Mesu Mount and Berlebach Tripod
My Mesu mount was purchased directly from Mesu-Optics which was founded in 2007 by Lucas Mesu. A newer version of the mount is now available. This is the first and only mount for astrophotography that I’ve ever used and I must say that I am extremely happy with its performance. Through negligence of my own, I’ve tipped the mount over twice – onto concrete! Even with this abuse, the mount runs amazingly well with most of my subs being 5 minutes. Below are a few pictures of my mount. For more information on how I made conterweights for the Mesu Mount, click here. The mount sits on top of a Berlebach tripod. I have a cement pier when I set up in Minnesota.
I bought a Polemaster after reading reviews saying how simple it was to do a fairly decent polar alignment. It is actually very easy to use and does a very good job. QHY says the Polemaster should be oriented with the USB port pointing dicectly to the left (as you face the camera). This means that I should actually have the Polemaster mounted on the other side of the RA plate. Doing this would make using the RA locking hook inconvenient so I mounted the Polemaster as shown. The USB port doesn’t point directly to the left but points more like to the 7:30 clock position. Some people say that orientation does not matter but others say a known orientation is needed so the Polemaster can determine the direction of correction for atmospheric refraction. All I know is that I get pretty good polar alignment with the orientation as shown. Sometimes I use SharpCap Pro instead of the Polemaster for polar alignment. I will be trying the polar alignment tool in N.I.N.A. soon.
If you look closely you can see the bubble level that came with the tripod and mounting plate (green bubble, below and to the right of the T-level). You can use it but it is not too convenient so I bought this T-level. The picture also shows some flange nuts on the RA and Dec axis adjustment bolts. I switched from the knob type that were originally supplied with the mount. Some people have no trouble with the knob type but I did because my scope and all the fixings weighs about 60 lbs. Now, instead of trying to adjust the nuts by hand, I use an open-end wrench. I read in a review by Stuart Parkerson writing in Astronomy Technology Today about putting self-adhesive teflon tape between the tripod mounting plate and the bottom of the mount. I did this and I do think it helps.
