There... I'm leaving the mount outside tonight...

[emadmoussa]

There, after a lot of reluctance I mustered my courage and decided to wrap the mount up and leave it outside and see what happens. 

Supposedly tomorrow night is going to be clear, and since the hefty bit is outside ready to go it should take me 10 minutes to set up and go. I think I'll go and sprawl a bit of salt on the wooden bases to kill off slugs if they dare to come near the NEQ6..

Will be nice if I wake up tomorrow morning and it's gone...I will be more puzzled about the strength of the burglar rather than the stolen item

[emadmoussa]

P.S. toddler in the background is not part of the set-up, she's just my night security guard.

[klytus]

i'd be tempted to use a motion sensor alarm hidden on your neq6 if you had one just to be on the safe side. If they can carry heavy rolls of cable, metal drain covers etc, they can pinch that too Emad

[Qualia]

It's such a pain getting my gear onto the roof top here in the city - I literally have to climb a slim ladder and then crawl across sliding tiles looking over a 35 meter drop - that nowadays I just leave the frac and mount outside, stored after each session in long canvas bags. I think as Autumn is starting - although today was a mild 30ºC - I'll take up a bag of rice to store in the bags but apart from a bit of dust there's been no problems and not a sign of being weather-worn. I guess each particular location has its 'cross-to-bear' and I honestly don't know much about garden thefts in the UK but I reckon with a little thought you could figure a way of keeping your own mount outside during the winter safe and sound and snug

[Digz]

You won't be happy if it gets stolen as I doubt your house insurance will cover it - an unattended expensive item, not secured or alarmed......that's the only thing that makes me reluctant in leaving kit outside when imaging.

[emadmoussa]

In my area I would be more concerned about the weather rather than thieves. Having said that, I will get a motion sensor just to be sure.

[foundaplanet]

It's such a pain getting my gear onto the roof top here in the city - I literally have to climb a slim ladder and then crawl across sliding tiles looking over a 35 meter drop - that nowadays I just leave the frac and mount outside, stored after each session in long canvas bags. I think as Autumn is starting - although today was a mild 30ºC - I'll take up a bag of rice to store in the bags but apart from a bit of dust there's been no problems and not a sign of being weather-worn. I guess each particular location has its 'cross-to-bear' and I honestly don't know much about garden thefts in the UK but I reckon with a little thought you could figure a way of keeping your own mount outside during the winter safe and sound and snug

ROFL...  In your post about sketching I said you can leave me feeling like a lazy astronomer sometimes.. Now I know I am..    

[JamesF]

I've just bought a couple of UV resistant waterproof garden table covers to put over my mounts if they are left outside.  Just waiting for them to arrive now.

James

[Adrian Condon]

Hi,

We leave our gear out covered properly at star parties, to my knowledge I cannot remember anybody having problems.

Last November at the Galloway star party, the wind was by interesting, blowing tents down and the rain during the night

was very heavy, my scope was out all night covered in a cover bought from Mike, the Demon Barber (SGL).

I anchor my scope with guidelines and strong tent pegs.

Cheers

Adrian

[emadmoussa]

James, do you mind passing on the link to such product please. I was looking for something similar

[nephilim]

There, after a lot of reluctance I mustered my courage and decided to wrap the mount up and leave it outside and see what happens. 

Supposedly tomorrow night is going to be clear, and since the hefty bit is outside ready to go it should take me 10 minutes to set up and go. I think I'll go and sprawl a bit of salt on the wooden bases to kill off slugs if they dare to come near the NEQ6..

Will be nice if I wake up tomorrow morning and it's gone...I will be more puzzled about the strength of the burglar rather than the stolen item

Your a braver man than me mate, I live in the middle of the lake district, the only life round here is red squirrels, hedgehogs, the odd deer & several immobile elderly & I wouldnt leave kit outside.........I'd never get to sleep

Steve

[JamesF]

These are the ones I ordered:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/370513762381

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/170999534719

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001IS5E2M

Not sure how the sizes will work out, but I will cover my observing table too so it is at least dry when I want to use it so whichever fits will be fine.  I decided that for the price I could gamble on them being decent enough quality and see how they perform.  At £8 to £9 I'm really not going to be bawling my eyes out if they turn out not to last and I need to invest in something better in, say, a year's time.

