Hi Travis
Make a list of your specific requirements to help you decide. A typical list might look something like this:
- Transportable – weight, stowed dimensions, max height, etc
- Easy to set up – how easy is it to spread the legs, lock them, adjust them?
- Stable – does it wobble or is it solid?
- Ease of adjustments – is it easy to adjust the height, leg spread, individual legs for sloping sites, etc?
- Tripod head – what fitting is required, is the attachment method rigid and strong?
- Versatility – can it be used for more than one purpose; spotting ‘scope, camera, bino’s, etc?
- How easy is it to operate in the dark?
- Do you need interchangeable heads - if so, how do they fit on the tripod?
- Can any bits fall off if you undo something too far? Looking for dropped nuts and bolts in a grass paddock at night is challenging.
Answers to these may help narrow down your choices. I haven’t included budget in the list, as my experience has been that to obtain any astro equipment that you will use frequently, is a pleasure to use, reliable, etc often means expensive, but at least you only buy it once.
In the past I have purchased light and medium weight tripods and soon out grew them, or found them to be very frustrating to use due to wobbles, complexity in set up, etc. Then I had to but the "correct" item, thus "wasting" the original outlay.
Cheers, good luck and I hope I haven’t spooked you!
Dennis