Customer Reviews

Celestron Heavy-Duty Altazimuth Tripod

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Bought this for my Celestron SkyMaster 100x25 binoculars. Bad choice (binoculars were a bad choice too). With the mounting screw firmly attached to the binocs, it still has a lot of play. Maybe with lighter binocs or a balanced scope it would work better, but this the the recommended tripod for the SkyMaster 100x25.

I'm not satisfied with this prduct. I bought it on trusting the Celestron product team. I wanted it to work well with the SkyMaster 25x100 bino. The parts and construction of the tripod have too many cheap metal and cheap plastic parts for cost of the product. I question how reliable and long lasting the core worm drives will be. As noted by other buyers the legs are too short and there seems to be no easy way to get around this with a table, etc. I now wonder if Amazon would buy it back? Also how will I find a suitable triod with having to buy it first? Amazon sold this to me for $99, now less than one month later the price is $35. $35 is more appropriate but possibly not worth the annoyances.

I have been very disappointed with this product. The overall height is wrong for any situation I can find to use it. I bought it to use with astronomy binoculars. It is too short to use standing and too tall to use sitting, at least for me. (I'm 5'9"). It is solid enough to not shake much and the fine adjustment works well. I would shop around before buying this one. If there were a height adjustment, it would be much better.

There were no instructions with this tripod and being an amateur I found it a bit puzzling as to how to attach the binoculars this is suppposed to support - the binoculars don't stay pointed at the angle I want. I may be missing something about how to use it, so I'm going to try to get help from the web or a telescope store. Other than that it seems like a nice solid tripod.

On reciept of the tripod, I found it wrapped and packed (on the outside)in a manner that should have insured an undammaged product. When I opened the box, I found a tripod that looked like it had been run over by a fork lift and then thrown into the box. There was minimal packing around the tripod itself, mostly just nylon bags to prevent scratching, and nothing to keep the unit from being tossed around. I have to wonder about the quality control prior to shipping. Also, if you are not familure with how to assemble and work this type of tripod you will be better served with a different model or company, instructions are not part of their package.

I bought this tripod to mount 25x100mm astronomical binoculars. The binoculars weigh 10.3 lbs. I bought this tripod because the vendor recommended this when I purchased the binoculars. Being an experienced observer, I should have researched the tripod instead of blindly buying it due to the vendor's recommendation & the Celestron name.

Positives: Minus the very cheesy, lightweight aluminum eyepiece tray that bends & dents by just looking at it (which I do not need since I use this for astronomical binoculars), this tripod is well-built and rock solid. Unlike some reviewers, I did not have any issues with "play" as the mounted binoculars are very secure & steady.

Negatives: The tripod, for astronomical purposes, is extremely limited in its usefulness. I would argue the name of the tripod - "Altazimuth Tripod" - to be misleading The tripod is really an azimuth tripod. Azimuth is equivalent to panning a mounted camera and refers to movement left and right - as in 360-degree rotation per compass bearings. What I didn't initially realize is that it is not made for altitude movement in that (1) You cannot observe anything high in the sky; and (2) the limited [altitude] movement it does have requires a wrench to change the altitude screw. To be perfectly clear, it is impossible to view anything overhead - and in fact anything higher than 25-30-degrees is quite uncomfortable if not impossible.

If one lives on a shoreline - and wishes to use this tripod for terrestrial viewing to observe ships offshore along the horizon - this is a very stable tripod. But for use with astronomical binoculars for celestial observation, the extremely limited altitude movement makes this tripod impractical.

NOTE: For astronomical binocular observation, look for a true ALT-AZ tripod that has a load rating at least twice the weight of your binoculars. 70-80mm binoculars typically require a minimum load rating of 16 lbs & 100mm binoculars require a minimum load rating of 20 lbs.

Advantages:
- cheap
- heavy-duty
- alt/azimuth fine tune flexible knobs

Disadvantages:
- altitude fast tuning not usable. Only fine tune available with knob. But its very slow and have limited range. To setup altitude angle you have to use big wrench. Thats very strange feature for that price. I was very disappointed with that. That makes it not 5 star product.
- its not mobile. You have to move to your spot 4 separate parts, its heavy, and its big in collapsed state.
- its not high enough to use it in standing position. I use chair )
- its mostly made from metal but some plastic parts in fine altitude mechanism make it a bit slow in feedback. That is very strange too. But not too critical while not broken )

Maybe sometime I will raplace its head. The base is still worth the money.