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I did just that. Works perfectly with no wiggle, very solid.

The center hole in the adapter accepts a 1/2” bolt. ?I drilled out the center hole in the base plate of the ZWO 200 pier (was almost 1/2”, little needed removed). ?A 6” long 1/2” bolt goes through the pier base, MAL adapter and into threads of the Losmandy HD tripod. ?A second bolt goes through one of the 2 oval slots in the 200 pier base and into a threaded hole in the adapter. ?I think it was 1/4”.?

Also suggest you get the ZWO pier extension as your scope will swing in much closer than a Losmandy at the bottom with the AM5 being a much smaller mount.

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Losmandy G11G2 on pier; refurbed Losmandy G11 with OnStep controller; SkyShed design roll-off observatory; ZWO ASI2600MM-P; ZWO ASI071MC; Sky-Watcher Esprit 100 ED with field flattener; Celestron C925 Edge HD with 0.7XFR, William Optics Zenithstar 61 APO; PHD2, NINA, Sequence Generator Pro and PixInsight user

Also check out the ADM "MyT Tripod Adaptor" for the G11 ().

It has a square plate on top designed for the Paramount MyT, but works perfectly.? It has a hole, threaded M12, in the center of the plate.? You will probably need the pier extension.? I use this with my Pegasus NYX-101.

Thanks, I am a bit confused (does not take much ?). I thought the MAL to MA adapter would attach directly to the Losmandy HD, and I would have a bolt come up from underneath that to attach to the ZWO AM5. I must be missing something?

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jim

I think I see now. The 200 is a pier extender, and the - 1/2” bolt goes through the extender bottom and MAL MA adapter, and a 3/8” bolt goes through the top of the extender into the ZWO Could I also do this with the 160 extender?

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thanks

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jim

This could be either the 160 pr 200 extension?

thanks

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jim

Jim,

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Not sure why you want to attach the ZWO parts to the MAL head. Just take that head off and put it aside, then bolt your ZWO extension to the flat tripod head base. The Losmandy tripod is way overkill for the AM5; their carbon fiber tripod would be better for weight and convenience and works just fine. The Losmandy is intended for much heavier rigs. The pic I showed earlier was of my pier inside my shed, where I removed the MAL head and then attached the ZWO extension as a temporary situation. Normally my G11 sits atop there.?

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John

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Losmandy G11G2 on pier; refurbed Losmandy G11 with OnStep controller; SkyShed design roll-off observatory; ZWO ASI2600MM-P; ZWO ASI071MC; Sky-Watcher Esprit 100 ED with field flattener; Celestron C925 Edge HD with 0.7XFR, William Optics Zenithstar 61 APO; PHD2, NINA, Sequence Generator Pro and PixInsight user

I needed the extra height of the Losmandy head plus the ZWO 200 pier extension to get my Stellarvue SVX140 from hitting the tripod legs when near vertical. if I put an EFW and OAG on I may need to add risers between the scope and the bottom plate to get it out even further. So in this respect the extra weight of the Losmandy HD tripod is needed to keep the whole thing from flipping. The ZWO tripod could flip with the 140, even with weights added. ?
The tripod also accepts a 3/8 inch bolt on the underside of the head, which I used to bolt it down with hooks and turnbuckles to a homemade scope buggy made from leftover 2x6’s and casters. Roll the fully det up scope out of and back into the garage. ?Next best thing to an observatory.

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On Tue, Sep 17, 2024 at 09:30 AM, <sctom1@...> wrote:

I needed the extra height of the Losmandy head plus the ZWO 200 pier extension to get my Stellarvue SVX140 from hitting the tripod legs when near vertical. if I put an EFW and OAG on I may need to add risers between the scope and the bottom plate to get it out even further. So in this respect the extra weight of the Losmandy HD tripod is needed to keep the whole thing from flipping. The ZWO tripod could flip with the 140, even with weights added. ?
The tripod also accepts a 3/8 inch bolt on the underside of the head, which I used to bolt it down with hooks and turnbuckles to a homemade scope buggy made from leftover 2x6’s and casters. Roll the fully det up scope out of and back into the garage. ?Next best thing to an observatory.

That's interesting. What adapter plate did you use between the Losmandy head and the ZWO extension?

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John

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Losmandy G11G2 on pier; refurbed Losmandy G11 with OnStep controller; SkyShed design roll-off observatory; ZWO ASI2600MM-P; ZWO ASI071MC; Sky-Watcher Esprit 100 ED with field flattener; Celestron C925 Edge HD with 0.7XFR, William Optics Zenithstar 61 APO; PHD2, NINA, Sequence Generator Pro and PixInsight user

None needed. ?The black base plate of the ZWO 200 pier extension sits directly on the MAL to MA adapter. Stable as can be.

Thanks. The picture you showed is what I want to do. One question, and I am unsure if you answered originally. How did you bolt the MAL to MA adapter to the pier extension? Doesn’t the pier extension take a 3/8” bolt?

