What's the biggest scope you've mounted on a tripod?

[Saganite]

My 5" F15 D&G Optical is the largest scope I have mounted on a tripod, by a long way. The EQ6  handles it easily, but  on the tripod, the result was not acceptable to me, as the damping time was in excess of 4 seconds and the slightest touch would set it quivering. The second picture shows it mounted on my home made pier, solid as a rock, and damping now 1.5 seconds. A very fine and beautiful telescope  of 2 metres length

[Stu]

Looks lovely Steve , like the pier.

[John]

Thats just what a long frac needs

 

[Peter Drew]

If you add a strut (Hargreaves strut) between the OG end of the OTA and the CW end of the DEC axis the stability is further improved on a long refractor.  

[DRT]

On 09/05/2017 at 17:33, Stu said:

I think Derek (DRT) still has a 12" f4 used on an AZEQ6 fairly successfully.

Yip, it is pretty stable and I use either my Altair 152 or C11 on the other side of the mount. The problem with this sort of set-up is the height of the eyepiece. I hate using steps when observing so don't often use this set-up.

[Rick Towns]

I had a 10" SCT (Meade 2120) for many years. The LX6 mount was not GoTo, so I bought an LXD75 mount and a dovetail bar and put the 10" OTA on it. It worked very well for visual use.

 

[Cleetus]

In answer to the question then the biggest scope I have mounted on a tripod is a Meade 12" LX200GPS.

[carastro]

I don't have any really big telescopes, but I did put my dual rig on an HEQ5 once at Astrocamp which was actually just slightly overloaded for imaging, but it did cope with it.   ED120 + ED80 + Guidescope mount + 2 CCd cameras and electronic filter wheel is quite a bit of weight. 

It's this set up except the photo shows the scopes mounted on an NEQ6 at home in my observatory.

Ignore the date on the photo, I keep forgetting to re-set it. 

 

[laser_jock99]

Not strictly 'on a tripod' but pushing the limits of an EQ6 is my 12" F4 Newtonian + ED80 guidescope + camera combo. Requires 7x 5kg counterweights to balance.

 

[carastro]

OMG, that was a HUGE load, never seen so many counterweights before.

Carole 

 

[Mr Spock]

My old Skywatcher 250mm on a NEQ-6 with Celestron ED80 attached.

The C9.25 is much lighter and more easy to lift

[Horwig]

On 2017-5-9 at 17:20, ollypenrice said:

It's very rare that the green eyed God of envy gets her teeth into me but on this occasion...

lly

Oh well, if I must Olly...

[Neil Mack]

The Astro-Physics 180mm f/9. I used to paddle across a damp lawn and heave the thing onto an Astro-Physics AP900 which sat on a very clever tall tripod which (I think) Rob Miller had made. The killer wasn't the weight, but the high mounting position - that's a long tube, with the weight all at one end. One winter it never got taken out at all. So I traded it for a smaller model.

I miss that 7 inch still, or at least the views it gave. But I don't miss that moment of fear when the tube first landed on the saddle and the whole thing shook, nor do I miss staggering in at 2 a.m. with the thing wringing wet.

 

 

 

[Stu]

1 hour ago, Neil Mack said:

The Astro-Physics 180mm f/9. I used to paddle across a damp lawn and heave the thing onto an Astro-Physics AP900 which sat on a very clever tall tripod which (I think) Rob Miller had made. The killer wasn't the weight, but the high mounting position - that's a long tube, with the weight all at one end. One winter it never got taken out at all. So I traded it for a smaller model.

I miss that 7 inch still, or at least the views it gave. But I don't miss that moment of fear when the tube first landed on the saddle and the whole thing shook, nor do I miss staggering in at 2 a.m. with the thing wringing wet.

 

 

 

Sounds scary Neil! Any pictures of this beast?

[Neil Mack]

24 minutes ago, Stu said:

Sounds scary Neil! Any pictures of this beast?

Scary, and wonderful in equal measure.

I did take its picture. All I have to do now is find the print ........ 

[Starflyer]

Here's my old 10" f/6.3 Newt with WO 66 guidescope.

[MattJenko]

This is a frozen 10" Skywatcher 250px and a Megrez 72 on a Skytee, which was pushing things a bit.

[Commanderfish]

3 hours ago, MattJenko said:

This is a frozen 10" Skywatcher 250px and a Megrez 72 on a Skytee, which was pushing things a bit.

 

That SkyTee might have been okay, though the tripod looks like an aluminium EQ3-2/AZ3 tripod?  I had one of those with a 5kg Evostar 120mm, 1000mm FL and an EQ3-2 and there was quite a lot of vibration at high mags!

[m.tweedy]

C11 on a SkyTee2