What is your GRAB n GO Telescope ?

[AlexB67]

I have 2. They are joined in the middle and are 10 x 50 binoculars.

Can't beat the bins, I don't have one, or a pair I should say. The only thing that is the best grab and go of all is my eyes, no cool down, no strain, no wobbles, no focusing required,  always ready, well, at least when I have my specs on anyway    I tend to do the odd bit of gazing in the garden some nights just sitting down looking up, no scope, just me, that's it, can be fun too 

[Marki]

My grab and go set up is the APM TMB 105 f/6.2 triplet Apo, mounted on a Tele Optic Ercole Alt Az mount and a carbon fibre Gitzo GT5532 6X Series 5 tripod (trying say that lot 3 times real fast!).  Also my airline portable set up.  Total weight of that lot is around 11kg, but the mount can take an OTA of up to 8kg (OTA actually 6kg including rings) without a counterweight (18kg with).

Travelscope 1 resize.jpg

Nice set up, Matthew.

BTW, did you ever post a first light for the 180APM?

[Vega26]

Evostar 80 on a vixen porta. Can carry the whole thing in one go and cool down time is next to nothing.

[Ags]

Can't beat the bins, I don't have one, or a pair I should say. The only thing that is the best grab and go of all is my eyes, no cool down, no strain, no wobbles, no focusing required,  always ready, well, at least when I have my specs on anyway    I tend to do the odd bit of gazing in the garden some nights just sitting down looking up, no scope, just me, that's it, can be fun too 

I have a pair of eyes too, but sadly I got the macro version that can't focus to infinity, so I needed to buy a set of corrective lenses for astronomy. I haven't figured out a way to do AP with my eyes yet.

[russ]

Can't beat the bins, I don't have one, or a pair I should say. The only thing that is the best grab and go of all is my eyes, no cool down, no strain, no wobbles, no focusing required,  always ready, well, at least when I have my specs on anyway    I tend to do the odd bit of gazing in the garden some nights just sitting down looking up, no scope, just me, that's it, can be fun too 

Unfortunately eyes can suffer with wobbles and focusing issues when the mount they are on has been lubricated with too much alcohol.

[mitchmitchell]

My grab and go scope is my ShortTube 80 on an EQ1 mount.   Not much, but for light weight with tracking it fills the bill.

[bomberbaz]

well just been through this entire thread and surprised I am the only one with one of these as a G&G:

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/heritage/skywatcher-heritage-100p-tabletop-dobsonian.html

Setup time, 20 seconds, cool down time, none, weight, 2KG

[Toymaster]

my grab and go is my 14" dob, 2 mins to set up and a further 2 mins to view

And I consider my 300P 12" Flextube Skyliner Dob not a grab and go and looking to get something smaller.

Must be getting old and weak :-(

Adrian

[beamer3.6m]

Heritage virtuoso 90mm

[Phil Creed]

My Grab N' Go is an alt-az mounted Orion (U.S.) 8" f/4.9 with a bracket-mounted GLP.  It's mounted on a Univeral Astronomics Unistar that is attached to a UA Heavy-Duty Wood Surveyor's Tripod.  The whole assembly weighs about 20 kilograms, and any reasonably-fit person can carry the entire assembly a fair distance if there's a tree in the way of low-lying objects.  Disassembly consists of taking the tube and the bolted-on Unistar off the tripod, and putting them in a car.  The portability, combined with the GLP, allow observing when quick-strike, "guerrilla astronomy" tactics are needed.

Clear Skies,

Phil

[Ags]

GLP? Galactic Light Portal?

[happy-kat]

Both mine are grab and go Heritage 130p and Orion 80mm, but I think for speed of no cool down or no collimation check it has to be the Orion 80mm on the Az3 which is easy to carry.

[Chris]

My latest grab and go is the tiny Heritage 100p f/4 Dob, great little scope but I just need a garden table to stick it on. I'm Also building a slightly larger 150p f/5 Dob for grab and go which is amost complete.

Chris

[Hitesh]

I've got a 90mm MAK on an EQ1 mount, really light and for the size of scope it's a little beast

[Pepeporras69]

Mine: William Optics Megrez 72mm on a Fluid Head Manfrotto 503HDV + Manfrotto 028 Tripod.

