Click here if you are having trouble logging into the forums
Privacy Policy |
Please read our Terms
of Service | Signup and
Troubleshooting FAQ | Problems? PM a Red or a Green Gu… uh, User
GaryML
sage
Reged: 02/16/09
Loc: San Diego, California
|
Re: Vixen Portamount...
[Re: AlienRatDog]
#2946919 - 02/24/09 12:51 PM
|
Edit
|
Reply
|
Quote |
Quick Reply
|
|
|
Quote:
Hey guys, so I have a Vixen portamount, I complained about its stability so I tried the Orion Altaz, lets just say I like the slow motion controls, sure the Orion was stable but was jerky and I kept over shooting while trying to track by hand...the portamount has beautiful slow motion controls that don't make me miss having a clock drive (more altaz mounts should have em!)...problem is it is jiggly! I think the aluminum legs suck, I was thinking about getting wooden legs from Handsonoptics....has anybody tried and do they make a difference, btw the scope is a C100ED...
I had a Porta mount and had the same problems with my Vixen ED100sf (the same size as your scope). By tightening all the bolts on the Porta, using fairly high friction on both bearings, and sinking the legs well into the dirt, I could get the settle time down to about 3-4 seconds. But there was so much jiggling when trying to focus that it was nearly impossible to focus the thing.
I thought about the wood legs from HandsOn Optics, but I knew that in the long run I would never be happy with this mount. So I sold it and bought a William Optic EZ Mount with the tripod. This completely solved the problem. Incredibly stable with a settle time of 1/2 second or less. Easy to focus. I do miss the slow motion controls but with the tube well balanced on the WO mount I can keep objects in view with a light touch on the tube or diagonal, even at high power. The head is very well made and fairly small (but heavy). The tripod is a bit crude but it works well. And you can add a second telescope (or binoculars or camera) to the mount by adding an extra dovetail base on the other side). For $500 I think it is the best in this class.
|
Waduino
sage
Reged: 10/24/08
Loc: Richmond Hill, Ontario
|
Re: Vixen Portamount...
[Re: Waduino]
#2947032 - 02/24/09 01:54 PM
|
|
Edit
|
Reply
|
Quote |
Quick Reply
|
|
|
I swapped the wooden legs out, put the aluminum ones back, and... very jiggly. So the wooden legs do help somewhat. I put them back on. Somewhat better. Still a bit of a guess when focusing.
Not the right mount for a 100mm, IMHO.
Wad.
|
Darren B
sage
Reged: 05/02/05
Loc: UK
|
Re: Vixen Portamount...
[Re: Waduino]
#2947081 - 02/24/09 02:19 PM
|
|
Edit
|
Reply
|
Quote |
Quick Reply
|
|
|
When I first got mine, viewing above x100 was a pain due to vibration. VSP helped a great deal, but now I have fitted a wooden tripod. It's a lot better now. I had no real problems with the slo-mo controls apart from the altitude one that falls off when viewing towards the zenith. I do have a twin speed focuser so that does helps. Maybe the 100ED is to long and heavy for it.
|
|
20 registered and 25 anonymous users are browsing this forum.
Moderator: Bowmoreman, bilgebay, iceblaze
Print Thread
|
Forum Permissions
You cannot start new topics
You cannot reply to topics
HTML is disabled
UBBCode is enabled
|
Thread views: 856
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Previous
Index
Next
Threaded
