Photography tripod with telescope?

[Taz777]

Looking to get into this hobby with minimal spend to begin with, I've ordered a pair of binoculars which come with a tripod mount (albeit a low quality one that I'll probably have to replace). Rummaging around in my man-cave this morning, I came across this photography tripod from 2-3 decades ago. It seems to be in good condition so I'm planning to clean it up and ensure it still works properly before my binoculars arrive.

 

 

It seems to be a Miranda Titan TP30 tripod. The binoculars are Celestron SkyMaster 25x70 binoculars. Would my tripod be okay with these binoculars just to get started?

[JOC]

I don't know how much more different binoculars would be, but I've tried a very small telescope on a camera tripod and it works, but only to a certain point.  The single handed twist and grip operation of my camera tripod was difficult to align with stars as every final 'tighten' very slightly moved it off the target.  In addition it suffered from a lack of sturdiness and what is OK movement wise for a split second or two exposure on a camera, proved difficult to cope with when I was wanting to look through the telescope for minutes at a time, the small movements became noticeable esp. at high magnification (OK with bins. you might be less, but you might still have problems).  I hadn't seen a proper telescope for comparison, but now have one and it is an altogether sturdier construction and I think will hold the telescope better.  On the other hand if your bins screw straight on like my telescope did on mine then try the camera tripod - you've got nothing to lose.

[Davey-T]

Nice bin's, tripod looks solid enough, the adapter supplied by Celestron is up to the job so shouldn't need replacing, if you want to spend some more money a pistol grip is really useful.

Dave

[westmarch]

Hi there,

I had a similar tripod.  The only problem you may find is that to point the bins upwards (and get below them) you end up with the legs and the wind up extension fully extended - even then you will need to be seated.  It then all becomes a bit wobbly.

You can try hanging a carrier bag with some sand under the centre stalk or keep the whole tripod compact, put it on a table and look down into a mirror.

 http://stargazing.com/bino/index.html

The best guide to astronomy binocular mounts is still Steve Tonkin’s website:

http://binocularsky.com/binoc_mount.php

John

[Taz777]

Thanks all. I do have a heavy, small, round garden table that I could set the tripod on, thereby negating the need to extend the legs or raise the neck.