Thanks all for the discussion so far. I've made a numbered picture of my junky basement to facilitate discussion!
So: here's my basement, and all manner of my stuff,
Have a good look and a good think, then tell me: what would you do? build a collapsible dob mount thing, or try to make something out of the parts shown here?
I also agree that a tripod and alt az head may work, but my concern with that is 2 fold:
a) the Intes (1 in the picture) weighs 10 pounds, not that i'll be doing imaging, i just want it to stay upright... not sure if the N60 i have will do that. if i get a vixen portamount i probably can't use the N60 tripod as well.
note: i can handle a bit of vibration (i'm roughing it after all).
b) the legs of the lightweight N60 tripod (3) are going to take up precious luggage room.
Referencing the photo below.
(1) MK67 10 pounds fits in the pelican case just barely.
(2) a Nexstar 60 mount used for my solar scope (good find on craigslist $65! including a 60mm refractor in the corner (5) i never used.) -- that plastic ring adapter on it appears to come off. i'd have to buy/make a ring if we think the N60 can even hold 10 pounds? note that the shape/size of the n60 mount is such that it fits in right alongside the mk67 in the pelican. no prob.
(3) the legs from the N60, the spreader could come off and the legs could lay flat in my luggage diagonally, too bad they don't get any shorter than that.
(4) the bottom bit of the N60 head...screws on under tripod.
(5) the 60mm refractor... not in use
(6) a smaller lighter phototripod, but has a video head on it integrated, don't think i can use that for anything but a digi cam... just including it to show desired size or if you get any ideas.
(7) spreader tray / stablizer... may just leave this at home.
(8) coronado scope that normally resides in the N60 mount (that's why i picked up this mount from craigslist)
(9) a nexstar 8 with a Ray's Bracket, on a beefy tripod. This is NORMALLY used to hold the intes mk67.
(10) the N8 beefy tripod. not travel friendly!
(11) peekaboo-my hand build 13.1" string dob...you can just barely see a pole mount block here. the message here is i CAN build stuff if needed. but don't need to for it's own sake... only if we think it's a good idea.
so, what do we think ... make a collapsible dob mount?
example minus the tripod:
http://celestialwonders.com/dob4sct/index.html
use the parts here after making a ring?
or buy a vixen portamount or ministar instead (can i then use this tripod (3)? or if i do have to buy legs are there some that collapse smaller?)
example:
http://www.universalastronomics.com/
Thanks for putting all your heads together folks!
Tom
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