New grab and go

Well, on a whim I bought a Meade one armed fork mount for very little money and adapted it to a good tripod for a camera. The original tripod was not too stable to say the least and I did not trust it to hold my WO 80mm APO and not collapse!
Well, with a little work, I made a mounting bracket and a post for the bottom of the Meade mount head that fit the tripod compression fitting. Now it works pretty well, with some vibration but quick dampening times.
It handles 2" EPs like the 17mm Nagler without a problem.
Here is the finish product, it might weight 18-20 lbs.

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Oh Floyd, you whimster!
You've always got something up your sleeve.
Looks like another winner.
Linton

Hi Floyd, that look's great. I had alway's had good luck with these mount's. Actually if it were'nt for these mount's and the reflector's I don't think I would have been in the hobby. There are no astronomy store's around here so I got the 4.5" reflector with the one armed mount from the outlet on Meade then the 5" from Bill Vorce, on telescope warehouse. It was enough to keep my interest soaring then I found Astromart and started learning alot more about the hobby.

That little mount and shakey tripod held my AR5 for about 3 month's while I was saving for a different one. You made that one look great, kinda fancied it up.
Clear Skies, Darrell

Floyd:

How do find the balance? When I recently acquired a WO MegrezII Fluorite/FPL53 Doublet I was quite happy because the OTA is 90mm and I just happened to have a Nexstar 80 mount that takes a 90mm OTA.

However the focuser is so far forwand on the WO MegrezII that it was not adequately balanced for my taste...

Jon

Gosh, that looks familiar, Floyd!!! If you want a good walnut tripod, LXD-friendly base adaptor, or a custom dovetail for it, just let me know!!
By the way, with the pier extension, mine DOES reach zenith.
This is a really cool setup -- fast to set up and align, reliable goto, not very shaky for pot metal and plastic. I hope you enjoy yours!

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