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HomePastimesPhotographyPhotography: TripodCelestron Heavy-Duty Altazimuth Tripod |
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|  | | | Used and New: | | |
| All | |
| $79.95 | New | | |
| $79.95 | New | | |
| $88.89 This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. | Used
- Mint | | |
| $91.95 | New | | |
| $93.46 This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. | New | | |
| $96.95 | New | | |
| New | |
| $79.95 | New | | |
| $79.95 | New | | |
| $91.95 | New | | |
| $93.46 This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. | New | | |
| $96.95 | New | | |
| Used | |
| $88.89 This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. | Used
- Mint | | |
| | Customer Reviews: | | | Average Customer Review: ( 28 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
29 of 29 found the following review helpful:
 A Good Solid Altazimuth Tripod Jun 14, 2006
By Technology Guy
All metal construction (except for the knobs) make this a solid mount for a small to medium sized scope. I found very little problem with vibration using a C90 spotting scope at high powers. The sliding 1/4-20 mounting screw allows the scope to be balanced properly. The 1/4-20 adapter also appears to be removable in order to use scope rings or other mounting methods. The fine adjustment knobs offer limited range but precise adjustments for aiming a scope under high power or for tracking distant objects. The fine adjustment knobs are also connected by cables minimizing vibrations and a possible source of misalignment.
A minor quibble with the design of this tripod is the screw-in eyepiece holder which serves to add additional rigidity to the legs. I would have preferred a built-in locking mechanism instead. Another quibble is that the East-West panning axis must be locked for the fine controls to function properly.
The only major complaint I have - and I would have given this tripod 5 stars otherwise - is the design of the altitude/tilting mechanism. While the head can be locked for panning East-West, there is no corresponding up-down tilt locking mechanism. The head only offers a fixed tension for up-down tilting and no lock, unlike typical camera tripod heads (I believe you may be able to actually adjust the tension with a wrench but there is no knob or handle for doing this at will). Furthermore, there is no handle of any sort so in order to tilt the scope up or down, you must push and pull the scope itself to point it up and down which can put a great deal of stress on the single 1/4-20 mounting point. The ease of use of this tripod would have been much better with an adjustable locking tension knob or handle.
All in all, I am still rather pleased with this tripod. It is quite solid with little or no vibration problems and appears well-adapted for terrestrial viewing as well as short-term astronomical observing.
Note: For long-term astronomical viewing, I would instead suggest a German Equatorial Mount (GEM) such as the similarly priced Orion Min-EQ, EQ-1 or EQ-2 Equatorial Mounts or similar which are designed for the specific purpose of precisely tracking astronomical objects over time. Such mounts can even be motorized for this purpose.
17 of 17 found the following review helpful:
 Pretty good, with one big problem Oct 22, 2006
By T. Conrad
"Old Grouch"
It arrived in good shape, on time. It works fairly well with a Celestron C5, with one major problem. The elevation fine adjust has a huge amount of play, several degrees. The big adjustment screw has a preload or at least an end play adjustment, but the real problem comes from the nut in the middle of this screw. It can move around. The tiny phillips head screw that holds this part in place doesn't do much and eventually worked itself loose again. It may be missing a part, the tripod arrived with no instructions or drawings of any kind. The azimuth fine adjust did not have this problem.
19 of 20 found the following review helpful:
 Where's the user manual? May 17, 2006
By Gilbert Aldous
"Confused Consumer"
I agree with the two previous reviewers. There needs to be a user manual and there isn't one. The fine adjustment will adjust the vertical angle maybe 15 degrees. This isn't very helpful for star gazing. The maximum height of the tripod is only 45 inches. This is an uncomfortable height for looking through binoculars while standing. Celestron should have a users guide showing how their tripod and binoculars are supposed to work together.
10 of 10 found the following review helpful:
 Bad for binoculars Oct 21, 2008
By SWoftheRockies
Bought this for my Celestron SkyMaster 100x25 binoculars. Bad choice (binoculars were a bad choice too). With the mounting screw firmly attached to the binocs, it still has a lot of play. Maybe with lighter binocs or a balanced scope it would work better, but this the the recommended tripod for the SkyMaster 100x25.
8 of 8 found the following review helpful:
Wish I shopped around before buying Jul 14, 2007
By Scanner
I'm not satisfied with this prduct. I bought it on trusting the Celestron product team. I wanted it to work well with the SkyMaster 25x100 bino. The parts and construction of the tripod have too many cheap metal and cheap plastic parts for cost of the product. I question how reliable and long lasting the core worm drives will be. As noted by other buyers the legs are too short and there seems to be no easy way to get around this with a table, etc. I now wonder if Amazon would buy it back? Also how will I find a suitable triod with having to buy it first? Amazon sold this to me for $99, now less than one month later the price is $35. $35 is more appropriate but possibly not worth the annoyances.
See all 28 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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