The Tele-Pod Mount is a complete 7.5 lb. altazimuth mounting system for smaller TeleVue refractors such as the TV-60 and TV-76. Its compact size and light weight makes it ideal for spur of the moment backyard observing or for traveling.
The Tele-Pod consists of a 2-section black anodized aluminum tripod with a manually-adjusted rising center post and a separate yoke & cradle type mount head. The top section of the tripod legs are foam covered for increased vibration damping and more comfortable carrying in cold weather. Each tripod leg has a rubber-tipped foot for use on wooden decks and other hard surfaces. The rubber foot retracts to reveal a metal ground spike for a more firm footing on grass or dirt. The tripod's adjustable height reversible center column has a 1/4"-20 stud on one end and a removable 3/8"-16 stud on the other, allowing use with standard photo tripod pan heads, as well as with the Tele-Pod mount head. By varying the length of the telescoping two-section legs and the height of the rising center post, the telescope height can be set anywhere from 28" to 62".
TeleVue scopes attach to the Tele-Pod head by means of two supplied studs that thread into the base of the telescope mounting ring. These studs project down through holes in the Tele-Pod cradle and are held securely in place with supplied wing nuts.
The Tele-Pod head is totally manual in operation. You use its supplied camera tripod-type pan handle to move your scope from object to object. There are no slow motion controls, but the panning motion of the mount is so smooth that most observers will not need them. The yoke & cradle type mount head balances your TeleVue scope at its center of gravity, so that the scope will not swing unexpectedly when you let go of the pan handle (which can be set up for either right hand or left hand use). The altitude bearings are brass, while the azimuth bearing is aluminum and Teflon. Both altitude and azimuth motions have tension adjustments to set the friction to accommodate differing scope weights.
Because the Tele-Pod head has two mounting holes in the underside of its built-in azimuth bearing, it can be removed from the tripod and used on any camera tripod legs having either a 1/4"-20 or 3/8"-16 screw. The Tele-Pod head therefore can also be bought separately (without tripod) if you already have a set of photo tripod legs available. In addition, the Tele-Pod head is pre-drilled so it can be fitted with an optional TeleVue Sky Tour computer-aiming system for easier location of deep sky objects. Because there is no accessory tray available for the Tele-Pod tripod, a useful accessory would be the Eyepiece Caddy Set that attaches to the Tele-Pod head and holds up to five eyepieces.
The Tele-Pod can also be used with other brands of small refractors. However, the internal width between the vertical sides of the Tele-Pod yoke measures only 5.25", so the maximum width of the mounting rings of another brand of telescope must be smaller than this measurement. In addition, the buyer should keep in mind that the fore-and-aft mounting platform dimension of the yoke is limited and would require a user-supplied adapter plate to install dual mounting rings on the single 1/4"-20 thread hole available in the Tele-Pod yoke.
