Back pain with the Skywatcher 200p

[JamesOfThinking]

Hello all,

Hope you are all doing good. A quick question for you this evening... I have a Skywatcher 200p and of late it's really killing the vibe as I am getting intense lower back pain plus neck and shoulder aches. I have looked at observing chairs and they seem to be £100-125 and that's way out of my budget. I've looked at some awesome DIY projects but they are just beyond me.

So does anyone have any ideas or tips on comfortable observing with the 200p?

Thanks, James

[Daniel-K]

you just need to make a stand to make it sit off the floor at your eye level

[cyborg421]

Try one of these

http://www.philipmorrisdirect.co.uk/leifheit-multiseat-niveau-ironing-chair/product/

Light, folds flat (ish) and easy to adjust.

Simon

[Avocette]

People use a water butt stand to raise the scope up 30cm. There is the Sankey model but the one I prefer looks like the Titan model from Water Butts Direct. I paid £14.99 in a local homecare garden centre shop. You could just stand the three plastic feet of the Dob base directly on it. I made holes in the top surface so my Dob mount sits snuggly in place (looks like the two were made for each other). I use the whole assembly on the lawn, and find the water butt stand is usually wet afterwards, so it's doing a good job for my back and also protecting the Dob base chipboard.

By the way I also use a Telrad and a RACI finderscope and the latter also helps reduce back contortions.

[Eastridge]

To back up the above posts , the following have stopped my back issues with our 250: adjustable stool ( ebay cheap drum stool I have seen recommended on here but the link from Simon above looks even better, RACI and Telrad. I have considered a water butt stand as even though the 250 is a bit bigger when it's looking near the horizon it's quite low, but the stool caters for it so it's not an issue any more for me.

[JamesOfThinking]

Ah yes cyborg! Thanks for that link, I was looking at 'ironing chairs' the other evening but I was concerned about the lack of adjusting, it seems a few of the reviewers have been using it as an observing chair too... genius - you've stumbled onto a good'n there! Cheers for the heads up.

I did see some people mention a water butt stand, We actually have a water butt in the garden, so if it's not to full I'll try before I buy if it's the right size!

Thanks all, it was starting to become a slight chore with the back pain, hopefully these tips will re-instate the joy once more

[mog3768]

I use one of those kitchen bar stools the lever on the side lets you go up or down to suit the viewing position. There is a lot of up down movement on the one I have.

[Nibor]

Try one of these

http://www.philipmor...-chair/product/

Light, folds flat (ish) and easy to adjust.

Simon

+ 1 for this item - I would not like to observe without it !!!!

[JamesOfThinking]

Sweet. Cheers for all the ideas! I have, for now, found a heavy duty round plastic chair that is about the same as a water butt stand. So that's set up now, nice and sturdy in the garden ahead of tonight's session. Fingers crossed it eases the troubles.

[jabberwocky]

I use a drum stool, cost about £30 from eBay, loads of choice on there.

[twotter]

A drum stool sounds a great idea! Though I use a cheap and simple folding camping stool. If I want to raise the height I sit on a cushion

[pvaz]

I just use a cheap small office chair I had laying around.

The only thing I did was to remove the arm rests. It's confortable for long periods and the adjustable hight allows you to find a good position, as you point the scope higher or lower in the sky.

[nameunknown]

I had a 200p and back pain, I found two answers:

• put a cam on the scope and sit in a nice warm room to watch remotely,
• get something like a MAK so you can look through the back

Of course there are other solutions I tried: standing on an old beer crate, painkillers, etc..

P

 

[brantuk]

These are cheap and useful and can be made comfy by putting some shaped foam (of any chosen thickness) on top and covering with heavy duty plastic (staple gunned to the underside of the seat).

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Artists-Studio-Type-Solid-Beech-Wood-Stool-Adjustable-Height-Industrial-Style-/201543768881

[astronymonkey]

A few more thoughts .... buy a base for a water butt and sit the scope on it, this raises the scope to a much better height .... secondly , buy a raci finder and  red dot finder,  using one then the other makes finding easier and puts less strain on your back.

these are great scopes though. Cheers

 

 

 

 

 

 

[laudropb]

I have an ironing seat from Amazon. It is very easy to adjust the height. I did add a bit of foam to the back rest to make it a bit more comfortable.

[nameunknown]

So equiped with the ironing seat can we go from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_ironing to extreme astronomy - i.e. daftest place to put a scope next to an ironing seat? Somehow, I think evolution (so far) did not design humans for looking through telescopes

[Paulb3098]

Hi, I found the drum stool to be to low, I managed to pick up  an adjustable stool on Amazon which went much higher. I couldn't find the exact version but it was very similar to this one.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00LBVTU8K/ref=twister_B00MBE38ZW?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

 

[uker]

Try back stretching exercises.I occasionally get lower back pain which is instantly relieved with fairly extreme back stretching.

[Connacht]

+1 on the stretching !

I have the chair in my signature which was one of the best things astro-gear wise that I ever purchased. There are plenty of great choices listed above, but if you want to see what I bought, here it is:

Vestil CPRO-800LP Ergonomic Worker Seat/Chair

[CSM]

Back pain and trying to rotate the tube which was covered with frost - almost lost it - persuaded me to ditch my 130mm Skywatcher reflector in favour of a Celestron NexStar 6SE

[Bart]

In assuming it's on an eq mount. My view (from bitter experience) is that eq mounts and bad backs do not mix. Try to mount the OTA onto a Dob/alt-az mount