Mounts & Tripods, separate entities?

[pipnina]

I have been looking at tripods to stick my star adventurer on, and some of the heavy models offered by manfrotto look good (055 weighs 2.5kg, can carry 9kg) but I have been thinking about whether it's expandable to other forms of astrophotography.

If I wanted to move into telescope & CCD photography, would I be able to buy a mount (like EQ5/6) independent of the standard tripod and put it on the manfrotto? Do they use standard 3/8" threads? I'm a bit worried about spending lots of money on a tripod to end up buying another one for the same purpose later down the road.

 

Cheers!

[Sunshine]

Just my opinion, i personally would not think of putting anything as heavy and large as an EQ5/6 on a tripod designed mainly for cameras, i am not sure if they would fit on a manfrotto but i can say from a photographers POV

having owned several manfrotto's they simply are not as sturdy as dedicated tripods for such mounts.

Especially when doing astrophotography you're going to want a very sturdy mount/tripod which are designed for each other, it may be more hassle than what its worth in the end.

Regarding the manfrotto that can handle 9kg, you have to account for the weight of the mount plus the weight of the scope/rings etc, i'd think that you'd be at the tripods limit sooner than you think,

i would get a small tripod that can accommodate your star adventurer on and use it just for that, then use a dedicated mount and tripod for AP.

[Alien 13]

It would be best to keep the two things separate, you could get a camera tripod to easily hold an EQ6 head but it would be very expensive (probably 4 figures) and the weight saving wouldn't realy be necessary for this type of application. There are plenty of camera tripods that will hold 12 Kg or more for a reasonable price that would be ideal for a Star Adventurer but the secret is keep it low which is easy if you have a DSLR with a flip out screen and a RA viewer for the polarscope.

Alan

[pipnina]

36 minutes ago, Alien 13 said:

the secret is keep it low which is easy if you have a DSLR with a flip out screen and a RA viewer for the polarscope.

Sadly I have neither I imagine a RA for the polar scope would be fairly cheap though. Is there a specific one you'd recommend?

[Alien 13]

1 minute ago, pipnina said:

Sadly I have neither I imagine a RA for the polar scope would be fairly cheap though. Is there a specific one you'd recommend?

I used a seagull variety designed for a Canon DSLR but you will have to do some DIY if you want to fit it semi permanent, I just hold mine in place its very forgiving on positioning.

Have a look at these threads 

Alan

[SilverAstro]

1 hour ago, pipnina said:

Do they use standard 3/8" threads?

1/4

(3/8 is an old leica thread, but adapters are, or were, available)

[Ags]

2 hours ago, pipnina said:

some of the heavy models offered by manfrotto look good (055 weighs 2.5kg, can carry 9kg)

Have a look at the Berlebach Report series, for example I have been looking at the Report 112 Astro version, max height is 80cm and max load is 25kg. I don't own one yet but Berlebach generally gets high praise.