James

[laser_jock99]

My outside mount lives under a couple of Poundland BBQ covers (on the bench in the photo). 

[JamesF]

Your a braver man than me mate, I live in the middle of the lake district, the only life round here is red squirrels, hedgehogs, the odd deer & several immobile elderly & I wouldnt leave kit outside.........I'd never get to sleep

I think you might be worrying too much

If I really get concerned that someone is going to nick mine (and to be honest, they'd probably smash the locks off the workshop doors first as the stuff in there is far more easily "moved on") then I'll drill the mount retaining bolt so it will take a padlock to stop it being undone and also feed it through a chain fixed to something immovable.

Shortly I should manage to have enough concrete left over from other stuff I'm doing to make a "luggable" pier.  No-one will be taking that anywhere in a hurry

James

[nephilim]

With those measures James I think I'd risk it as no opportunist will make that much effort ( not many outside of our hobby know the true value of our kit) But i've only an EQ5, an NEQ6 would still have me peering out the bedroom window every time a badger coughed   

[emadmoussa]

If you need to drag the NEQ6 out every time you want to observe, you really start to consider just leaving it outside. I cant count othe number of times I refrained from enjoying a clear sky simply because of the effort involved of taking things out. Last thing you want to do after a tiring day at work.

[JamesF]

If you need to drag the NEQ6 out every time you want to observe, you really start to consider just leaving it outside. I cant count othe number of times I refrained from enjoying a clear sky simply because of the effort involved of taking things out. Last thing you want to do after a tiring day at work.

That is the killer.  If you have to take just a few bits out to get started observing or imaging then you'll do it whenever the opportunity arises.  If it takes an hour to get everything sorted and another hour to pack everything away then you often won't, in which case you have to question whether it's worth owning.

James

[emadmoussa]

That is why I am getting a giro for my fracs...grab and go

[dweller25]

If you need to drag the NEQ6 out every time you want to observe, you really start to consider just leaving it outside. I cant count othe number of times I refrained from enjoying a clear sky simply because of the effort involved of taking things out. Last thing you want to do after a tiring day at work.

This is one of the reasons I limit my scopes to what a Vixen GP-DX can handle.

The other reason is my bad back :-(

[emadmoussa]

If it werent for the C11 I would use a different mount..

[foundaplanet]

If you need to drag the NEQ6 out every time you want to observe, you really start to consider just leaving it outside. I cant count othe number of times I refrained from enjoying a clear sky simply because of the effort involved of taking things out. Last thing you want to do after a tiring day at work.

Buy a dob...

[JamesF]

Buy a dob...

Emad is a fully paid-up member of the 'frac pack, but yes, that's what I tend to do if I just fancy a visual fix.  More of a pain if you want to do some imaging though...

James

[emadmoussa]

Emad is a fully paid-up member of the 'frac pack, but yes, that's what I tend to do if I just fancy a visual fix.  More of a pain if you want to do some imaging though...

James

After few months of imaging I started to feel that I really needed an observatory as I couldn't afford spending all this time just setting up and dismantling. This is one of the reasons I gave up imaging, I kind of enjoy visual more really - it's more of an adventurous hunt for me.

And yes, I'm a frac aficionado. Having said that, if I managed to sell the C11 I'm planning on getting a Dobsonian for the sake of having ''an aperture back-up"...and if all pays off I'm swapping the NEQ6 with something else until I have managed to build an observatory in the near future. I mean in the next 100 years. 

[JamesF]

If I didn't already have the C9.25 I'd have been quite tempted by the C11.  I think if I ever upgrade the C9.25 though I shall just go straight for the C14.  Might need an EQ8 first though

James

[emadmoussa]

OK, last night I dreamed somebody nicked the mount... :D

Anyway, this morning I checked, everything looks perfect and it seems the salt around the pillar legs killed a couple of slugs before they made their way up the mount and also helped  suck some of moisture around lower exposed metal parts.

Motion sensor on order now...