I recently reviewed the Horizon 8115 tripod and concluded that it was a great mount for compact lightweight scopes but, like most camera tripods, was difficult to use closer to the zenith requiring tightening and loosening of the altitude tenison bolt in order to find and fix on an object.

Inspired by an article on the Home Built Astronomy Projects website I have now turned this tripod into a very capable grab and go altaz mount with a relatively simple mod.

This basically involved bolting one end of a Vixen Dovetail to the tripod head and the other end to the scope. A small hole needed drilling in the dovetail to locate tripod head's 'anti-swivel' pin.

Closeup of tripod modification

The mount can now be tilted to the zenith without the need to tighten the altitude tension bolts at all. By some fluke the centre of gravity of the scope assembly must be exactly in line with the altitude axis.

How mod allows pointing to the Zenith

The mount is now a joy to use, easy to locate and view objects at all positions of the sky and very solid.

Grab and Go setup