newtonian transport and storage.

[deejayry]

I'm looking for a solution for storing and transporting my 6" 5/8 newtonian scope. All of my kit needs to be stored in my (small) bedroom. The smaller items are all in aluminium "flight boxes" and stack neatly in a corner, currently my OTA and tripod fit behind the door to my room in a small alcove.
My observing locations are: My back garden, Fields about 200m from my house & my local astronomy's observatory area about 2 miles from home occasionaly i may be inclined to drive to a really dark site, closest one being about 20 miles away.
If i am observing from my back garden or the nearby fields it would be useful to reduce the number of trips up and down the stairs (when i arive home from a friends late at night and notice the skies are clear i normally set up, but my parents dont apreciate the disurbance) and also reduce the number of trips up and down the road (i'm not keen on leaving expensive kit un-attended)
If i am traveling a bit further such as the clubs observatory or another dark site then it is important that i can easily lug all my kit in to my van.

i'm thinking of two methods, firstly to build a wooden box that will hold the OTA, the mounting tripod and the counter weights

Pros: All the "awkward" shape items stored in one place, inside a wooden box the OTA is away from objects that could damage it. the OTA could be stored inside a foam lined area, or with felted wooden cradles (foam would probably be safer but harder to make than the wooden cradles). Wood is inexpensive (well almost free through work) The box should stand in a corner out of the way.

Cons: this will be weight, the contents will be about 20-25kg, plus the weight of the wood, which will probably be another 1-10kg. fitting some wheels to the base and handles to the top could make it more portable (kinda like a sack truck)

Or i was thinking of getting a padded bag to store the OTA and just keep the tripod and counterweights loose, maybe buy a bag for the tripod too.

Pros: everything is fairly light and managable.

Cons: The OTA is probably not as well protected here, i have a fear of the focuser taking a knock and distorting the tube. Avaliablity and cost, i do not know where i could get these bags, or how much they would cost.

Any suggestions guys? have any of you come up with neat storage/transport sollutions for your telescopes?

[Mr Q]

H deejayre-
I have a 10" newt and transporting it in and out of the house and in/out of my car's back seat can be a pain. At home, I leave the mount outside and wraped in a plastic trash bag. I installed an aluminum handle on the tube that is balanced in a way as to facilitate carrying it with one hand. The scope tube stays in a closet with open end of the tube covered with a shower cap. Taking the scope to an observation site involves taking off the 3 legs on the mount and placing the rest of the mount (equatorial) and legs in the back seat floor with the tube seat-belted across the back seat. This is what I ended up with for storage/transporting solutions over the years, making break-down/setup as easy and quick as possible. Hope this helps you out. Mr Q

[RickJ]

Like Mr. Q I put my 10" on the car seat. Mount is too big to put on the floor, that goes in the trunk (boot). For storage I keep it in the unheated garage. That way it is near outside temp when I want to observe so only needs a short cool down after I roll it out onto the drive for local viewing. Mount is on small wheels so rolls out easily. They lock for viewing. It is on a large solid GEM mount. Scope and mount weight in at about 150lb. Add another 60 for the counter weights. It's designed for astrophoto work so is much bigger than a visual mount. Far heavier than yours I'm sure. When in the garage I point the scope at the center of the earth and cover both ends with a shower cap. Film holder or junk eyepiece plugs the focuser. A small cloth bag covers the finder. Since dust rarely falls up the primary mirror needs cleaning only every 5 years or so. Secondary needs more frequent cleaning but they are easy and quick to clean.

Rick

[deejayry]

Thnks for the input guys, my problem is more with transport than storage, i have to keep my telescope indoors, my garage is too dangerous to keep it in there (i also play with classic minis and am often creating a lot of grinding dust and swarf) and our shed is a bit leaky and is not secure so i dont fancy keeping it there. i use the standard plastic pop in cover on the open end and normally keep it pointed down, until recently when i fitted the new focuser, i am concerned about it getting damaged so it now goes open end up.

when i transport the scope it goes in my van and the boxes containing all my other kit like to slide around, i have attempted to strap things down but often they work loose (the roads round here are terrible) so i feel i should give the scope some solid protection...

the other day i bought a load of nice plywood and some other bits to make a box to keep the OTA, counterweights and the tripod portion of my mount in, these are the only components that dont have a sturdy home. the only finder i use is a telrad and gets removed every time so that is one less thing to worry about.

once the box is built the telescope will be stored open end down once more.

