Inexpensive mounts..

Hello everyone,
I am in need of an inexpensive Alt/Az mount for quick grab and go with a TV-60. I looked and found only one within my current price range, that is the Orion AZ-3 Alt azimuth Mount. Is this mount any good? Is there something better out there. It has been suggested to me that a bogan 3046 tripod is good but I would need a mount to put on top of it. I only have about $200 to spend on this. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advanced

Wayne

If you are handy with a saw and wood, I can send you some pictures of the one I made. I've seen lots of examples of home-made alt-az mounts.

Mine works great for my Orion ED80, although it is a tiny bit bulkier than a photo tripod or something like a telepod. But, the entire thing only cost me about $70 and I used nice red oak as my wood.

The AZ-3 looks like my Vixen alt-az. There has been a past collaboration between Vixen and Orion. It works OK for the Vixen Custom 80mm scope that I have. But there is no 1/4" screw mount.

Keep in mind that the Vixen has two mounting rings and a camera tripod has one 1/4' screw. The AZ-3 could have the same Vixen configuration, I don't know but contact Orion about that to be sure.

eBay isn't good for much in the astro hobby but they do have good bargains on camera mounts. I think that if you shop around you will find a good mount for less than $100.00. I bought a heavy duty Vivitar mount for $10.00 plus $10.00 shipping.

Check out the used Manfrottos', Bogens, Velbons, etc.

Truth is, as I write I don't know how the TV60 tube ring is configured for mounting. If the AZ-3 is a clone of the Vixen alt-az I doubt if you can use it. My mount uses slots that are cast in the rings.

Les Burel

HI:

Here's a bit of a different suggestion:

A Bogen tripod with a 3 axis tilt-head but in a somewhat unusual configuration..

Rather than mounting as one normally would a camera, flip the top axis 90 degrees and mount the scope beside the head rather than on top of it. I call this the "Side Saddle" mount.

With the scope on top of a photographic head, as soon as you start getting up in altitude, scope wants to flip over backwards.

But by turning that top axis 90 degrees and mounting the scope so that the altitude axis runs through the centerline of the scope, it essentially creates a single-sided fork mount which is balanced, similar to a dob.

I have used this configuration with a variety of scopes, currently with a TV-Pronto and a C-5 OTA. The tripod is an old Bogen 3040 with a 3047 head. It works suprisingly well, 200X is doable one you get the hand of it. With the small size of the TV-60 it should work nicely and a good photo tripod will setup more easily than an astrotripod...

New these are somewhat expensive, but I found mine at a swap meet for $35.

Here's a photo of a ST-80 mounted "Side Saddle."

Thats how I do it...

jon

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Wayne,
You can buy the old Meade 390 alt-az mount head from Russell Optics I believe for ~$30; he had them for sale on the big auction site, or you could email him from the Astromart Sponsors page. These will take your standard Synta/Orion/Celestron/Meade/Vixen aluminum or wood tripod legs if my memory serves me correctly. You can probably also buy a tripod from Russell or someone else. These mount heads are as good or better than the Orion mount, and likely will take the same 1/4-20 adapter that Orion sells.

Best of luck!
Tim

As others have recommended, it is pretty easy to build something that will work great.

Astronomy magazine published an article entitled "How to Redeem a Department Store Telescope" that details a simple to build AltAz mount. A Google should turn up a link for you.

I used those plans with a couple changes to build this mount for a 60mm refractor for my kids. You can see more pictures at: http://www.indytel.com/~rnabholz/kidpeek/index.htm

Good Luck

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Does anyone have experience with the new alt-az from Digital Astronomy. From the picture on their website it looks like the Orion mount, with slow motion controls, but with a wood (more stable?) tripod, and a folding brace that makes it easy to collapse and move the tripod. It's in the same price range as the Orion. I've been thinking of purchasing one but would like someone else's opinion.

Hi Wayne,

Not sure if this has already come up, there is a new mount from Helix Manufacturing: Hercules alt-az cradle. I think these are about $200



Also, I made a simple pipe mount for quick looks and the cost was pretty reasonable, although I already had the tripod. So if you can get a tripod like a used LXD55 aluminum tripod, you might be able to make something quick and cheap like this.

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