telescope tripods

sonoma1993

Diamond Member
May 31, 2004
3,414
21
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I need a new tripod for my telescope, the mount part that connect to my telescopte, that connect to the swivel on the tripod broke at the swivel. Could i just get any type of tripod and just reattach it the swivel part. I notice on mine, were the swivel attaches to mount, there a bolt up in there. I was thinking i could just undo the bolt and put the mount on a new tripod.

opps i thought i posted this in the off-topic section. i was wondering why i didnt see my post in off-topic.
 

Fullmetal Chocobo

Moderator<br>Distributed Computing
Moderator
May 13, 2003
13,704
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I believe it would work on a standard tripod. All (more or less) tripods are the standard size, so it would be a question of if the mount for your telescope is a proprietary mount. But the only way you are really going to find out is try it. Grab a cheap one from Wal-Mart just to see if the size fits, and then return it, and then decide on the one you want.
Tas.
 

arcas

Platinum Member
Apr 10, 2001
2,155
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What size telescope? How heavy? What type of mount did you have on there before? Sounds like your mount broke, not your tripod. Though if the mount broke, chances are both the mount and the tripod were undersized to begin with so it might not be a bad idea to buy a new mount+tripod anyway.

Surveyor tripods work nicely for scopes up to around 20 lbs. I have one for my 4" APO refractor. For a larger scope, you might check into getting a used Meade standard field tripod. I use one for my 10" LX-200. I wouldn't recommend it for long-exposure astrophotography but for visual use, it's steady enough.