On Sunday, 1 January 2017 18:38:35 UTC+1, wrote:
For all of you whom Santa brought 60mm refractors for Christmas, time to visit your local astronomy clubs, en masse, and get useful advice on how to use those scopes, if you or your kids are new to the hobby.

Those with "GoTo" telescopes are also strongly encouraged to attend.

Plenty to see up there in January! First quarter Moon later this week.

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Clear skies.

If only altazimuth mountings with drives and Goto became the norm. The small refractor market could be transformed if only they would junk the CRAPPY equatorials.

They certainly make enough of the present TOTAL junk to suggest there is a large enough market. It just needs some greedy Chinese manufacturer to throw his present designers off the factory roof. Or have them jump out of crippling shame!

Where are the commercial, offset, counterbalanced, Berry-style forks? Fitted with dirt cheap [friction] bearings instead of the absolutely worthless, skinny axles and stupid chromed castings and floppy counterweights and no damned friction at all!

Small refractor mountings are now infinitely worse than 100 years ago. This is unforgivable, commercial suicide! Particularly when home-made, offset-forks with Dobsonian bearings have been around for literally decades! I made one myself back in the early 1980s.

Nobody questions Commercial Dobsonian mountings for reflectors any more. Why the deliberate commercial blindness for altazimuth refractor mountings? With these well proven methods of support and their silky smooth, stay-put bearings?

Isn't there one single enterprising, US telescope outlet willing to have a load of Berry offset forks made? Slave-driven China could make one for literally peanuts for a decent 70mm OTA like the Bresser Skylux OTA!

Scrap the flimsy and crappy, tubular tripods and use well spaced, double wooden legs for a bit of solid stability.

It seems ANYONE can make crappy mountings in China. Is there some suicidal genetic streak in their producing the same total crap all the time, every time for literally decades?

Isn't there one single Chinese designer who has actually read about the Berry offset fork? Some US amateurs have hung their multi-thousand dollar, large aperture APOs on these simple plywood forks. And enjoyed every moment of the superb support these simple mounts offer. Where is the nicely finished, commercial version? Polished, carbon fiber, sandwich plates, anybody?

If small, Chinese, telescope mountings were cars we'd still be riding wooden chariots with planked, wooden wheels and pulled by oxen! But at least the axles pins would be shiny chrome!