|
O.K. Terri, forget photography using a scope for now, as I said before. By all means start with wide angle work on a static tripod. Also, I would
suggest you forget stacking for now as well. You have plenty to learn
about aligning and operating your Go To scope without worrying about
that as well.
Regarding your tripod and mount. The guys at Parkes were partly right.
Your mount and tripod were designed for scopes of a similar weight to yours, but with shorter tubes. Nobody understands why they put such a long scope on that mount. The great length causes the scope to shake
when you try and focus it, and it can be very frustrating. Their 130 SLT
model suffers from the same problem. They were wrong in suggesting
that you replace the mount and tripod; there are much cheaper means
of fixing the problems.
Firstly, suspend a weight beneath the tripod, somewhere around the weight of a couple of house bricks. This will steady the tripod to a
worthwhile degree, and costs nothing.
Secondly, and much more importantly, buy an electric focuser [ Bintel
sell them] which has variable speed and runs for ages using a 9v
battery. This means you don't have to touch the scope to focus it. You
will wonder how you ever managed without one. I think they are around
$90-95.
raymo
|