Tropical scope: which one?

[Dunkster]

Folks, my other half is insistent that we fly south to catch a little winter sun and who am I to argue? Sun + south = clear evenings with a different view (correction: _a_ view ) of the sky. It's probably going to be on some sardine can with wings, so space and weight will likely be at a premium, although I'll pay for an extra bag if it's worth it...

But what scope??? I've got a Nexstar SE mount with both a C6 and C8 ota (don't ask!), but figure the C8 is probably a bit on the big side for carry-on and I wouldn't get it chucked in the hold unless it was suitably protected. I might be able to borrow a Peli case from work that should nicely protect the C6... but the SE mount is powered, so I'd need a smaller battery pack. I reckon the SE mount will go in one of our suitcases without too much effort (excluding ota), padded with clothes and other essentials. I am a bit worried about dew if I take one of the SCTs. Anyone any experience of these on hols?

...or I could use the excuse to treat myself to a nice little frac on a porta mount or something? Or the C6 on a porta mount? A frac on the SE? What to do?!?

ST80? ST102? ED80? 100? 120? The choices are seemingly endless

Please help me wipe the dew from my eyes and dream my way to clear warm skies....

[knobby]

Where are you going , could you buy one out there? Then have it shipped home...

[Dunkster]

Destination TBD! Canaries, Caribbean ... any other tropical C's I've missed

If we were going to the US I'd definitely buy there, but it's really expensive (for a holiday) around this time of year. I'm assuming I need to take and carry everything I need (which means no heavy EPs either ), so this is a new adventure

[m.tweedy]

Small Frac like this

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/william-optics/william-optics-zenithstar-zs71-ed-2013.html.

Carbon fibre tripod like this

http://www.redsnapperuk.com/camera-accessories/RS-324_Carbon_4_Section_Tripod.html

set of these

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/celestron-eyepieces/celestron-x-cel-lx-eyepiece.html

and this

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/book/9781931559317?redirected=true&gclid=CMv07L-K6LMCFUfJtAodEFgAqw

and your good to go.

Very similar to the set up I took to Mauritius. (apart from the Astrotrac )

[E621Keith]

Just have yourself assimilated by the Borg.

The Borg 77ED is probably one of the best lightweight travel scope on the market. The objective is the size of a coffee mug and the whole scope weights 1.6kg.

The 71FL is a bit more expensive, but it's even lighter. At 1.2kg, the 71FL is less than half as heavy as the ZS71 and use a Canon made crystal fluorite objective instead of FPL51. The weight reduction comes at a price though, the Borg 71FL cost more than double that of the ZS71.

Else, buy a Heritage 130p dob, cheap, simple, large aperture and you won't have to worry about power.

[RikM]

I took an ST80, camera tripod, Pentax 10mm XW and white light filter to Thailand in the summer. It was small and light enough and not worth too much if it got totalled in transit. (well, the XW would have hurt, but you know what I mean).

Turned out the weather was rubbish but I got one good evening and a couple of solar sessions so glad I took it.

[Peter Drew]

I.m off to Tenerife on Monday, never yet had any dew problems with the 8SE that I keep out there. I initially took it as hold luggage with no problems but would not want to risk it too often.

[Dunkster]

Thanks for all the info so far chaps

Does aperture not matter as much with small fracs? (with no obstruction obviously) Granted, I hope to find a dark venue and all, but what should I expect to see from a 70-80mm? I have a pair of (Celestron) bins with 70mm objectives

What would give me views in the region of my C6/C8? If I can swing it my way, I want to head somewhere where I can catch Omega Centauri and Eta Carina

[Dunkster]

So many choices.... thanks everyone who has contributed

Well, I thought I was sold on the idea of the Zenithstar, but then I discovered it has a bigger brother... albeit a lot more expensive, and another 1kg in weight

So.... tripod/mount-wise, I really like the carbon fibre idea as it's under 2kg... but how twitchy/jerky are the controls? I'm normally a goto (or at least motorised!) junky, so I'm just a bit worried that every time I need to move the scope to catch up with the object that I'm going to zoom past it Something like the Porta Mount http://www.firstligh...ii-mount.html�� head on that tripod would be great, although I can't see how they'd work together (there's a mini porta but it only takes 3.5kg). The alu tripod with the Porta Mount seems to be the heavy bit according to Vixen's specs. Any other great ideas?

Not sure whether it's just the natural born shopper in me or the prospect of a few clear nights not in the biting cold that is getting me more pumped up

[m.tweedy]

Think of your luggage allowance. It will cost you dearly if you go over. I used the CF tripod in Mauritius and it was fine. It is just visual? If you want to splash out why not get an Astrotrac set up and then you can either do some widefield photography or have the ultimate motorised mount that WILL keep the object in the field of view.

[Dunkster]

Thanks Michael - yes, visual only.

