hi guys,
sorry about not replying recently to any of the subsequent queries and many thanks Frank for posting up info about your setup.
Rather than get a dedicated camera tripod it might be worth looking at a camera plate for a standard equatorial mount -- such a setup would get around stability, polar alignment, etc. issues of camera tripods. I think Telescope Service sell camera plates that fit various types of telescope mounts. The Astrotrac can then be mounted on the camera plate (that's the route I might go when I get more organised!)
There's a Yahoo Groups Astrotrac forum where someone posted to a thread about how they polar align using the drift alignment method, saving themselves the expense of a polar scope. It's a bit convoluted and more along the lines of Mrs Doyle's quote in an episode of Fr. Ted that "maybe some of us like the misery" :laugh:
That said, I also saw another Yahoo Group thread on the same forum where someone took a cheap polar scope and added one of those red-dot pointers to illuminate the etched alignment markers -- far cheaper than buying the Astrotrac scope (I haven't actually bought the polar scope yet).
Might be worth a few of us getting together at some stage to chat about Astrophotography in general and the pros/cons of the various pieces of kit.
John
  