Tripod recomendations

(Paul Ciszek) wrote in news:k8bari$9m2$4
@reader1.panix.com:

No one here recommended anti-vibration pads for the feet of my tripod.
Someone did recommend them in a photography newsgroup, though, so I
bought a set at the local telescope shop. I will give them a try
Monday or Tuesday with another attempt at a crescent moon shot.

Somebody in an astro shop years ago, told me, that wooden pedestals
were used because of wood's damping characteristics.
Metal doesnt absorb much energy, so vibrations build up, and
are sustained longer.
With stepper motors to do the tracking, you have an (unwanted) source
of vibrations always present.
Not to mention Sir Paul walking around the scope, while photographing
is going on.....
So, a stable, concrete slab of floor is another way of avoiding
unwanted movement.
I have serious doubts about those anti-vibration pads, those only work
in a narrow frequency band, not stopping low-frequency vibrations,
and those are just as harmful for time-exposure photos.

A rigid floor and a rigid mount is the best way to stop vibrations to
spoil taking pictures.

On 2012-11-14, Paul Ciszek wrote:
I am kind of ****ed that after dropping a few hundred on Manfroto
tripod and head, I find it doesn't really hold my camera steady enough.
I am using a 500mm lens and a micro-4/3 camera, so that is roughly
equivalent to a 1m focal length on a 35mm camera. When I try to focus
on the moon, I see it jiggling around, and I have to use shorter exposure
times than I would like to get a sharp picture. The camera has IBIS, but
according to some users, it just can't deal with *really* long focal
lengths. I would like to find a 1.4 teleconverter for my lens, which
will make this problem worse. An amateur astronomer friend recomended
Orion as a tripod maker. I talked to one online vendor who recommended
two models:

http://www.telescope.com/catalog/sea...&keyword=05377

The "paragon plus extra-heavy duty tripod" has the advantage that is
more or less a normal camera tripod. The sales rep warned me that it
might not be able to aim as high as I would like. (i.e., lunar photography
when the moon is very high in the sky.)


http://www.telescope.com/catalog/sea...&keyword=10105

The VersaGo II Altazimuth Telescope Mount would require the use of a
dovetail L-bracket (shown on the same page) to attach a camera. I do
not like the idea of the camera and lens hanging out on a "springboard"
like that, but at least this setup would allow the camera to point
arbitrarily high.

Any thoughts and recommendations?


What are you using to trigger the shutter release? If IBIS is image
stabilization, you will find that image stabilization doesn't work
for tripod mounted cameras. My telescope on a heavy Orion Atlas EQ-G
trembles when I focus. They all tremble.

Bud