Posts Made By: Dale Partin

I'm close to purchasing a William Optics ZenithStar 80mm II ED refractor telescope (6 pounds). I would like to use it to look out the windows of my house at the stars (yes, I know that this is not the best way to do things). What kind of not too expensive mount could I get that I could adapt so that I could easily clamp it to a windowsill. I would want the mount to either have slow motion controls or have adjustable tension so that it could be smoothly moved to the direction I wanted it to go. The scope has a 1/4 inch bolt mounting hole. Anything would be better than what I now do, which is use a very beat up old 80 mm F/5 achromat with a badly chipped, dirty lens on a 6 inch high tripod, balanced on the windowsill with two tripod legs outside and one inside, with a sloppy tripod adjustment that freezes the scope in one direction. Even at low mag, Jupiter is streaked past all of its moons. Thanks!

How can I mount an 80 mm refractor telescope with a 1/4 inch bolt mount onto a windowsill so that I can smoothly move it to different positions and yet have it stay where I point it? I'd prefer that the mount didn't cost too much, and that it could be moved fairly easily from one window to another. Frankly, I have an 11 inch SCT, an 8 inch SCT, and a 5 inch Newtonian, but the little refractor gets used the most, balancing it on a windowsill with a 6 inch high tripod! Thanks!