Telescope Reviews: WO Easy Touch / Orion Sky View questions

When I first bought the EZTouch I was using it with a 100mm refractor that was about 10-11 lbs. with accessories. That balanced fine, but it seems to be about the limit before the tripod felt lopsided. On soft or uneven ground, the tripod would tip just a slight amount due to the weight.

When I went with the 15-16 lbs. telescope, I wanted to counter-balance the weight to keep the tripod evenly loaded. I could not find the counterweight shaft to fit the M12 thread on the EZMount, so I had to bolt the weight directly to the mount. I noticed that the 10 lb. Meade counterweight was cheap and fairly compact so I gave it a try. I mounted it with an M12x70mm stainless bolt and two brass bushings from the super-hardware store in my area, which was a very secure attachment. This gave a very well balanced setup with the 15 lb. tube. The counter-weight also acted as a convenient handle for aiming the telescope, especially in altitude. The only issue was that the counter-weight was not removable without an allen wrench so I left it on while moving the mount/tripod. If you turned it the wrong way when moving the setup, then the off-balance CW would swing around with considerable force. I almost got whacked in the head with it a couple of times.

Performance was great, but it is very sensitive to weight distribution front to rear. When switching eyepieces, I found it best to never leave it without an eyepiece while switching. I would keep the new eyepiece in one hand and do the switch immediately without letting go of the telescope. If you have the tension set low (for easy panning) and leave it with no eyepiece, then the telescope can take a nose dive.

I recently replaced the EZTouch with a Celestron CG5-ASGT sinced I wanted goto. I actually miss the EZTouch and I'm thinking buying another one. The goto is nice but I miss the convenience of the EZTouch. And the Celestron goto malfunctioned three weeks after I bought the mount, so it is now sitting at the Celestron repair depot waiting for them to get around to repairing it.

I might just get an EZTouch head and use it on the Celestron tripod, as I think the Celestron head attaches with an M10 bolt. That should be a very stable setup, as the CG5-ASGT tripod has the big 2" legs and is very stable.