Grab & Go setup

[Stu]

This is the latest variant of my grab and go setup, in solar guise. Having shifted some kit, and being in possession of a FLO voucher kindly given to me for taking pictures at a friend's wedding, I grabbed one of the new AZ-GTi mounts.

I replaced the rather heavy home made aluminium pillar on my Gitzo with a taller CF one which is much better. I can now observe at the zenith whilst standing with no risk of tripod clashes.

The AZ-GTi seems great! Easy to setup, the Synscan app works very well. My only gripe currently is that it won't link to SkySafari on iOS but I'm sure that will get fixed.

Even with a very rough 'North and Level' setup it got very close to the sun, and is tracking away nicely now.

Skywatcher, if you are listening then how about a double headed version of this mount to give a nice lightweight option for WL and Ha solar observing?  

EDIT note my homemade rubber band accessory 'tray', handy to rest a phone or End cap on, might even hang a Tracer off it  

[nightfisher]

Stu, that looks a nice set up, very good for tracked grab an go, love the accessory tray, you should get a patent on that darn sharp

[marcus_z]

Nice Setup! How does it handle high magnifications (150x - 200x)?

[DirkSteele]

May I enquire as to where you sourced the carbon fibre pillar?

[Stu]

12 hours ago, marcus_z said:

Nice Setup! How does it handle high magnifications (150x - 200x)?

Actually quite well. There is some wobble when focussing but it settles quickly and the view is then pretty stable. I was observing the sun at x150 and the views were very nice. If you set the slew speed quite low on the mount then you can pan around the surface very smoothly.

I'm not sure how it would handle strong winds, but it's good enough for me as a lightweight setup. I like having the extra height available.

[Stu]

12 hours ago, DirkSteele said:

May I enquire as to where you sourced the carbon fibre pillar?

Off eBay Matthew. The biggest section I could find was 57mm OD with a 3mm wall thickness. It's light and very rigid.

I'm sure I could make it a bit more sophisticated but all I have done is use a length of 3/8" threaded rod attached to the tripod using a long nut. I also have a 75mm diameter aluminium plate on top to give the mount some protection. It all works quite well, the main attraction for me is the lighter weight. I could probably live with it the same length as my ali one or 300mm but I'll stick with this for now.

[DRT]

Very nice, Stu. What's the weight of  the Tak, rings, wedge, bins and eyepieces? Must be close or over the 5kg recommended maximum?

Good to see that this little mount can handle that kind of set-up ?

[Stu]

7 hours ago, DRT said:

Very nice, Stu. What's the weight of  the Tak, rings, wedge, bins and eyepieces? Must be close or over the 5kg recommended maximum?

Good to see that this little mount can handle that kind of set-up ?

I haven't weighed it Derek but yes I guess it is at the limit. So long as it is balance properly the mount seems perfectly happy. Having the tripod fully extended avoids any issues of toppling over.

[JG777]

Looks a very neat set up Stu, that mount looks good on that tripod.