While I like the stiffness of the Baader hardwood tripod for AP mounts, it is way too heavy for "portable astronomy" especially when traveling by air.

To have a lightweight platform for my portable mounts, I have converted an aluminum theodolite tripod by attaching a custom made top plate. This top plate has the same top interface as smaller Takahashi tripods (EM-10, EM-11, EM-200) and has a hole placed for the azimuth adjustment pin.

In order to settle AP-400 mount on this tripod, I have designed a new bottom plate for AP-400 (can bee seen in another gallery).

This tripod works perfectly for lightweight setup as Takahashi FSQ85 for imaging, even in moderate winds. For heavier scopes I would recommend a similar conversion of hardwood or fiberglass theodolite tripod - I had one in the past and it worked very well with ~10kg loads.

Why keep Takahashi tripod standard?
1. It offers additional flexibility to attach my AP-400 and any of the Takahashi mounts.
2. I can use it also with my Giro-DX Alt-Az mount.
3. For AP-400, it allowed me to make the entire combination lighter by some 2 kg by eliminating some components (ADATRI) and making mount base and tripod head lighter.
4. As the AP-400 mount can be freely rotated in azimuth before the main bolt is tightened, there is no need to pay special attention to how the tripod is oriented with respect to the true north - easier field setup.