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The HD tripod accepts a 1/2” bolt down into the top. You need one 6” long. The ZWO 200 pier extension black base center hole is a bit under 1/2” so it needs drilled out to 1/2”. ?Can’t remember if the MA to MAL top center hole is already 1/2” or needs drilled out to 1/2” also. ?Bolt these to the tripod but do not tighten yet.
Then one of the two elongated slots on the 200 base near the edge will align with only one threaded hole in the MA to MAL top. ?I think it is a 1/4 inch bolt. ?Between the two bolts, this is very securely attached with no rotation. ?A perfect setup.

Thanks!

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jim

Firstly, when sizing for a clearance fit there is close fit and free fit. Neither is 1/2". Close is 33/64" or.5156" (13.1mm). Free fit is 17/32" or .5312 (13.5mm).

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Secondly, the current flood of strain wave drive based telescope I pretty disturbing. Unless such a mount has high resolution encoders to take care of the period error that is exhibited by the entire length of the outer and inner splines of the drive reducers being made in China, etc., I can't see why anyone would obtain one expecting performance better than a well made worm gear reduction. I feel it shouldn't be encouraged. The justification that one can take 180-30 second images and use 100GB to stack and process them doesn't convince me otherwise.

in looking at the PE200 pier extension, there is a “silver head plate” at the bottom. I ssume this is removable so the extension sits flat on the MAL to MA adapter (with access to pier extension hole).

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On Sun, Sep 22, 2024 at 04:02 PM, George Cushing wrote:

Firstly, when sizing for a clearance fit there is close fit and free fit. Neither is 1/2". Close is 33/64" or.5156" (13.1mm). Free fit is 17/32" or .5312 (13.5mm).

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Secondly, the current flood of strain wave drive based telescope I pretty disturbing. Unless such a mount has high resolution encoders to take care of the period error that is exhibited by the entire length of the outer and inner splines of the drive reducers being made in China, etc., I can't see why anyone would obtain one expecting performance better than a well made worm gear reduction. I feel it shouldn't be encouraged. The justification that one can take 180-30 second images and use 100GB to stack and process them doesn't convince me otherwise.

George,

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I don't disagree with you, strain wave reduction drives have a lot of inherent native periodic error built into the mechanisms even strain wave drives not being mass produced as fast and as cheaply as possible.? But in all honesty as far as being implemented as a telescope mount they really have come a long way from where they started as bare reduction drives being adapted by people looking for something different 10 years ago.? I think these days most if not all of these mounts come with pre-mapped and pre-programed error correction on top of which you can lay external PEC and autoguiding and they can track pretty well.? Probably not as well as a similarly priced worm drive mount but not a lot worse I think.? People seem to like the light weight and simplicity of setup these mounts offer.? For a small objective optic and imaging train they seem to be a fair compromise these days as the requirements for guiding popular shorter focal length lower resolution imaging setups can be met by these mounts.? But like all of these commodity mounts good luck getting it fixed down the road.? ? ?

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On Wed, Sep 25, 2024 at 04:00 PM, jfmiller7 wrote:

in looking at the PE200 pier extension, there is a “silver head plate” at the bottom. I assume this is removable, so the extension sits flat on the MAL to MA adapter (with access to pier extension hole).

Jim,

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Sorry for the late reply. Yes, you remove the bottom silver adapter at the bottom of the pier extension. The adapter shape should be the same as the bottom of the AM5 itself.? I have the pier extension which is not a tube but three thick rods. You may need to check if you need only one extension - the AM5 is not very tall itself and my scope comes very close to hitting my pier. But I think you'll find the Losmandy tripod is much more solid than the lightweight carbon fiber tripod ZWO sells with their mount. So far, the AM5 has worked well for me, but the limitation is the payload spec which is not close to a G11. Apparently, the harmonic drives are not scalable, so we may never see this type of mount with a 50 - 60 pound or greater payload capacity. If your payload is getting close to 30# or more, the Losmandy mounts will carry the load.

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John

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Losmandy G11G2 on pier; refurbed Losmandy G11 with OnStep controller; SkyShed design roll-off observatory; ZWO ASI2600MM-P; ZWO ASI071MC; Sky-Watcher Esprit 100 ED with field flattener; Celestron C925 Edge HD with 0.7XFR, William Optics Zenithstar 61 APO; PHD2, NINA, Sequence Generator Pro and PixInsight user

I am making a small change to my AM5 to MAL. ?

Since I will mount my 90mm (only about 20 lbs) on the AM5, and I need to change the AM5 over to the G11 from time to time, I am replacing the 6” bolt with a 1” bolt (and keeping the 1/4 inch bolt). ?This will lock the ZWO 200 pier extension to the MA to MAL adapter with more than enough strength. ?I figure since the G11 is very secure with the 3 bolts into the pier head, the AM5 will be also as it uses the same 3 bolt slots. ?Faster to change mounts this way. ?Just need to remember to keep the right sized allen wrench handy.

The 6” down into the tripod really is overkill considering the weight on the AM5.

and hot dipped galvanized is best to be in contact with aluminum to minimize a galvanic rust situation in the bolt. ?But hot dipped galvanized is bigger than 1/2 inch due to the hot dipping. ?So hopefully zinc will be good enough.?

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