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Lewis,
I have been using a Porta II for just over 3 years now and rate it as excellent value for money. I have not seen better in the under $500 range for small telescopes.
I have a Vixen ED103 (with a heavier non Vixen finder scope) on the mount most of the time. Total 6.5 kg. The mount handles the scope well, although it is close to its limit. A heavier tripod would improve stability at medium to high magnifications. At these magnitudes, vibrations when focusing take 1-2 seconds to dampen out. Your 102 FL is slightly longer so vibrations may take a little longer to dampen out.
I have a small handle attached to the underneath of the focuser to act as a grab handle to slew the telescope. It is attached using one of the spare tapped holes underneath the focuser and works really well.
I also mount my Zeiss Diascope 85 TFL on this mount for terestrial work. Weight 2 kg.The mount is an absolute joy to use with this scope on board.
Adding the flexible slow motion handles makes a significant improvement to the ease of manual tracking. Using these there is no vibration at all at the eyepiece, even at high magnification. Plus one's hands are not at the awkward high angles needed for the short fixed handles. A simple squaring off of the ends of the grub screws that tension the two clutches made a big difference to the smoothness and tension adjustments.
Hope this helps.
Steve
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