Best Tripod for a Celestron N11GPS?

Time to spend some more money...;)

What in your opinion is the best tripod for a Celestron N11GPS?
Where would you buy it?

Thanks for any advice.

Too_Many_Tools wrote:
Time to spend some more money...;)

What in your opinion is the best tripod for a Celestron N11GPS?
Where would you buy it?

Thanks for any advice.

Hi:

That depends...

If you intend to use the 11 as a portable scope setup in alt-az mode,
the stock tripod (especially when used with the anti-vibration pads) is
quite sufficient. It's also very light and portable. It's what I use.

If, however, you contemplate setting the scope up on a wedge and doing
deep sky imaging in that configuration, you'll probably want something
better. The larger Celestron CGE type tripod they sell as an option is
good. Many folks have also adapted the LX200 12 inch tripod.

Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of _Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_
Like SCTs and MCTs?
Check-out sct-user, the mailing list for CAT fanciers!
Goto http://members.aol.com/RMOLLISE/index.html

Thanks for the information.

Any other suggestions anyone?

Where would you buy a tripod like the Meade Giant tripod?

Are there different variations of this tripod?

What modifications need to be done so the N11GPS works on the Meade
Giant tripod?

Thanks

I have noticed that Celestron has quietly started to ship a new and
vastly improved tripod with their Nexstar GPS models last year. I saw
it at a dealer and immediately decided that I needed to upgrade my old
tripod to this one...
I, for one, hated the old tripod that came with the Nexstar GPS before.
It was ugly, not very stable and the plastic spread damaged the trunk
of my car when it was folded.
The new tripod has much more attractive stainless steel legs, anodized
orange feet, captured attachment bolts, heavy duty spider links and get
this...a huge accessary tray! The tray holds my eyepieces, caps, flash
lights...and it's not plastic!!! It also cradles the three legs when
the tripod is folded so they won't flail around when it sits in my
car's trunk. Most importantly, it's just rock solid.
I have to say that Celestron did a remarkably poor job of marketing
this product. It's got everything that a lot of us wanted in a tripod
of this size, but you don't hear about it at all. In fact, you can't
even find a picture of it in Celestron's website! You would think that
if they have a good product, they'd market the living hell out of it.
Maybe they should take a lesson from Vince McMahon...
Anyway, I'd suggest anybody who has a Nexstar GPS and is not happy with
it right now should look for this new tripod. If anybody's interested,
I'll take a picture of mine and email it to you.



Too_Many_Tools wrote:
Time to spend some more money...;)

What in your opinion is the best tripod for a Celestron N11GPS?
Where would you buy it?

Thanks for any advice.