[RickJ]

Does you van have a steel floor? My 10" f/8 is too long to transport on a car seat. I use a station wagon deck that's long enough. No carpet, just bare steel. I made 2 padded cradles and put two magnets rated at 40 lb. pull in the base of each. Scope rides well this way. In fact on one outing I was on a double highway but the north side was being surfaced so both lanes of the south side were used with portable concrete dividers. A drunk came out of a bar and started down my side of the road. I had to take to the fields to avoid a head on collision. They were building the shoulder and there was none. We had a very interesting ride down, across a field to another road. I reached it before I could really get slowed down and under control again. It's hard to control a car or hit the brake when you are slammed against the roof of the car. This was a very old station wagon from before seat belts. The car battery used to power the scope flew forward and landed up by me and the other two passengers. The scope in the cradle was unhurt. It slid around a bit but was fine. My 120 Volt inverter (scopes ran on AC back then) was home built and the volt meter glass crushed. It had flown about. It didn't work. One wag at the star party suggested that was because the broken glass on the meter was holding the needle down. He pulled out the glass and the meter started to slowly rise. When, a few minutes later, it hit 90 volts the scope motor turned on, at 100v the neon light lit and 5 minutes later it was up to 120v. I still use it on that scope some 30+ years later. I won't even try to explain that one. Maybe I should have had it held down with magnets too.

Rick

[Mr Q]

Like Mr. Q I put my 10" on the car seat. Mount is too big to put on the floor, that goes in the trunk (boot). For storage I keep it in the unheated garage. That way it is near outside temp when I want to observe so only needs a short cool down after I roll it out onto the drive for local viewing. Mount is on small wheels so rolls out easily. They lock for viewing. It is on a large solid GEM mount. Scope and mount weight in at about 150lb. Add another 60 for the counter weights. It's designed for astrophoto work so is much bigger than a visual mount. Far heavier than yours I'm sure. When in the garage I point the scope at the center of the earth and cover both ends with a shower cap. Film holder or junk eyepiece plugs the focuser. A small cloth bag covers the finder. Since dust rarely falls up the primary mirror needs cleaning only every 5 years or so. Secondary needs more frequent cleaning but they are easy and quick to clean.

Rick Rick - I also have swivel (3") wheels on my mount legs and noy only do they work good on hard surfaces but on grass also. They also have locking tabs for foot use. A great "hack" for heavy mounts! M Q

[malevy]

I am new to astronomy ok very new but i am truly amazed at the size of the scopes you guys are talking about. I would love to have one but am not allowed to lift over 10lbs after back surgery a month ago so i am stuck with a pair of garret 22x85 binoculars which will arrive next week. I dont know much about them but i figured they have a 30 day return policy so if they are not what i expected then trade them in for something different.. do you guys have any pics of your large scopes. I am really interested in seeing what your talking about. Someday I am going to be able to have the same problems transporting haha i hope.. have a great weekend.

[Kaptain K]

Check the mfrs web sites for pictures;
http://www.telescope.com/control/main
http://www.celestron.com/c2/index.php
http://www.meade.com/
Those are the ones I have in my folder. There are many others.

[Mr Q]

malevy - Sorry to hear about your back. I have chronic back pain but when it's not bothering me, out to the night sky I go. Cheer up! Before you know it, you too will be struggling with heavy scopes. There's a major manufacturer out there that makes 4 or 6" newtonians on DOB mounts with very short focal lengths that allow using the scope on your lap, table,etc. They are probably less than 10 lbs in weight. Can anyone out there help out with my memory banks and steer malevy in the right direction? Mr Q

[RickJ]

I am really interested in seeing what your talking about. Someday I am going to be able to have the same problems transporting haha i hope..

