Tripod and mount guidance

[John The Ron]

As a newcomer to astronomy and also to this group I need some further guidance on my partial telescope setup.

I've bought an as new Stella-Lyra Classical Cassegrain 8" telescope which was still double boxed from the original FLO purchaser (in Holland). It comes with dovetails fitted top and bottom along with a focuser, my son is buying me a 2" eyepiece but I need the mount, tripod and guidescope.

I only wish to use a manual Alt/Az tripod and mount setup so this is where further guidance would be most helpful. I've just started receiving state pension so cost is a factor and need to keep that under £1000. The scope as is weighs 9kg so it precludes the use of an EQ5 tripod. I have considered the EQ6 2" tripod but how to adapt it to a different mount to what it is designed for is difficult plus availability isn't great.

Continued research has led me to the Berlebach range of tripods and the Uni-18/28 being of great interest and I would like opinions on these and suitability in a heavy duty Alt/Az setup please?

A Sky-Tee 2 mount may well be the best choice cost wise but I am unsure of it this and also it's usability so I am open to suggestions please?

Thanks in advance.

John

[Cosmic Geoff]

What are you intending to view with the telescope? The focal length of this telescope is around 2 metres, so it is not best suited to alt-az point-and-look unless your finder and slow motions are very good.  If you intend to use it mainly for looking at planets, a manual equatorial would not be any harder to use (once roughly polar aligned) and would offer the convenience of only needing slow-motion action on one axis.

I'm sure somebody can recommend a suitable alt-az head if that's what you want, and also a tripod.  The EQ-5 tripod is meant to support a 9KG scope + a similar load of counterweight + the weight of the mount head, and is also available separately with a flat top and 3/8" screw interface.

There are Sky-watcher Alt-az/EQ mounts that would mount your scope, but these are GoTo and also quite expensive.

If somebody gave me a Stellalyra CC 8", I would probably buy a Celestron AVX mount for it, and see how well it worked if I just aligned on the planet I wanted to observe.

Edited April 28, 2021 by Cosmic Geoff
AVX

[johninderby]

The Skytee II or the TS-AZ5 are a perfect match for the 8” Classical Cassegrain. Used one with my TS CC8” and it balanced very easily and was a pleasure to use with the slo mo controls that make it easy to track the moon or planets.  Now replaced with a Rowan AZ100 mount but that is rather expensive but an engineering masterpiece. 

Edited April 28, 2021 by johninderby

[John The Ron]

Hi Brown Dwarf and Johninderby, thanks for your replies, they are much appreciated.

The Celestron Advanced VX mount appears to be a computerised eq mount looking at the Celestron website and very nice, am unsure of this though. I've use of a cheap Bresser 70mm refractor on a Bresser EQ mount and find it a pain to use currently. I'm very likely to be looking at the moon and our planets for some time as a beginner.

John, your telescope setup looks to be what I've envisaged, which Berlebach tripod is that? The Rowan mount would be my ideal but at over £800 it's out of reach!

Thank you both.

John

 

[johninderby]

Had the UNI 18 tripod with the Skytee. Worked very well. 

I upgraded to a Berlebach Planet tripod for my AZ100. 

 

Edited April 28, 2021 by johninderby

[John The Ron]

That IS a lovely piece of kit John, how do you find the round tripod feet?

[johninderby]

27 minutes ago, John The Ron said:

That IS a lovely piece of kit John, how do you find the round tripod feet?

Great on a hard surface and not bad on grass. Anti vibration pads not needed. You can replace the rubber feet with the optional steel spikes if using just on grass.

Edited April 28, 2021 by johninderby

[iapa]

5 hours ago, John The Ron said:

As a newcomer to astronomy and also to this group I need some further guidance on my partial telescope setup.

I've bought an as new Stella-Lyra Classical Cassegrain 8" telescope which was still double boxed from the original FLO purchaser (in Holland). It comes with dovetails fitted top and bottom along with a focuser, my son is buying me a 2" eyepiece but I need the mount, tripod and guidescope.

I only wish to use a manual Alt/Az tripod and mount setup so this is where further guidance would be most helpful. I've just started receiving state pension so cost is a factor and need to keep that under £1000. The scope as is weighs 9kg so it precludes the use of an EQ5 tripod. I have considered the EQ6 2" tripod but how to adapt it to a different mount to what it is designed for is difficult plus availability isn't great.

Continued research has led me to the Berlebach range of tripods and the Uni-18/28 being of great interest and I would like opinions on these and suitability in a heavy duty Alt/Az setup please?

A Sky-Tee 2 mount may well be the best choice cost wise but I am unsure of it this and also it's usability so I am open to suggestions please?

Thanks in advance.

John

I’d be tempted to got for the AVX, it has 30lb imaging payload, the 20lb of your OTA would be well within capabilities.

