Does anyone know what this is?

I was given a bunch of photography gear and this was included in it. Does anyone know what this is used for? Maybe a name for the gear so I can do some research?

This looks like a light weight telescope mount. It looks like it may be able to accept motor drives so the mount can track the stars as the earth spins once every 24 hours.

The shiny chrome plates shaft pointing down is carrying a counterweight to balance the weight of an optical tube fitted to the saddle.

Cheers

Dennis

EDIT:

Similar to this:

http://ca.skywatcher.c​om …roduct/eq1-mount-tpd-set/

I should add that it appears to be in an Alt-Azimuth configuration (side-to-side horizontal and up-down vertical movement) although if you tilt the polar axis to your Latitude, it should behave like an equatorial mount which makes it simpler to tack the stars as the earth rotates.

Cheers

Dennis

darkslinger wrote in post #18401620
Thanks Dennis, would Manfrotto produce these mounts? It has a Manfrotto quick release #354 mounted on it.

I suspect not – these mounts are part of a generic series of low cost mounts and it looks like the saddle has been adapted to fit the Manfrotto plate.

In Australia, I have seen similar mounts manufactured by Skywatcher and Guan Sheng Optical (GSO) and they sit at the low end of the amateur astronomy market. Orion in the USA re-badge some of these.

Cheers

Dennis

Thanks Dennis, would Manfrotto produce these mounts? It has a Manfrotto quick release #354 mounted on it.