Custom mount

Everyone should have a mount like this for their AP's.

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Yep, I Wholeheartedly agree David.

Sometimes, whipping out a huge mount can be a pain in the you know what. Batteries, Cords, Piers/Tripods, etc., etc. I own a 1200GTO BTW.

By the time you get all set-up, you're ready to call it quits.

Something like what you have shown lets a person quickly set up for a brief observing session, and the more you can get use from beautiful scopes like these, the better.

The biggest astronamical "sin" of all, is letting a magnificent scope such as this lay idle in a closet.

Another nice use for these, is of course terrestrial use.

I have done something similar with my AP Traveler, where I use a Bogen heavy duty Tripod With Super Mono Ball head, Televue Upswing Cradle and the 8" Doveplate is mounted to cradle, so it's simple side in, slide out. My EQ mount that I normally use for my Traveler is a Byers 58. Mark

I have a 600 mount with the wooden tripod. I built a wooden alt top similar to the one shown in this thread that I insert onto the 600 tripod. It works great with the Traveler and 9.25" Celestron I have and it saves much time for a quick setup. I suggested to AP that they make a similar head for the tripod to increase the utility of the mount. They said they were thinking about it. This was three months ago.