Alternative tripods to use with az pronto mount?

[Olli]

Hi all,

after the long wait and many questions needed answering, my new scope from flo should be arriving tomorrow . However there is one thing I am concerned about and that’s the tripod for the az pronto . I haven’t seen any reviews on this mount apart from the first impressions thread on here that one of the mods posted. The max weight stated on FLO for this is 3.8kg which isn’t a lot at all. And I don’t know how much the 130ps weighs as I can’t seem to find a weight for it and I’m sure with the finder scope and eyepieces on top I’m probably near the limit or over it. Do you think I should get a better tripod for this mount ? And if you do what would you recommend I would like to keep the tripod light weight still like the one it comes with but obviously with a bit more payload capacity as I’m worried the vibrations maybe too much.

Many Thanks

Edit: the actual payload capacity is 3kg and the overal weight with scope is 6.8kg..

[JonC]

Have you got a photographic tripod knocking around? I have my AZ GTI attached to an old Manfrotto tripod (with the photo head removed) and it works well. £50 will get you something on ebay, maybe a Manfrotto 190. The problem with lightweight and cheap is that stability will suffer, you either have to spend more, or pack a bit more weight. 

[Olli]

7 minutes ago, JonC said:

Have you got a photographic tripod knocking around? I have my AZ GTI attached to an old Manfrotto tripod (with the photo head removed) and it works well. £50 will get you something on ebay, maybe a Manfrotto 190. The problem with lightweight and cheap is that stability will suffer, you either have to spend more, or pack a bit more weight. 

Hi,

no I don’t unfortunately how good is the 190 just had a quick look and some go for around £40 on eBay like you said. I was thinking of adding the az4 legs to them as I heard they are quite good but not sure if it would work or how heavy they are.

[Knighty2112]

According to the weights given for both the OTA and mount together, minus the weight of the mount on its own it looks like this (with weights taken from FLO);

OTA + Mount weight = 6.6kg

Mount only = 3.85kg

OTA on its own should be ; 6.6kg - 3.85 = 2.75kg 

So you should be below 1.05kg of the max loading for the mount. Whether this works out to make a good mount you will only find out when you get it alas. 

Edited: got the last bit wrong. Should be just under 1kg of max load.

[Olli]

16 minutes ago, Knighty2112 said:

According to the weights given for both the OTA and mount together, minus the weight of the mount on its own it looks like this (with weights taken from FLO);

OTA + Mount weight = 6.6kg

Mount only = 3.85kg

OTA on its own should be ; 6.6kg - 3.85 = 2.75kg 

So you should be below 1.05kg of the max loading for the mount. Whether this works out to make a good mount you will only find out when you get it alas. 

Edited: got the last bit wrong. Should be just under 1kg of max load.

Thanks, think I got my numbers abit mixed up.. I’m sure it will be fine under 1kg isn’t too bad.

[Knighty2112]

The dovetail is small that attaches to the mount, but you should be able to balance OK with the movement that is allowed there so unless you buy some seriously heavy EP’s you should be OK I believe. Hope the new scope works out OK for you.  

[Olli]

40 minutes ago, Knighty2112 said:

The dovetail is small that attaches to the mount, but you should be able to balance OK with the movement that is allowed there so unless you buy some seriously heavy EP’s you should be OK I believe. Hope the new scope works out OK for you.  

Thanks I’m sure it will be, been looking forward to getting one for ages.