Loan of telescope mount for eclipse

[AstroTourist (Terry)]

I am in communication with a solar scientist from the USA who will be bringing a number of telescopes for the eclipse in November. He has asked if there is anywhere/anyone he might be able to borrow a telescope mount from.

He writes:
"I'd love a Paramount ME/MX or Losmandy most but anything else would also do. I need perhaps 3 drives and shipping from the US is expensive. We'll hope to have things like a 4" Takahashi plus various telephotos."

Anyone with anything they might be able to offer please contact me directly.
Regards,
Terry Cuttle

[Poita (Peter)]

They are welcome to my CGEM

[frolinmod]

I can just imagine loaning them an ME and getting the mount back with the worms all bent out of shape. No thanks.

[OICURMT]

honestly.. why would he need such a robust, unwieldy, non-transportable mount?

Hardly worth the "return on investment" just in the time to haul it to site and set it up...

Or is he looking for someone along the Eclipse track?

[brian nordstrom (As avatar)]

I hear you ? for a Tak 4 inch a generic $400 second hand EQ5 style mount will do very well for the time it will get used for the eclipse .
It will also do very well for them to view the southern skies .
Driven it will deliver short AP's , especially if they have an FSQ .
I do hear you . ( if you can afford a sweet 4 inch TAK a mount for the duration should not be a problem ) .
I have a TV Gibralter that may be avaliable if an Alt AZ is ok with them ? .
Brian.

Originally Posted by OICURMT

honestly.. why would he need such a robust, unwieldy, non-transportable mount?

Hardly worth the "return on investment" just in the time to haul it to site and set it up...

Or is he looking for someone along the Eclipse track?

[2stroke (Jay)]

Has he told you that your won $1,000,000 and all he needs is $400 to cover the tax on the ticket you entered in the Kazzitinez lottery? This has a real suss feeling about it.

[keni (Ken)]

Originally Posted by 2stroke

Has he told you that your won $1,000,000 and all he needs is $400 to cover the tax on the ticket you entered in the Kazzitinez lottery? This has a real suss feeling about it.

And he has even set up a "suss" web site for it too.
http://www.eclipse.aaq.org.au/

Amazing what you'll find.......

Ken

[Wavytone]

Silly optimists ... Little do they realise its definitely going to be clouded out on the east coast because some darn fool will buy a 'scope a few days beforehand. Guaranteed.

(More likely because we're still on the tail-end of a la-nina cool wet year with an abysmal record for cloud.)