Astrotrac looks great, but blowing the budget wide open and I'd probably spend the next couple of weeks figuring out how it works. Maybe it needs to go on the Santa list

[angusb1]

I'd buy an unmotorised vixen GP or EQ5 and stick it in a maplins flight case, then put that and the tripod in a suitcase in the hold. Put either your C6 or C8 and a couple of EPs in your hand luggage and you're set. Enough aperture to see DSOs from a dark site and you can have your favourite scope safely transported by yourself without worrying about it getting damaged. I do exactly this with my 5" mak and the only hitch so far has been when Iberia sent my hold baggage with my GP and tripod to another airport and I missed 2 days of using it at the start of the holiday. An EQ with manual slow motion controls tracks awesomely with rough polar alignment.

At worst you lose your EQ5 and tripod and claim it on your holiday insurance.

Manual EQ mounts are a surprisingly hassle free experience after using computerised EQ mounts. No faffing with alignment, batteries, and cables everywhere. Set up in 5 mins and observing.

[Naemeth]

If it were me, I'd go with a small refractor, and the Borg looks like it's up to the job. The Heritage with it's own mount is too heavy (about 7kg), and it's very bulky, and I'm not sure it even fits in a standard suitcase.

[Ags]

Your C6 is soo travel-sized it would be a sin to not take it with. Get an AZ4 to put it on?

I took an ST80 to Nepal and carted it around the country in a backpack. When we got to dark, moisture-free skies, it delivered wonderful views with a cheap 25mm plossl.

[Dunkster]

Thanks folks - I agree, it is mighty tempting to carry-on the C6, I even have a padded sports bag I use for carrying it around here! But even if I got a focal reducer for it I'm only going to eek out 1.3 degrees, and some of the items on my target list are 2 degrees across or more! (assuming I get south enough...) I just need to go through the motions with a mount. Weight is everything as m.tweedy points out. Not only have I got to carry it around at airports, but from room to site too

So I think it's going to have to be a small frac and the Zenithstar 71 looks veerryyy pretty Tackling Jupiter could be an interesting scenario though

[angusb1]

Take a pair of cheap 10x50s as well?

[Dunkster]

I'm considering my bins too depending on how much weight we have left between us.

[Brian Nordstrom]

Hi Dunkster, and hope that what ever you decide you have a great holiday . Sounds nice .

Here is my airline friendly scope and mount set up , ( note the pen in the photo for size comparisim )

Its my Takahashi FS60C and Lander L83 vidio tripod .

The Tak fits in its HPRC2400 case and is carry on luggage size easily and the tripod fits in my bag with clothes etc in the hold .

This is what I took to Cairns Australia for the total eclipse 14th november 2012 .

This set up works well for me .

Brian.

[Dunkster]

Wow! That looks really neat, Brian - thanks for sharing!

How is the FS60C?

[Brian Nordstrom]

The FS60C is an awsome little scope , I mainly use it as my grab and go scope , its so small and on its GSO/Astrotec voyager mount it is really sturdy and easy to use .It will easily take 150x plus for super sharp high power views and you want to see the southern skies when I put my 31mm 82* Celestron Axiom LX at 11x , just georgous , it blows a lot of people away the view is so good , sharp to the edge , star colours are perfect and flat field .

Oh yes I have a Lunt Hershel wedge that I use on this scope for solar viewing , that works very well in this .

As you can see I love this little jem so much .

[Dunkster]

Sounds like a great scope, it'd have to be really sturdy to handle the 31mm Axiom that's pretty amazing!

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

The C8 OTA is allowed as carry-on luggage by most airlines (4.7kg, size OK) Ask the airline beforehand, and they are generally helpful. I have a short-tube frac, but given the choice, I would lean towards an SCT. Aperture is king in this case. The only thing the short fracs do better is wide-field. A pair of bins (wear them around your neck an nobody bothers weighing them ) will cater for that.

[Dunkster]

Thanks Michael, I'll keep that in mind when speaking to the airline

[E621Keith]

In case you are thinking of a light weight system, this is my Borg in its light weight table top configuration. Total weight of the whole sets (scope, tripod, head, 1.25" diagonal and 7-21 zoom) is 3.3 kg (about the same as a Megrez 90 or Tak Sky90 OTA). As with any Borg, the objective can be unscrewed from the rest of the scope, which can reduced the weight of your hand carry even more.

A dovetail can be attached to where the finder shoe is, but I uses tube rings at home as well as a larger Giottos 9271 tripod instead of the tiny Giottos 1060. Also, I added a Vixen saddle to the Borg SWII mount head, because the head is configured for Borg's own smaller dovetail system.

[Dunkster]

That's a sweet travel setup Keith!

I think I'm coming down on the side of the small refractor for a couple of reasons...

( a ) I don't have one (any excuse for a new scope)

( b ) it'd be nice to have something wider than my SCT... at least one of the targets on my wish list is around 2 degrees, and my bins are OK but I can't change the magnification

( c ) the carry-on limitation is meagre and I don't fancy my C6/8 in the hold

( d ) I just had a good session with Jupiter and if I get one more session with it and an SCT from home thiscseason I'll be pretty pleased

Budget is somewhat limited with having to fork out for the hol as well, and there's also the December factor (how dare I spend money on myself now?!) so the Zenithstar is looking appealing and sounds like it would fit in my backpack with a little extra foam wrapped around it. I just need to buy something to mount it on.