Admitted it is a GoTo German Equatorial Mount, but, as you move to imaging, this is a workhorse for imaging payloads in the 20-22 lb range and would allow you to add a camera and other fittings for imaging.

You’d probably be adding a different OTA (Optical Tube Assembly - the bit the the lenses, focuser and tube)  as you progress. Often with a lighter OTA.

[John The Ron]

Thanks Brown Dwarf, I think I will still go for an alt/az heavy duty mount and have a some in mind:- Sky Tee 2, RVO heavy duty Alt/Az, Giro Ercole being my main options but am open to more of the same ilk if you know of any? These would allow for a camera attachment also if wanted as I progress my experience in astronomy.

[John The Ron]

Thanks for the reply about the berlebach rubber feet!

[iapa]

Hi, just to let you know that “Brown Dwarf” is a rating on this site, the member name is on the shaded line above.

Both Cosmic Geoff and I share the same Brown Dwarf ranking - but I’d expect he knows more than me

[John The Ron]

Ah thanks for the heads up iapa (is that correct?), how many ratings are there and how good is Brown Dwarf?

John

[johninderby]

This was posted by someone else a while ago.

[John The Ron]

Blimey, quite a lot!!!

[iapa]

16 minutes ago, John The Ron said:

Ah thanks for the heads up iapa (is that correct?), how many ratings are there and how good is Brown Dwarf?

John

It is a bit of fun really.

 

Edited April 28, 2021 by iapa

[Steve Clay]

The skytee takes a bit of fettling to get it right. Replacing the grease and adjusting the worms but when sorted is a great mount for the price. To use a Eq6 2inch tripod you would need the geoptik adapter

https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/geoptik-heq5-tripod-adaptor-for-eq6-2-tripods.html

Steve

[John]

44 minutes ago, John The Ron said:

... I think I will still go for an alt/az heavy duty mount and have a some in mind:- Sky Tee 2, RVO heavy duty Alt/Az, Giro Ercole being my main options but am open to more of the same ilk if you know of any? .....

The Altair Astro Sabre Mount is similar to the Giro Ercole:

https://www.harrisontelescopes.co.uk/acatalog/altair-sabre.html

The AYOswiss alt-az mounts are very nice indeed:

http://www.aokswiss.ch/ayo/ayo_ii/main_ayo_ii.html

 

[John The Ron]

I haven't seen the AYO mounts before, very nice!

[johninderby]

You will find that there are those who will only use alt-az mounts with slo-mo controls and those that aren’t bothered. Just what you prefer.

[Louis D]

1 hour ago, johninderby said:

You will find that there are those who will only use alt-az mounts with slo-mo controls and those that aren’t bothered. Just what you prefer.

And those who find themselves using both depending on the moment.  My DSV-2B has both a handle and slow-mo controls.  If I'm getting too much sticktion rebound with the handle, I'll fine tune with the slo-mo knobs.

[KP82]

3 hours ago, John The Ron said:

Thanks Brown Dwarf, I think I will still go for an alt/az heavy duty mount and have a some in mind:- Sky Tee 2, RVO heavy duty Alt/Az, Giro Ercole being my main options but am open to more of the same ilk if you know of any? These would allow for a camera attachment also if wanted as I progress my experience in astronomy.

I saw you mentioned RVO heavy duty Alt/AZ, so I thought I'd chip in. Don't be fooled by the spec. This mount while being pretty well built is not going to hold a payload of 10kg well. I've got one and my estimate is about 5 - 6kg max.

[John The Ron]

Thanks all, am still looking!

[Louis D]

6 hours ago, KP82 said:

I saw you mentioned RVO heavy duty Alt/AZ, so I thought I'd chip in. Don't be fooled by the spec. This mount while being pretty well built is not going to hold a payload of 10kg well. I've got one and my estimate is about 5 - 6kg max.

That appears to be Hercules's smallest mount, 2.5 inches, ironically labelled heavy duty.  Their 4 inch or 6 inch mounts might be better choices.  I wonder what happens when the belt rots years down the road.  Are those things generally available items?

[KP82]

10 hours ago, Louis D said:

That appears to be Hercules's smallest mount, 2.5 inches, ironically labelled heavy duty.  Their 4 inch or 6 inch mounts might be better choices.  I wonder what happens when the belt rots years down the road.  Are those things generally available items?

I've read a thread about these Hercules mounts on CN and I remember in one of the posts the user said he could source the belts separately.

These mounts are all overrated in terms of their max payload capacity. Due to the minimal friction in the clutcher, they are quite sensitive to balancing and the slow motion could become jerky with a long moment arm. Even though the 4" and 6" models are able to take on more weight, I wouldn't use them with a long refractor or newt. Shorter but heavier cassegrains are probably the better intended targets for them.

[johninderby]

An SGL member was less than impressed with the Hercules mount.