I would agree with the thought on why manufacturers undersell their scopes by supplying below par eyepieces and mounts. My friend got a scope and a cheap eq mount and has never really used it as he could not figure out the mount. Personally i found Alt-az a good start before moving onto an EQ mount.
An EQ 5 would be good in this case + 1 in agreeance or an Orion Skyview Pro mount like I have with the motor drives seems to work really well. It is a great mount and tripod set for a good portion of my gear.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Saturnine
Hi Mick
This is probably what you don't want to hear but an EQ3-2 is , realistically, undersized for an 102 x 1000 refractor and the aluminium tripod usually supplied isn't the best for damping vibrations. Wouldn't matter how well the scope is balanced, how many counterweights and where they are set on the shaft if the mount is struggling. Any bump or touch of the focuser will take several seconds to settle, the scope would be much steadier on an EQ5.
Moving the large weight close to the top of the shaft and using and adjusting the position of the smaller weight to achieve balance will help a little but not a miracle fix.
I still don't understand why the manufacturers and retailers, in a lot of cases, under mount the telescopes they sell. Only causes frustration for the users and could possibly turn them off the hobby.
If you're skilled with hand tools you could construct heavier wooden tripod legs to put the mount on, will help noticeably.
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