Recommended ALT az mount for Solar viewing

[Strawb (Dave)]

Folks,
Any thoughts a the preferred alt/az mount for visual solar viewing. I currently put my Solar scope atop my CPC which tracks the Sun perfectly but I'd prefer a lightweight mount to take out for sidewalk viewing. I've tried an Ioptron smart which was too wobbly and an Allview mount which I cannot get to track anywhere as good as the CPC so I'm thinking maybe Nexstar SLT ??
Thanks

[mental4astro (Alexander)]

With tracking capability?

[glend (Glen)]

How heavy is the solar scope? I have used an iOptron Smartstar G Cube successfully for solar observation for the past year. The iOptron Smartstar is Alt-Az but has full Goto tracking, and easily holds the sun in the FOV for hours, it's very accurate. I had it out at Lake Chaffey eariler this year and it was running for hours during the day for all to view the sun. The little iOptron mount has a payload capacity of about 11lbs (published) but you can do some mods on it to improve capacity (upgrading the Alt clutch disc, bracing the Alt gear housing, and bracing the tripod with a tray or hold down weight). If you can live without tracking then there are a number of AltAz mounts available, some with add on motor drives - like the Vixen Porta II, which (with Train and Track) can hold the sun for up to ten minutes in the FOV without tweaking the motor controls.

[Strawb (Dave)]

Thanks Alex/Glen

Yep Id like it to track for sure - As I said I have played with the Ioptrons but without doing any mods myself. An option I guess. I'm hoping to keep my Lunt 60 on it and if it tacks Ok to do some imaging one day distant

[glend (Glen)]

If your going to try imaging one day in the future then my advice would be to buy a mount that gives you that ability now. Now with solar imaging there is no shortage of light, so exposure times don't need to be long, and autoguiding would not be required (IMHO). A HEQ5 should be all you need for the Lunt and you would have the capacity for the camera, etc.