How delicate are telescopes?

[Csuka]

I have a skyliner 150p and I was wondering how delicate it is, i'm always getting paranoid that the slightest knock will break the primary mirror because it is so thin, which discourages me from taking it out of my garden to more dark areas when I'm on foot.

So how strong are telescopes in general? could they withstand little knocks and bumps without breaking or am i right to be ocd with my scope?

[swamp thing]

Well it survived the journey from china to your house whilst being manhandled by some real meatheads. So I think it'll survive a few trips to dark skies without falling to pieces.

They're more robust than you think.

As long as you don't use it as a football it'll be fine.

Regards Steve

[Tinker1947]

There a bit tougher than you think but like every thing you drop it something could break, general knocks aren't to bad but Collimation will come along that much sooner...

[Csuka]

Well it survived the journey from china to your house whilst being manhandled by some real meatheads. So I think it'll survive a few trips to dark skies without falling to pieces.

They're more robust than you think.

As long as you don't use it as a football it'll be fine.

Regards Steve

The reason I ask is because I would enjoy taking the scope up the mountain behind my house and having a couple of beers, but i was worried about the journey back down encase i bumped my scope lol, i guess i should be alright though as there is a proper road up to a good spot. =p

[acey]

My 12" flextube slipped from my grip while I was putting it into the boot of my car and landed on the edge of the boot, heavily enough to leave a small (barely noticeable) dent in the tube. The optics were completely unharmed, apart from my needing to recollimate of course, which I was going to do anyway.

I once took my little 80mm short-tube scope on holiday, it was in my shoulder bag at the airport and the strap came undone, sending the bag to the floor with a loud crash. Momentary heart failure but the scope turned out to be fine.

These things are meant to be moved around and used outside. Treat them nice, but don't be scared of small bumps - or even fairly big ones, if it's a small scope.

(And don't get the impression that I'm accident prone - I'm not. But I do a lot of observing, which means more opportunities for mishaps).

[onesmallstep]

You should be OK as Dobs are pretty tough bits of kit. The only maintenance required should be collimation from time to time depending on use. My 8-inch Skyliner rolls around in the back of my car and has survived numerous trips to observing sites with no harm done.

HTH!

[The Sailor]

Before I have the obsy I used to do my thingy on the concrete patio, setup one night and set the scope off after a target. I was standing away from the tripod watching the night sky when I heard a noise and turning I was too late to catch my SCT6 from bouncing down the patio into the greenery. Apart from chipped paint and having to recolminate it is still in use after a few years, as good as (well maybe) new . Actually think about this, my head has actually come off worse bouncing off the balance weights in the dark .

Jim

[Damo636]

Get it up that mountain and don't give damaging it another thought

[Ainsley]

Just a thought, does your house contents insurance cover you for accidental damage ? Ive a policy that covers my stuff for just that. So long as each individual item is something you would take out of the house and is under £4k. So I reckon I would be covered if I dropped mine down a mountain.

[Csuka]

Just a thought, does your house contents insurance cover you for accidental damage ? Ive a policy that covers my stuff for just that. So long as each individual item is something you would take out of the house and is under £4k. So I reckon I would be covered if I dropped mine down a mountain.

Haha i'm not sure, there's no risk of actually dropping it down a mountain as it's just a road up to a flat piece of grass, unless it rolled down the road =p, i'll try to find out about that.

[acey]

The reason I ask is because I would enjoy taking the scope up the mountain behind my house and having a couple of beers

I suppose the real question is not how delicate are telescopes but how much is a couple of beers.