Found the comet - how to uncomputerise my scope

I finally found Machholz in my scope tonight, after a couple of nights just
spotting it with bins.

In my polluted sky it's deeply unimpressive, just a smudge with a brightish
spot in there somewhere.

It raises again the point that I'm very unhappy with the Nexstar mount,as
it's so hard to point, but the scope seems pretty good, and to cut my
losses I would like to mount it on an equatorial tripod, with a better
spotter.

First I need to get it off the nexstar mount, without hurting it, and I
think it shouldn't be too hard, but it's not too easy to know where to
start, and a lump hammer's not an option.

Does anybody know, please - I could try another scope, but for the use I
can make of it I can't see that as an option; it's quite a nice size, and
all the weight is in the base, which is just an encumbrance.

Transport is a bit of a problem, I'dhave difficulty huming it around to
scope fixers, I think.

Any ides, please?

mike