Why did you add the pedestal? In general, using.a pedestal will be less stable than reaching the same height by extending the tripod legs. Most people use a pedestal to prevent the eyepiece end of the telescope from hitting the tripod legs. With the 80EDL this has never been a problem for me because the scope is relatively short. The other reason for using a pedestal would be if you observe standing and your tripod doesn’t reach high enough without the pedestal. But in general, I would use a pedestal only if you have to.
I added the pedestal because when looking towards zenith, the scope hit my mount/ tripod. Oldfracguy noticed in an earlier photo than the ones above that my mount was set more for terrestrial viewing. I set it that way as I read that it was more stable but misunderstood that statement. At his suggestion, I moved the arm’s position to the more typical astronomy setting, removed the pedestal, and now it’s perfect and no problem reaching zenith unobstructed!
