Question for owners of CEM60 + Tri-pier combo

[john2y]

Hey guys,

I'm planning on getting CEM60 this spring and I can't decide whether I should buy it with the regular iOptron tripod or if I should invest in the Tri-pier.  I'm mostly shooting from the balcony and what interests me the most about the tri-pier is whether you can rotate the legs around the pier or if it's fixed to some position since I would want to put it as close to the railing as possible and with tripod I can't do that. Also what's the maximal height you can set the tri-pier to? Because it would be useless if I could put it really close to the railing and the counterweight bar would start hitting it. 

Thanks for replies

Jan

[Anne S]

I'm planning on the ec version plus Tri-Pier later this year. As to turning it around, I've downloaded the manual of the CEM60. If I remember rightly, it uses two posts fitted east and west on the tripod or pier. You may be able to just mount it the opposite way around. You'd need to watch for stability though. I think it's normally only mounted the wrong way around at low altitudes because the tripod legs get in the way with other mounts. Have you had a look to see what it says in the manual? You can download it from the Ioptron website.

Just noticed in the manual that you mount the head the other way around to use it in the Southern Hemisphere, so you should be fine. That way the tripod leg that sticks out would be to the north.

[cotak]

Tripier I'd you don't expect to use it on rough ground or where you have significant slope.

The 2 inch tripod is kind of wobbly. When I moved to a perm pier it managed to improve guiding RMS by 0.1.