Celestron SkyMaster 25x100 Mounting Options

[Niatona (George)]

Hi, my name's George,

In a few weeks I'm heading out to regional Victoria for a music festival. One of my favourite things about these events is the pristine view of the night's sky you get out in the country.

So this year I decided to pick up a pair of binoculars to get a better look. After doing my research I decided upon a Celestron SkyMaster 25x100 (I know these are a bit advanced for a beginner but I had the budget and wasn't bothered by the weight restrictions).

So now I'm on the hunt of a decent tripod set up to go with it. I've found a few AZ options that look promising like this one: http://procular.com.au/celestron-hea...escope-tripod/

However what I'd really love is a parallelogram style mount like that one pictured here: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ts_H5gBYiB...612_211122.jpg however I haven't been able to find somewhere that sells them in Australia.

Can anyone make a personal recommendation for a decent mount to go with these binoculars? I'm looking to spend around $500 maximum. Sorry if I've left out any info, please let me know if there's any more I can provide to help inform this decision.

Thanks a lot for your help

[Mokusatsu (Australia)]

That type of mount can be a little expensive if you want a reasonable one, the design is inherently bad at damping vibrations so the mount needs to be very sturdy and sturdy means heavy. They are not hard to build though out of timber and home made ones can give excellent results. Unfortunately sturdy doesn't mean lightweight, which matters a lot if you want something really portable!

[Satchmo]

HI

I own 25 X 100 binos. They would be completely useless without the parallelogram mount and even that needs a very sturdy surveyors tripod ( I have both ) .

Bintel sell an Orion parallelogram suitable for up to 80mm binos. 100mm are impossible to handhold or use on a normal tripod.

http://www.bintel.com.au/Binoculars/...oductview.aspx

My advice would be to be realistic - get a paralleogram and tripod to suit and 80mm binoculars ( ie 20 X 80 ) .

If you are not in a hurry get a 100mm suitable paralleogram and large tripod. Warning also that the counterweights will be heavy and the act of getting the 100mm mounted on a bracket onto the parralleogram with weights already on it is not for the faint hearted

[dannat (Daniel)]

you will have to import a parallelogram capable of holding 25x100 binos

best i can suggest is a heavy duty manfrotto tripod with a really good fluid head -else look overseas for the davis sanford model linked here -i have this fluid head on a manfrotto 161 tripod

the other mount i have is a universal astronomics unistar basic rated at 14kg with their medium or heavy bino attachment -it is rock solid & can also hold a large refractor like a 6" without breaking a sweat

[Starlite (John)]

As Mark said,no good without a parallelogram unless you are Strongmanmike !!!!.Took some pics of my setup to show you and it is a bowl of jelly vibration wise.Eye height anywhere from 4 feet to 7 feet.

[Renato1 (Renato)]

For my 25X100 binoculars, I use a standard heavy duty tripod that has the rotating lever which easily raises and lowers the central shaft up and down.

Thus, I sit behind the tripod with a stool, and have the binoculars mounted with the panning handle aimed away from me, so it doesn't hit my chest (i.e. the opposite than with a camera - you soon get used to it).

Thus I can pan around and raise the height of the binoculars with ease - something that you can't do with that mount that you linked to.

When I want to look at something higher in the sky, I simply raise the central shaft's height while pulling the tripod back so that the binoculars come over my eyes, and the tripod is only resting on two legs. In this way, I get to see most of the sky, except for what is directly over head.

The biggest buzz I get with my 25X100s is being somewhere really dark when Virgo is high in the sky. Just moving them at random through Virgo easily shows dozens of little galaxies with each sweep.
Regards,
Renato