Good Alt-Az Mount and tripod?

[dabbeldi]

Hi,

I have a Skywatcher 120 mm f5, which is a great widefield telescope. However, the mount and tripod are not that great.
Does anyone have recommendations for preferably locally available good Alt-Az mount / tripod?

Thanks
Daniel

[PhilTas]

Hi Daniel,

What are you using at the moment?

Cheers Phil

[dabbeldi]

It's the mount that came with it, the AZ3 I believe: https://skywatcheraustralia.com.au/product/az3-mount-tripod/
It's pretty clunky. I don't need any tracking or similar as I will be mostly observing at low magnification.

[PhilTas]

Have a look at the Skywatcher AZ5 (up to 5kg) or the AZ5HD (9kg)

Both available from Andrews.

[MichaelWB]

Hi Daniel.

I have a C6 on a GSO AZT mount and it is quite stable, even at higher magnification. I have put a Meade Lx65 8" on it as well and it was still satisfactory, but as soon as I put a gso crayford focusr on it (they are fairly weighty) the mount was no longer up to it.

Andrews doesn't currently have them in stock, but if you shop around you might find one. I can definitely recommend the GSO though.

Good hunting.

Michael

[dabbeldi]

Thanks all for the help - some good options there.

[By.Jove]

I have a Stellarvue M2C which I quite like, there were no issues ordering from them.

Nice thing is its a DIY job to make it push-to with encoders and Nexus II, something to consider for later - and the Nexus II is an australian product, if you want to support a local manufacturer.

[Emc2]

Have you considered the iOptron Az Mount Pro?

I have one and I really like the ease of setup and the fact it has a built-in battery so no need to drag cables along. The setup is essentially a one click affair and the mount does the work. Not the cheapest though:

https://proastroz.com/collections/ioptron-az-mount-pro-australian-authorised-distributor-proastroz/products/ioptron-az-mount-pro-with-literoc-tripod