Show off your Alt-Azimuth mounts

[Alan White]

On 04/02/2020 at 10:13, John said:

Now that Mr H is a match made in the heavens, wonderful.
So pleased for you to find one of these mounts.

 

[John]

10 hours ago, McNewt said:

Sorry for the mess.  Flooring to be done.   

 

That's a superb alt-az setup

APM Maxload mount but I don't know the tripod / pillar ?

[Stu]

5 minutes ago, John said:

That's a superb alt-az setup

APM Maxload mount but I don't know the tripod / pillar ?

Looks like the Tri Pier John?

https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/ioptron-tri-pier-pier-tripod.html

[JG777]

The two I currently use, The AYO II and the Tecnosky Elle 2.

Since these pics the AYO is now double clamped, the Nexus has a proper bracket and the Argo bracket is fixed as well. 

 

[McNewt]

8 hours ago, Stu said:

Looks like the Tri Pier John?

https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/ioptron-tri-pier-pier-tripod.html

Indeed it is.   It is fitted with a Mach1 adapter, though it is possible to change it to fit for example an EQ6 or AZ100 for that matter. 

 

 

[McNewt]

9 hours ago, John said:

That's a superb alt-az setup

APM Maxload mount but I don't know the tripod / pillar ?

Thx!

The one thing that is not superb (yet) is the balance with the setup as seen in the photo.   The CC8 is a bit back heavy, add two long focal length TV eyepieces and it gets a little bit unwieldy.  I need to tighten the alt axis a bit too much for my liking.  I have a longer V-style dovetail and a balance weight to be fitted on the refractor side.  Need to do a bit of drilling first though. The scope rings have metric threads, but he the dovetail is UNC.

 

 

[wormix]

Here’s mine - Vixen Polaris currently being serviced.  Need to order an aluminium plate to modify the head to take a standard clamp.

 

[heliumstar]

1 hour ago, wormix said:

Here’s mine - Vixen Polaris currently being serviced.  Need to order an aluminium plate to modify the head to take a standard clamp.

It's good I didn't try this myself   Amazing amount of parts he he.

-----

Here's my latest Alt-Az mount. Ayo II. Waited for this one to come on sh market for awhile. I have to say though that Vamo is as smooth as its bigger 'brother' Ayo II and as stable at 130x so in reality no real improvement with my telescopes - apart from mounting two on it

Edited June 28, 2020 by heliumstar

[wormix]

25 minutes ago, heliumstar said:

It's good I didn't try this myself   Amazing amount of parts he he.

-----

Here's my latest Alt-Az mount. Ayo II. Waited for this one to come on sh market for awhile. I have to say though that Vamo is as smooth as its bigger 'brother' Ayo II and as stable at 130x so in reality no real improvement with my telescopes - apart from mounting two on it

It went back together very easily - much less of a headache than my old EQ5

Hope you are doing ok

cheers

[A40farinagolf]

[HollyHound]

StellaMira 80mm f/10 mounted on a new ScopeTech Mount Zero on a Berlebach Uni 28 😀

The ScopeTech mount has had an issue and is being replaced (thanks @FLO 🙂), but was working very well up to that point, so hoping the replacement solves the problem🤞

Edited July 2, 2020 by HollyHound

[wormix]

Almost finished my Polaris - reassembled and modification to take a standard dovetail.  Now just need to find a polar cap and cut down the fixing bolts and it’s good to go. 
 

Here she is in all her glory with a stunner of a Meade ETX125 (woodwork needs some care)

Edited July 2, 2020 by wormix

[John]

Some better pics of my T-Rex with the 130mm F/9.2 on board:

 

[wormix]

Was being mischievous - here it is displaying its party trick of turning into an Alt-Az Mount. 
 

Is a bit precarious with this OTA in this configuration so may utilise the counterweight too. 

 

Edited July 2, 2020 by wormix

[HollyHound]

2 minutes ago, John said:

Some better pics of my T-Rex with the 130mm F/9.2 on board:

 

Is it me, or does the AZ100 take some design cues from this mount ? Looks really substantial 👍

No more Alt/Az mounts for now, I have too many already 🤣

[John]

6 minutes ago, HollyHound said:

Is it me, or does the AZ100 take some design cues from this mount ? Looks really substantial 👍

No more Alt/Az mounts for now, I have too many already 🤣

Not sure what the design commonality between the AZ100 and the T-Rex is. The quality of engineering is comparable as is the price (but you get a tripod with the T-Rex) and the load bearing ability is similar. No counterweights needed with the T-Rex so a lighter overall setup but no dual scope option with the T-Rex. 

The T-Rex is out of production now - they rarely show up for sale so I pounced on this one when an SGL member offered it for sale earlier this year. Best Alt-Azimuth mount that I've ever used with the mighty 130mm F/9.2

[HollyHound]

1 hour ago, John said:

Not sure what the design commonality between the AZ100 and the T-Rex is.

I think I really should have said they both look like substantial industrial designs, built properly and well engineered 👍

I can see the appeal of either, as they both appear to be well rated and liked by their users... that T-Rex looks very cool. I am more and more impressed by the AZ100 as I read up on it, but (assuming my new one works flawlessly), I'm more than happy with the ScopeTech for my StellaMira.

[Stu]

Not mine, just trying it out for a friend 😉😉

Scopetech Zero Mount on a Gitzo tripod with Scopetech Maxi STL/80a f15 scope onboard.

[HollyHound]

14 minutes ago, Stu said:

Not mine, just trying it out for a friend 😉😉

Scopetech Zero Mount on a Gitzo tripod with Scopetech Maxi STL/80a f15 scope onboard.

Looks good and hopefully smoothly taking that long old refractor 👍

Just take it easy and watch that altitude axis 😬🤞

Edited July 2, 2020 by HollyHound

[DirkSteele]

In my best Lord of the Rings voiceover, one mount to rule them all. The APM Az Maxload.

Here it is holding my 180mm triplet Apo. Those counterweights are 8kg each. That total set up weighed about 70kg and started to sink over the course of a weekend!

 

Each come with a nice engraved plate.

 

I have already seen a few Tele Optic Ercole mounts in this thread so I wasn’t going to bother posting it, but for context (and the Ercole is pretty heavy duty itself)...

 

Also own the Tele Optic Giro 2 and Giro Mini, as well As iOptron Az Pro and Skywatcher Az Gti, A Gitzo bird watching head, and I suppose my fork mounted C11 is also Alt Az. Clearly I am an Alt Az astronomer. Equatorials are icky! 😉

[John]

Wonderful setup Matthew

70kg - "grab and groan"

[DirkSteele]

2 minutes ago, John said:

Wonderful setup Matthew

70kg - "grab and groan"

Actually weighs more now as I added a magnetic counterweight set to help with balance when switching EPs and added a pier extension and an 80mm finder.

Edited July 2, 2020 by DirkSteele

[John]

My 150mm F/12 - EQ6 - Meade Giant Field Tripod combo weighed something like that. I feared that it might crack the patio slabs !

Not an alt-az setup though so I can't post a pic here

[ginandtonic]

[Ags]

Berlebach Castor:

TS AZT6 for travel compared to the Castor:

AZ GTi with very cheap counterweights:

Hmmmmm... I have three mounts and only one tripod 😕

Edited July 3, 2020 by Ags