In article ,
Steve Maddison wrote:

Hi all,

I'm contemplating getting an Orion ED80 for wide field viewing and
imaging. My original thought was to piggy back it on my Meade LX90, but
it'd be nice to have a separate mount too, in order to increase the
grab-and-go possibilities I'm somewhat lacking at the moment. The ED80
and piggybacking seem to be very popular subjects at the moment, so I've
already picked up a lot of info from other threads. I am however still
wondering about that "extra" mount...

I mount my ED80 on an Orion AZ-3. I use the ED80 only for thye moon and
planets, due to light pollution at home. I also have to dodge trees, so
an EQ mount wouldn't work. I like the AZ-3 because it is the only
alt-az available with slow motion cables, to keep the object in view.
The mount is stable enough for the ED80 at 120x, and a Orion MAk 127 at
220x.


I've seen what looks like a nice package deal with the SkyView Pro
mount. I've read very favourable reviews and it certainly looks a nice
stable piece of kit. Although I can see myself doing more imaging in the
piggyback configuration, I was wondering if this mount is also sturdy
enough to support a (consumer) digital camera set-up, a decent finder
and possibly other things I've not thought of yet. Could be that I'm
pushing it a little in terms of the stability and accuracy required for
good imaging, but this is likely to be very occasional (e.g. on
vacation, etc).

Any other thoughts/comments/experiences on this kind of set-up are of
course most welcome! Given the popularity of these scopes, I can imagine
plenty of you have been though a similar selection process.


Cheers,

Steve