Hello, Jon Isaacs....

Some time back I talked with you about a wide angle low power eyepiece for my ST-80. You had suggested a 19 Panoptic over the 20 Expanse. Well, I went for the Panoptic and it proved to be a wonderful performer on that little scope. Only problem is that now that I've become spoiled by the widefields the ST-80 can provide, I'm thinking of upgrading to an ED-80! The little Paragon photo tripod I'm using now will never support the ED properly. You had a picture of the eq mount you were using for your ED, and I just can't remember what it was. What makes a stable, lightweight eq/alt-az mount for your ED? Thanks for any help you can offer!
Larry

>>> You had a picture of the eq mount you were using for your ED, and I just can't remember what it was. What makes a stable, lightweight eq/alt-az mount for your ED? Thanks for any help you can offer!
Larry
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Larry: I am currently using the tripod from an old Meade 4500 newtonian for my ED-80. I use it as an ALT-AZ mount by pointing the RA axis at the Zenith.

There are a couple of features that make this mount nice. First it has fully geared Dec axis so no fiddling the tangent arm like with an EQ-2.

Second, like the EQ-2, one can loosen the lock that allows head to rotated on the tripod for polar alignment and use this for large scale azimuth adjustments. That way you can keep the scope close to the center of the tripod.

The photo is of a 100mm F/6 on the same tripod. Since then I have moved the Azimuth slo-mo cable so that it is more convienent.

One has to make sure that the RA-axis is locked down, I use an extra bolt through what was the polar angle adjuster.

A $350 ED-80 from right here on AM, a $25 mount and I am a happy camper.

Jon

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