago one of the members of stargazers lounge recommended me the Sky watcher stainless steel tripod to replay the alloy one I was using.

I was alittle sceptical at first how much of an improvement it would make but I went for the dive anyway. £67.00 and five days later a stainless steel tripod

drops though my letter box"

Where did you get it for £65??!!

[Starlight 1]

to all tripod owners! especially the skywatcher 3 section type ie, EQ3 & AZ2 / AZ3. i filled mine with sand. it added 10lbs, absorbing far more vibrations than before and adding greatly to the stability ORION

I fill my tubes with lead shot .

[nobbytate]

The original post was from 2006, might have something to do with the price??