Going lightweight...?

[Qualia]

I'm doing roof top gazing at the moment which does have some advantages. The community has kindly given me the keys to an empty roof-top flat to store all my gear in, and all I do is pop up stairs, whenever I want, open up the penthouse and carry out the gear in one piece onto a very large north-east facing balcony or out the other end to a smallish south-west facing balcony. I'm way above all the city lights and left alone completely at peace. Only snag is LP, a lot of LP.

So come the darker months I want to get out of the city to some darker sites, perhaps two or three times a month. But I have a twofold problem:

i) carrying weight and

ii) I don't drive and I don't have a car.

There's no problem for me lumping my gear around but not for long. I've tried fitting the mount (18 lbs / 8.18kgs), tripod (12 lbs / 5.45kgs) and weight-balance (11 lbs / 5kgs) - all in a nice zip-bag - on a wheelie thing with one hand and in the other hand carrying my EP case (4 kgs) and OTA (4kgs) and on my back carrying the Telrad, viewfinder, ipod, sketch stuff, bottle of water etc. I'm doing fine for a while but I soon tire and with more than a twenty minute walk across uneven terrain I'm pretty 'tired'. I've experimented trying to get this set-up lifted on a bus and it's a tad complicated.

Okay, get a taxi. Well, if they take me just outside the city, we're talking about a half an hour, 45 minute taxi drive which will cost me about €25 to €40 each way before midnight calling. After that, prices rocket. It would make more sense to use that money in buying other stuff.

So, I was wondering. What do you guys think would be the best bet?

I could forget the travel plans for now and start saving for a long time and buy a Sumerian 10" or 12". That’ll probably cost about €1,500 to €2,000, but looks good to lug about in one hand and in the other my EP case.

In the short term, however, what is really crippling me isn't the OTA but the mount and counter weight balance and tripod, coming in at over 41 lbs. That's about what the Marines are training with and I'm just not the commando type.

So, is there any light weight tripod and mount I could purchase which could handle the Tal 100rs, be carried onto buses and isn't going to cost the earth? With the extra money (which by this time is being saved for the Sumerian, for example) I could purchase an 8" Newt for the CG-5 for city use.

Or again, is there any lightweight foldable Dobsonian mount (Orion Optics UK type?) which is relatively cheap, can be carried onto buses and get a newt to stick in it (the OTA at 8kgs isn't heavy for me to carry or for the CG-5)? Or again, to get the 130mm Heritage and just put up with never being able to use a beautiful 4" refractor in a dark setting, but that does seem a terrible waste and renders the whole point of getting a refractor in the first place mute.

Any suggestions – other than learn to drive and get car – would be seriously most welcome.

Thanks for your time.

[kitsune]

I'm doing roof top gazing at the moment which does have some advantages. The community has kindly given me the keys to an empty roof-top flat to store all my gear in, and all I do is pop up stairs, whenever I want, open up the penthouse and carry out the gear in one piece onto a very large north-east facing balcony or out the other end to a smallish south-west facing balcony. I'm way above all the city lights and left alone completely at peace. Only snag is LP, a lot of LP.

So come the darker months I want to get out of the city to some darker sites, perhaps two or three times a month. But I have a twofold problem:

i) carrying weight and

ii) I don't drive and I don't have a car.

There's no problem for me lumping my gear around but not for long. I've tried fitting the mount (18 lbs / 8.18kgs), tripod (12 lbs / 5.45kgs) and weight-balance (11 lbs / 5kgs) - all in a nice zip-bag - on a wheelie thing with one hand and in the other hand carrying my EP case (4 kgs) and OTA (4kgs) and on my back carrying the Telrad, viewfinder, ipod, sketch stuff, bottle of water etc. I'm doing fine for a while but I soon tire and with more than a twenty minute walk across uneven terrain I'm pretty 'tired'. I've experimented trying to get this set-up lifted on a bus and it's a tad complicated.

Okay, get a taxi. Well, if they take me just outside the city, we're talking about a half an hour, 45 minute taxi drive which will cost me about €25 to €40 each way before midnight calling. After that, prices rocket. It would make more sense to use that money in buying other stuff.

So, I was wondering. What do you guys think would be the best bet?

I could forget the travel plans for now and start saving for a long time and buy a Sumerian 10" or 12". That’ll probably cost about €1,500 to €2,000, but looks good to lug about in one hand and in the other my EP case.

In the short term, however, what is really crippling me isn't the OTA but the mount and counter weight balance and tripod, coming in at over 41 lbs. That's about what the Marines are training with and I'm just not the commando type.

So, is there any light weight tripod and mount I could purchase which could handle the Tal 100rs, be carried onto buses and isn't going to cost the earth? With the extra money (which by this time is being saved for the Sumerian, for example) I could purchase an 8" Newt for the CG-5 for city use.

Or again, is there any lightweight foldable Dobsonian mount (Orion Optics UK type?) which is relatively cheap, can be carried onto buses and get a newt to stick in it (the OTA at 8kgs isn't heavy for me to carry or for the CG-5)? Or again, to get the 130mm Heritage and just put up with never being able to use a beautiful 4" refractor in a dark setting, but that does seem a terrible waste and renders the whole point of getting a refractor in the first place mute.

Any suggestions – other than learn to drive and get car – would be seriously most welcome.

Thanks for your time.

People say that an AZ4 (with steel tripod) can somehow handle the length and weight of a Tal 100RS (http://stargazerslou...xen-portamount/).

The AZ4 mount with steel tripod weighs 8.3kg. That's over half the weight of a CG5.

[cantab]

The Vixen Porta II or the Skywatcher AZ4 mounts perhaps? The latter comes in at 18 pounds for the mount and tripod combined, and of course no counterweights.

And have you thought of getting a zoom eyepiece? Taking just the one zoom EP instead of that 9 pound case of eyepieces would bring weight savings.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

There was a 6" suitcase dob made by Moonshane on astrobuysellUK http://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/propview.php?view=57198

Don't know if it is still available. Looks really neat

[sologuitarist61]

Yes the CG5 weighs a bit doesn't it? I have an old SW AZ4 with square section expandable legs. Not brilliant and everything takes a while to settle down but it it is featherlight and does the trick with a small refractor - wouldn't want to put anything too heavy on it mind.

[Qualia]

Thanks for the help, guys.