Travel telescopes

[Bugfly]

I am looking at the mead travel telescope with back pack are they any good and looking at the celestron travel scope as well any thoughts pleas bugfly

[ecuador]

I bought the Celestron Travel Scope 70 from someone who had got it as a gift and did not need it, for half its usual price (£25). Although it seems a bit like a toy, mainly due to the plastic finish and overall weight, it is quite amazing for its price. The tripod of course is rubbish for the actual telescope (but it has found uses otherwise - family photos etc ) and the finderscope a bit of a joke, but otherwise you get bright, wide angle views that don't suffer as much as I would have thought from CA etc given the price. I got it to use it as a guidescope originally, but I take it with me as a telescope when I don't want to carry much.

I can't believe anybody would be unhappy with it as long as they don't pay over £50 for the whole package...

Just for fun, here's Jupiter with a DSLR:

[LukeSkywatcher]

I also have the Celestron 70 Travelscope. It really is a great little widefield scope. If you are thinking of observing DSO's such as nebulae and galaxies, then this scope is not the one for you UNLESS you replace the absolute crud tripod with something better. Then its quite a capable scope for planets and some of the BIG DSO's but you are still limited by the 70mm aperture. Using it for what it is designed for (widefield views of star fields,constellations and clusters) it works fine, but i'd still replace the tripod.

I never brought mine on holidays much and it sat around gathering dust for a couple of yrs. Now though i have decided to use it purely for solar observing along with (safety filters) and my Horizon 8115 tripod, which i also use to mount my 20x90 bins and on the odd night i even stick my Canon 450D DSLR on the 8115 tripod to do some basic imaging.

[happy-kat]

I got an ST80 as my portable telescope. Some use a photo tripod mine I use on a AZ3.

[happy-kat]

How portable does it need to be?

[damnut]

My Ggrab&n go scope is a st120, its bulletproof. Impervious to sand, snow and dog slobber. Travels on the back seat, boot roof box..Plenty of aperture for dso's, a little ca for bright objects, on az4 or skytee.

[Sirius Starwatcher]

Plus 1 with Damian my grab and go is also a ST 120 on AZ4 mount. Solid and reliable. Filled a holdall with a cut up old Duvet and the scope tucks nicely in the bag for holidays and away days Brilliant.

[ecuador]

Ok, and since I was reminded of my little ST70, I shot 25 x 1.5 min exposures of M51 with my DSLR last night with it, under very urban skies and generally bad seeing. But here goes:

[damnut]

Thats bloomin excellent. Nice work. There is a previous thread where the poster was having difficulty finding M51 with 8"sct.

[Sirius Starwatcher]

OK Ecuador as I live about 40 minutes drive from you have you ever thought of going into the teaching business. Im thinking of signing up to,your AP classes and would love some instruction from you, if that's the results you get from an ST 70 and DSLR.

[ecuador]

OK Ecuador as I live about 40 minutes drive from you have you ever thought of going into the teaching business. Im thinking of signing up to,your AP classes and would love some instruction from you, if that's the results you get from an ST 70 and DSLR.

I have started AP relatively recently so I don't think I have much to teach. The reason I tried to shoot M51 the other night is that people often don't realize you can get interesting results with modest equipment, and I like to try things like that. You should see me back in the 90's with a Soviet Zenit camera and a Tair lens piggybacked on a Tal-1 reflector tracking a comet with the manual slow motion controls for a 2 minute photo...

But you are of course welcome up at the Astronomy Center (Todmorden) on Saturdays and any wisdom I might have, and the more wisdom other members have will be happily shared I often make the 50 min. trip (for me), would be a little longer for you, but it might be worth it!

[Colinlp]

My Ggrab&n go scope is a st120, its bulletproof. Impervious to sand, snow and dog slobber. Travels on the back seat, boot roof box..Plenty of aperture for dso's, a little ca for bright objects, on az4 or skytee.

£250! What a bargain

[damnut]

Hi Col,

Bought the St120 off ASB&S, mint not been used  .

[Colinlp]

Bargain new, let alone as a bargain! Going to have to get a refractor of some type sometime, or at least try one out, the last time I looked through one was when we were in school. I fancy having one to swap out on say an NEQ6 with my 8" Newtonian when I get it recoated. Anyway, potential thread hijack, sorry, Damian's fault guv!