Celestron – Heavy Duy Alt-Azimuth Tripod – Sturdy Extendable Aluminum Tripod – Use for Spotting Scope, Binocular, Camera, and Small Telescope – Slow Motion Handles for Smooth Small Adjustments

I got this Tripod to go under an Orion Apex 90 Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope as an upgrade from the camera tripod I was previously using. It's gotten a fair amount of use since I got it and believe its a 5 star tripod for what it's built for but definitely not for everything.Pro's1 It's very solid compared to other tripods at this price point. A light breeze or nudge doesn't make you totally loose whatever you're looking at. It's heavier than my camera tripod but I don't feel wary about slapping a big telephoto or actual telescope on my DSLR when using this. That being said...2 It's surprisingly light. It's pretty much my grab and go tripod now. It's not a chore to pick the whole setup up and reposition for a different view.3 It's fine controls work well. For sky viewing or photo's at a distance having micro adjustments really help. You manhandle it to get close and then dial it in.Con's1 They use a nut and screw mechanism for the fine adjustments. So trying to track an object moving across the sky for extended viewing you will find yourself running out of fine adjustment. Then you have to twist the knobs to get everything in the center (or a little bit the other way), and then find whatever you were looking at again by manhandling the scope. This was most likely done to keep the costs down as it's cheaper and easier to do this robustly than for a worm and wheel type adjustment seen on more expensive mounts.2 Virtually no declination. This scope has a hard stop that prevents you from pointing it more than a few degrees below the horizon when orientated correctly. Now you can always take a rotary tool to the offending lip to free up some more play but as is, no "top of mountain looking down into valleys" action. Not a deal breaker but 10-15 extra degrees would have been nice as I don't like setting anything expensive on a not balanced and level mount.3 It's a bit short for some applications. This is both a pro and a con but unless you have a 90 degree star diagonal and a shorter scope (like a Maksutov-Cassegrain) looking at things near apex (or straight up and down) will have you about sitting on the ground. Even with the diagonal when I tried out a friends 60mmx700mm refractor there was a limited range of things I could look at "comfortably" .4 The cheap plastic cover that hides the side to side adjust screw has already broken off. It is just there to hide the mechanism and not worth me taking a star off. Actually this with a little glow in the dark paint made it easier for me to eyeball how much more travel I had left before I need to reset so if it hadn't broke I probably would have taken it off eventually.Overall this is a good deal if you have a compact scope with a decent star diagonal or want to strap a really beefy telephoto lens on your camera and take LONG distance photos. Not so much if you have a longer scope or need something that can track accurately over long sweeps of travel. Still it has a place in my camping kit or when I want to check out the moon or planets and don't feel the urge to drag my much larger and bulkier telescopes out. Also at this price point and with the Apex 90 I don't have a problem letting somebody I don't know handle the scope and tripod (e.g. kids the next campsite over wants to look at Jupiter). Something I can't say for some of my more expensive setups.

I was beginning to think I would have to spend $300+ for a decent tripod but this thing has been great. It's very rigid when the legs are retracted, but definitely loses some stability when extended all the way, so I tend not to extend them at all and instead set the tripod on an elevated surface. The altazimuth mount feels of great quality and the slow motion knobs are very responsive. One thing to know, is that the range of motion using those knobs is VERY limited. The vertical control to incline the telescope only lets you point the telescope up maybe 30 degrees or so. I thought I was going to have to send the tripod back but then I learned you can just loosen the bolt on the mount (pictured) slightly and this will enable you to manually tilt the telescope up and down through a full range of motion, and then use the slow motion controls to fine tune your aim.

I purchased this tripod for a 90mm Maksutov and I tell ya the slow motion knobs are a serious game changer. With the finder, diagonal, and eyepiece the total weight of the scope is about 3lbs.I tracked Venus, Jupiter, and Mars for about 3 hours and did not run out of control space because I cheated. After observing how the planets were crossing the path on my eyepiece, every so often I would manually push the mount to an edge in order to back track the controls of the altitude.. The Azimuth was easier to cheat simply by unlocking the lock mechanism and backtrack the control while enjoying the view. There were absolutely no jiggles or wiggles as I turned the controls to go somewhere or nowhere. I am thrilled about that.There is no bubble level. I have no idea why that's a big feature. Who's going to see the thing in the dark? Anyway, I solved that issue by attaching a small weight to a string and hung it from underneath the center of the mount. As long as the string isn't in any direction except straight downtowards the center of the eyepiece tray, I'm fine.The eyepiece holder has space for four 1.25 inch eyepieces. No matter how you try to adjust it you truly have room for three. The arms for the legs get in the way.The one thing I wish this tripod had was a dovetail clamp. The 1/4-20 is more than sufficient to hold down a light telescope at the zenith, but I'm Murphy's cousin. I don't trust myself to line up the telescope with the bolt in the cold and the dark. Fortunately the combination of scope and tripod are light enough to setup indoors and carry outside.If you're searching for a sturdy tripod that looks anywhere other than up or moves faster than a planet magnified by 140x, this is NOT the tripod for you. If you consider yourself to be tall and don't want to bend over while standing, this isn't for you either. I prefer to sit while observing so this fits the bill.

I bought a cheap 80mm refractor package from Celestron that was an utter nightmare because of the horrible tripod that came with the kit. It was so flimsy that all you could see were bright things jiggling around in the eyepiece. I bought this and mounted that little refractor on it and it made things much better. Admittedly, this is way more tripod and mount than I needed for that cheap little refractor, but it will support bigger and better upgrades. This is about the only thing that I've bought from Celestron that I was truly happy with. That's not to say that Celestron doesn't have any good stuff, I just never bought any of it. It's been less of Celestron's bad quality and more of my bad choices. Celestron has some great stuff, but it'll cost you. Unfortunately, they also sell some cheap junk, and sadly, that's what I went for.Learn from my mistakes, save up your money, do your research, and buy something that you will enjoy.

I like that it is lightweight, but the vertical movement could be better, I keep having to tighten the nut that holds it in position.