Thanks. The OTA was bought as stock for £170, by the time I'd added the new focuser, finder shoes and Baader adapter it was more like 400 quid lol. The TS Optics (GSO) focuser can rotate, this helps a lot when I observe seated. The OTA plus diagonal and eyepiece is under 4 kg so it manages well on the AZ5 (in the picture). I found C/2018 Y1 Iwamoto last night and the ST102 with the very same eyepiece in this picture. I did use an Astronomik UHC-E with it though as it passes some of the Swan bands. I saw it unfiltered with a 31mm Baader Aspheric as well. Oddly, I also caught a setting Mercury earlier with a 90mm Mak. It was a beautiful colour and I could see the phase.

There's no way an f/7 refractor will look at the zenith without the Half-Pillar.



My Altair Starwave together with a 2" diagonal and eyepiece is pushing 5 kg, so it has to be balanced well on the Porta II. The pillar adds 1.8 kg to the tripod which helps with stability.



There has been some controversy about the stability of the Porta II with longer OTA's even with much more substantial tripods. My guess is that it was designed for Vixen refractors 90mm and under between f/7 to f/9. Large short OTA's like Mak's and SCT's seem to have no vibration problems. Longer, heavier OTA's may cause dampening problems. I'm not sure what you mean by 'adjustment points'. There are ports for an Allen key to alter clutch tension, which has to be set to a specific scope in my experience. The altitude can loosen and drift over time and periodically needs to be tightened.

 

Yeah, it's all in the legs lol. Meade seem to make some decent tripods, some of Synta's aren't so good and have pressed aluminium tripod legs.



This Sky-Watcher EQ5 is pretty substantial, although the GOTO mount and tripod for my 9.25" Celestron Evolution SCT are heavier. I only really use the EQ5 for my TS Optics (GSO) 150mm, f/6 Newtonian (in picture). I only need one of the 5 kg counterweights with the 150mm. You can just see it between the OTA rings.

 

The only adjustment points I can think of are the clutch tension adjustment points.



You can see the Allen key access point here for the altitude clutch.



The azimuth Allen key port can be seen in the above picture below the attachment point for the azimuth slow motion cable. Tightening this slightly can alleviate any backlash.



The Allen keys are stored here on a magnetic plate under the rubber cover.

https://www.vixenoptics.co.uk/Pages/porta_II_mount.htm

Clever and practical Japanese engineering I thought.

 

Oh right thanks. I thought they were just part of the construction. I haven't touched mine, I'm a great believer in not fixing anything that works lol.

 

Yeah, I'm not going to shag with them unless I have to lol.