iOptron AZ Mount Pro First light

[Bigzmey]

I ended up getting mine from B+H photo. It arrived last week. Since i am an dob reflector kinda of guy this tripod stuff is kind of new to me. My initial thoughts .... Things are bigger in real life then on the screen. The tripod probably isnt the heaviest tripod out there, but it seems to get the job done. I can say i am a fan of the levera they use to tighten the legs as i prefer knobs, but they seem to work. I think the 3 adjustable knobs for leveling is an interesting idea and it is a bit of a learning curve but i am getting the hang of it. The mount itself is definitely beefy and it holds my frac in its heaviest configuration easily. I push the counterweight arm out but it doesnt need any weight. The alt lock does require a bit more force to tighten down then one would think but it does its job. I have used it once so far. The first time it went to Jupiter and it put it outside the FOV of a 26mm eyepiece, once it was centered and synced everything else landed nicely inside a 14/82 eyepiece. There is a bit of vibration coming from somewhere and i probably dont have something tightened up enough. All in all i am happy with the set up.

Glad you like it. Leveling and balancing of the mount affects greatly the accuracy of GoTo and tracking. I would try with counterweight, it may resolve the vibration issue. If not, I have attached the instructions on how to adjust the tension. In a couple of years I owned the mount I just had to do the adjustment once.

AZMP_MotorSpringTensionADJ.pdf

(442.72 KiB) Downloaded 31 times

BTW, I agree with your assessment of the tripod. At first it feels somewhat flimsy, but it does the job and with the mount leveled and balanced there are no shakes even at crazy powers (I take my 7" Mak to 900x on occasion). Since I observed of concert, I was not a big fan of the metal spikes or caps but found a nice DIY solution.

https://theskysearchers.com/viewtopic.php?t=23668

[Mike Q]

I was out this evening for a bit with it and i gave everything a bit more when i was tightening things up. Most of the vibrations where eliminated. I may yet get a small one or two pound counter weight to use to tweek the balance. I will check into the tension download and see what is up with that. I can say that the mount is very quiet as it is. It doesnt make any noise that i would consider out of the norm at any point in its rotation. Thanks for the information.