Here's a shot of my "stock" Cave 10" f/8. This photo is nearly 50 years old so shows a lot of its age. I cleaned it up some. Since the mount was heavily modified later I can't go back and retake it. I carried a 5 foot ladder with me to reach the eyepiece when looking to some parts of the sky. The tube rotates in the cradle so you can easily rotate the eyepiece to a "convenient" location. This scope was used for general visual use but really screamed with small faint fuzzies as well as the planetary objects and double stars. It even split Procyon an extremely tough target but only after a fresh clean coat of aluminum and a night of 10 seeing. Also in the picture is the home brew 12v DC to 120V AC converter and dual axis controller. Back then scopes ran on 120v AC rather than 12v DC as they do today. The meter was later crushed when I had to take off cross country to avoid a head on collision with a very drunk driver. The scope, in its magnetically held cradle didn't get a scratch. I still use the converter when in the field with the scope or the f/5 that fits the same mount as well a a much more stable and far heavier home built one, also from the days of AC power.

Other shot is me and the current imaging telescope that I use for the images I've posted to the astrophotography forum. It's not going anywhere however. It's 16 foot above ground level atop a 20 foot concrete pier and a 2 foot steel pier atop that. If you say that adds to 22 feet that's because 6 feet of the pier is underground connected to a 8x10 foot concrete slab 6" thick resting on a sand base.

Rick

[malevy]

That is one huge scope. Where do you live it looks like your out in the woods someplace. That is where i want to end up when i retire, away from the city and in the mountains.. I just bought a garrett 22x85 binocular, astronomics unimount light and bogen tripod.. Received everything yesterday except it was missing a part so now i have to wait until they overnight it and hopefully arrives. While i was putting the mount together i found that it didn't fit properly so i called garrett and it appears astronomics messed up and put a wrong thumbscrew that wont allow the binocs to lock into place.. just my luck so now everything is unusable until i get a replacement or a new thumbscrew. I might just shim the part that is wobbly and that should be ok for now if i am careful. Frustrating when you pay that much for something and then have to spend the next week trying to get it fixed before its ever used.

Here's a shot of my "stock" Cave 10" f/8. This photo is nearly 50 years old so shows a lot of its age. I cleaned it up some. Since the mount was heavily modified later I can't go back and retake it. I carried a 5 foot ladder with me to reach the eyepiece when looking to some parts of the sky. The tube rotates in the cradle so you can easily rotate the eyepiece to a "convenient" location. This scope was used for general visual use but really screamed with small faint fuzzies as well as the planetary objects and double stars. It even split Procyon an extremely tough target but only after a fresh clean coat of aluminum and a night of 10 seeing. Also in the picture is the home brew 12v DC to 120V AC converter and dual axis controller. Back then scopes ran on 120v AC rather than 12v DC as they do today. The meter was later crushed when I had to take off cross country to avoid a head on collision with a very drunk driver. The scope, in its magnetically held cradle didn't get a scratch. I still use the converter when in the field with the scope or the f/5 that fits the same mount as well a a much more stable and far heavier home built one, also from the days of AC power.

Other shot is me and the current imaging telescope that I use for the images I've posted to the astrophotography forum. It's not going anywhere however. It's 16 foot above ground level atop a 20 foot concrete pier and a 2 foot steel pier atop that. If you say that adds to 22 feet that's because 6 feet of the pier is underground connected to a 8x10 foot concrete slab 6" thick resting on a sand base.

Rick

[RickJ]

As my location says, I'm located on the shores of Mantrap Lake as in water not concrete. I'm on the edge of the Paul Bunyan State Forest which keeps out most folks as you can't live there and it has no facilities but primitive camping on a series of small "gulch" lakes. From my house I see many unihabited miles of lakeshore and not one home or cabin. Of the 21 miles of lake shore there are only 13 year around residents in 7 homes. Of those about half spend much of the winter elsewhere and one, nearly 70, travels the country for top cross country skiing. She will return sometime in late March. I can't see any of them from the observatory and any house lights are lost in the forest canopy so don't reach the sky. Airglow is sometimes a problem this far north however.

Sorry about quality control letting you down. Their minds must have been in outer space when putting your order together.

Rick