At the same setup, i can change to C6, Lunt 35 or binoculars (whit Farpoint binocular mount, 2 seconds to change binoculars)

[twotter]

My grab & go doesn't need to go that far   so both of my telescopes count. Just depends if I'm in a reflective or....er, refractive, mood

[rory]

I always had the impression that "grab and go " was something that could be transported quickly , easily with little cool down , with minimum accessories .

I suppose there's no real protocol as to what a grab and go should be .

But the two ends of the spectrum on this thread alone are poles apart . From an umbrella to a 14" dobsonian !

Great read though , there's some smashing gear in the mix .

[swamp thing]

I always had the impression that "grab and go " was something that could be transported quickly , easily with little cool down .

For me this "cool down" time totally defeats the whole object of grab n go. If your gonna wait about, fifteen minutes for a scope to cool down.....you might as well have set up your main scope.

I never wait for my scopes to cool down I always start observing immediately. Sticking to low definition objects like galaxies and diffuse nebulae one can totally ignore cool down and get on with enjoying observing not waiting.

[Mike73]

I always had the impression that "grab and go " was something that could be transported quickly , easily with little cool down , with minimum accessories .

I suppose there's no real protocol as to what a grab and go should be .

But the two ends of the spectrum on this thread alone are poles apart . From an umbrella to a 14" dobsonian !

Great read though , there's some smashing gear in the mix .

I guess alot of us have different ideas on what a grab n go is depending on our own situations with work, where we can store a scope and the need to maybe travel with a scope?

I've never really had a true grab n go, never really felt the need.

[Byz1453]

My Sumerian 10" Alkaid was designed to be airline portable and I bought it to be truly grab and go...;-)

Work unfortunately has meant that it hasn't got the chance to travel much in the past year but it stays built in my shed and comes straight out when the skies are clear. Two minutes later and I'm observing...

Glad to see Michael has his new range up and running on his website. They are great scopes...

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[rory]

For me this "cool down" time totally defeats the whole object of grab n go. If your gonna wait about, fifteen minutes for a scope to cool down.....you might as well have set up your main scope.

I never wait for my scopes to cool down I always start observing immediately. Sticking to low definition objects like galaxies and diffuse nebulae one can totally ignore cool down and get on with enjoying observing not waiting.

I never really worried to much with cool down either . Ok my biggest scope was only 8" but I more or less used to start observing straight away , particularly if the weather was iffy .

[DirkSteele]

Nice set up, Matthew.

BTW, did you ever post a first light for the 180APM?

Hey Mark, I never did put fingers to keyboard due to massive work commitments.  I am hoping that I will be able to start writing something soon about my experiences so far.

Clear Skies,

[Laurie61]

Interesting topic  being able to jump out between showers has to be useful in this country  I was using an old tasco 114 f 8 reflector, I had replaced the original .965 focuser and performed a few other mods but it's currently on permanent lone to a friend.

I now use my 100 mm bino's, they are heavier but still don't need cool down and using two eyes with a smaller aperture helps maximise the scopes reach.    

[Christhorpe]

My set up is the skywatcher az4 mount with a megrez 90 sitting on it ! Up and ready in a couple of minutes. Grab n go is definitely a set up to consider, with our shocking weather. Just need mars to pop out from behind the tree at the bottom of the garden ! Grrrr

[Ikonnikov]

Apart from 10x50 bins I use an AT-72ED on a Sabre Alt-Az (at home) or on an AZ-3 when I want to take it away with me (on public transport as I am without a car). It's been pimped up with a Moonlite so it can hold chunkier eyepieces), but is still pretty light and fits into a very compact aluminium case for travel (which comes with the scope).

It gives great views of the Milky Way, open clusters and the Moon, Jupiter and Saturn are also respectable at higher mags (if a little on the small side) and CA isn't at all bad.

Am thinking about a robust table-top tripod (e.g. http://www.cameraking.co.uk/Yukon+6-100x100+Table+Top+Tripod.html) to make the whole setup even more portable.