Leave telescope assembled inside when not in use?

[Amra]

More newbie questions from a newbie!

Do you guys always leave your telescopes assembled inside (provided you have room for them)?

Is it during this time that the altitude adjustment bolts on equatorial mounts get bent even if you have your mount & telescope very well balanced? I live it 62N latitude, so the lower bolt is screwed very far in.

Is there anything else that gets stressed when you leave it permanently assembled?

Obviously I'd like to just leave it permanently assembled, it just looks great in my opinion! But my old folks don't appreciate me taking over the extra living room with all my stuff.

Fortunately there's an extra room downstairs where I can keep it all later on.

[KenG]

Don't know about anything being stressed. I always remove the balance weights and take everything off the tube that's not permanently fixed, and after some fifteen years nothing's bent as far as I can see. Nor has my reflector been kicked, banged with the vacuum cleaner or knocked over, which is the best reason I know for keeping the tube on the mount when the scope's being stored.

[KenG]

By the way, bet you don't have a big problem with light pollution up there?!

[Amra]

Ahh so I should remove the balance weights and just leave the tube dangling down? Makes sense, then the counterweight bar is left unstressed as well.

As for the light pollution, I think it's very mild & low in the little town I do my observing on in the weekend, but I shall put a picture up later on so you can judge for yourselves.

At the capital Tórshavn it's actually quite bad, and you can see the lights from the city in the horizon when driving there from my hometown at a 30km distance.

[rwilkey]

I always leave both my telescopes up fully constructed, I have not experienced any stress problems with the bolts on my 200P, though I have read about problems on other parts of the forum. But yes, I can't see any problem.

[LukeSkywatcher]

My 8" SCT spends its days in my back room fully assembled and pointing up in the direction i last used it in.

Nothing to worry about storing scopes in the same position they are used in.

In saying that.........................

I stored my 90EQ scope fully assembled with counter weights and the counter weight bar is not bent, but for love nor money i can not detach it from the mount now. I would say that if there are any counterweighs....................remove them or store the scope horizontally so there is NO stress on the counterweight bar. Leave the bar even..........just remove the counterweights.

This is for an EQ mount. Knobs and bolts on a Dob , i dont think come under any stress, but store them upright so they dont take up much space. Just make sure the end of the OTA that is pointin

g upwards is covered so dust etc does not settle on the mirrors.