Portable Mount for Esprit 150

[BlueAstra]

I managed to pick up an Esprit 150 second hand recently but haven’t got round yet to installing it in my observatory. So in the meantime I wondered about using it for outreach at my local Astro club for visual or EAA. What would you advise as an economical portable mount for this scope?

[cotak]

What does economical means to you? And what would be the limit in terms of weight and size of the mount?

Off the top of my head I'd suggest eq6 to cem60. Or even the new cem40.

[tomato]

For visual and EAA I think the EQ6 could handle it, if you are taking the scope on and off the mount regularly, I recommend making some lifting handles as shown. I’m pretty sure I would have dropped the 150 I’m using by now without them.

[John]

I tend to agree with the above - an EQ6 would be needed for the Esprit 150 I think. The most economical way would be to try and pick up on of the older, black, non-GOTO ones which can be picked up for a couple of £hundred.

 

[BlueAstra]

14 hours ago, tomato said:

For visual and EAA I think the EQ6 could handle it, if you are taking the scope on and off the mount regularly, I recommend making some lifting handles as shown. I’m pretty sure I would have dropped the 150 I’m using by now without them.

So you leave the scope attached to the clamp/dovetail assembly and attach the handles to the top of the closed clamp? 

Thanks for the replies. Sound like the consensus is an EQ6 or similar so I’ll take a look at what’s available second hand.

[tomato]

The handles bolt onto the top of the tube rings, I use studs screwed into the tube rings and wing nuts for speed, no need for a wrench.

[Tomatobro]

They are Anderson 500 amp battery plug handles commonly used on Electric fork lift trucks and are available from that well known online store. Just search Anderson handle and that should get you to one of the many suppliers.

Hope this helps

[algady]

The Esprit 150 is VERY heavy indeed, I use mine with az-eq6 mount and I believe it is ok but any smaller mount won't be ok! 

 

[ollypenrice]

I think EQ6 as well. A while back I used to have our TEC140 on an EQ6 for guests to use either visually or for imaging. Certainly with medium sized pixels and autoguiding it worked for imaging so it would clearly be fine for visual.

Olly

[BlueAstra]

On ‎07‎/‎04‎/‎2019 at 22:27, tomato said:

For visual and EAA I think the EQ6 could handle it, if you are taking the scope on and off the mount regularly, I recommend making some lifting handles as shown. I’m pretty sure I would have dropped the 150 I’m using by now without them.

Can you tell me what size bolt you used to secure the brackets to the top of the mounting rings?