"Tom" wrote in message ...
....What is the cheapest way to effectively mount
the ED for casual observing?

Prior to piggy-backing it on my main scope, I successfully used my
80ED on a Slik camera tripod (cost about £70). It made a fantastic
"quick look" system, particularly at low powers (20-50x). Higher mags
are useable (I took mine to 200x for the moon a few times) but there's
a lot of "nudging" needed to keep up with the sky at that power.

Cheers
Beats