Celestron Heavy-Duty Altazimuth Tripod

by Celestron

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 35.5 x 7.5 x 6.5 inches ; 10 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 10 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0007UQNY0
• Item model number: 93607
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: February 5, 2004

Product Description

Celestron wants to be known as a company that puts quality first in all aspects of its business. It is a complete company, working to make the best possible products backed up by the best possible product support. Because of this commitment to quality, Celestron organized its efforts to manufacture products from the inside out - starting with the most important internal components to the external touches that set the look of products apart. Celestron's overall mission is to provide the highest quality products at a competitive price. PRODUCT FEATURES: Extendable aluminum tripod legs with heavy duty mount head; Sliding ?"-20 mounting screw; Flexible slow motion cables for both altitude and azimuth; Max extended height - 45 inches; Folded height - 32 inches. This product is designed for the following systems: SkyMaster 20x80 and 25x100 binoculars; Ultima 80 and 100 Spotting scopes; C90 and C130 Mak Spotting scopes; C5 Spotting scope. For a complete compatibility list please refer to the original manufacturer's web site.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Solid Altazimuth Tripod, June 14, 2006

By 

Technology Guy - See all my reviews

This review is from: Celestron Heavy-Duty Altazimuth Tripod (Electronics)

All metal construction (except for the knobs) make this a solid mount for a small to medium sized scope. I found very little problem with vibration using a C90 spotting scope at high powers. The sliding 1/4-20 mounting screw allows the scope to be balanced properly. The 1/4-20 adapter also appears to be removable in order to use scope rings or other mounting methods. The fine adjustment knobs offer limited range but precise adjustments for aiming a scope under high power or for tracking distant objects. The fine adjustment knobs are also connected by cables minimizing vibrations and a possible source of misalignment.

A minor quibble with the design of this tripod is the screw-in eyepiece holder which serves to add additional rigidity to the legs. I would have preferred a built-in locking mechanism instead. Another quibble is that the East-West panning axis must be locked for the fine controls to function properly.

The only major complaint I have - and I would have given this tripod 5 stars otherwise - is the design of the altitude/tilting mechanism. While the head can be locked for panning East-West, there is no corresponding up-down tilt locking mechanism. The head only offers a fixed tension for up-down tilting and no lock, unlike typical camera tripod heads (I believe you may be able to actually adjust the tension with a wrench but there is no knob or handle for doing this at will). Furthermore, there is no handle of any sort so in order to tilt the scope up or down, you must push and pull the scope itself to point it up and down which can put a great deal of stress on the single 1/4-20 mounting point. The ease of use of this tripod would have been much better with an adjustable locking tension knob or handle.

All in all, I am still rather pleased with this tripod. It is quite solid with little or no vibration problems and appears well-adapted for terrestrial viewing as well as short-term astronomical observing.


Note: For long-term astronomical viewing, I would instead suggest a German Equatorial Mount (GEM) such as the similarly priced Orion Min-EQ, EQ-1 or EQ-2 Equatorial Mounts or similar which are designed for the specific purpose of precisely tracking astronomical objects over time. Such mounts can even be motorized for this purpose.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Pretty good, with one big problem, October 22, 2006

By 

T. Conrad "Old Grouch" (Colorado Springs) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Celestron Heavy-Duty Altazimuth Tripod (Electronics)

It arrived in good shape, on time. It works fairly well with a Celestron C5, with one major problem. The elevation fine adjust has a huge amount of play, several degrees. The big adjustment screw has a preload or at least an end play adjustment, but the real problem comes from the nut in the middle of this screw. It can move around. The tiny phillips head screw that holds this part in place doesn't do much and eventually worked itself loose again. It may be missing a part, the tripod arrived with no instructions or drawings of any kind. The azimuth fine adjust did not have this problem.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Where's the user manual?, May 17, 2006

By 

Gilbert Aldous "Confused Consumer" (LA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Celestron Heavy-Duty Altazimuth Tripod (Electronics)

I agree with the two previous reviewers. There needs to be a user manual and there isn't one. The fine adjustment will adjust the vertical angle maybe 15 degrees. This isn't very helpful for star gazing. The maximum height of the tripod is only 45 inches. This is an uncomfortable height for looking through binoculars while standing. Celestron should have a users guide showing how their tripod and binoculars are supposed to work together.