planets, globs, sun and moon..

[Fozzie]

I've been spoilt this week... but ive also been really impressed with the travel gear a hastily assembled before I jetted off to corfu..

The scope is a orion 80 achro, stand is a light weight vebena camera tripod, ive attached a 50mm finder and rigel qf for finders.. I've got my ES82 11mm & 4.7mm along with my TV plossls.. few filters and that, all under 5kg I rekon... (did run out of clean socks and pants, but you know... priorities! )

Managed to tick of some new messier objects, and some old ones too before the moon thats full this week washed everything out..

M4, M13, M29, M57, M80, M81, M82, M107, saturn, mars and the moon also has had some time spent on it, as well as the sun..

performance wise, ive had better views of the globs only really reolved detail on M13 but I did manage to resove lovely fuzzyness on the globs and bodes too... saturn at 80x was a nice view, and with the semi apo the moon has been fantastically clear and crisp..

have to admit though the sun has been fascinating to watch over the last few days..

anyone looking for a quick get up and go set up, airplane friendly too... you could go way worse than this set up.. thats for sure..

clear skys everyone..

Fozzie

[oldpink]

really wish I had took up Astronomy when I lived in spain
loved the clear night skys down there

[dick_dangerous]

Did you take the 'scope as carry-on baggage or did you check it in? I'm thinking of taking my ST80 with me on holiday to Spain and getting a camera backpack to put it in and a camera tripod to put it on. Would be interested to know where the telescope was when you were on the plane.

DD

[Fozzie]

Took the scope as carry on wrappped up in the hand luggage, dont think I wrapped it in my underwear but cant be sure.. I had 10kghand luggage and we also took 15kg hold luggage.... thats where the tripod went... the entire set up excluding ep's is about 4kg..

[Mr Flibble]

If that was me observing there I'd have fallen in the pool for sure!!!

[dick_dangerous]

Underwear has so many uses when on holiday...

Thanks for the tips!

DD

[Fozzie]

No problem,

In all seriousness though, we flew by Ryanair, with a 10kg cabin case and 15kg hold bag.. I think the tripod folds down to around 60cm, probably less if you take the head off.. EP's can be surprising heavy when your working to these limits, hence why I was only going to take the TVP's (had a bit of weight left so took the es82's)

The scope just fit into a standard cabin case, including leaving the dew shield on, I packed everything else around that, and criminally I put the EP's in the hold luggage... bit risky I know..

The stand performed well but I think I probably over weighted it with both finders, so will maybe take a smaller finder (my friend found it quite useful for daytime viewing, of "Beach & Boat targets" as he liked to call them!!)

I did find my self having to adjust and learn the settlement of the tripod and scope to make sure the object was in view but it was not that bad in all honest.. best thing I took was the astrozap solar filter..

Only down side in some respects was a full moon, and mosquitos..

Ta

Fozzie

[happy-kat]

I have taken mine in hand luggage on a UK domestic flight through Gatwick with dew shield on with tripod in hold

[bingevader]

Went to Greece last year, took the etx on as hand luggage in a small reinforced tool bag with out any problems.