Help with Breakdown and Carrying of New Telescope

[Zyllos]

Afternoon SGL from Oklahoma,

I am new here (and this is just a temporary account) and I am a new astronomer.

Currently, I am trying to learn the lay of the stars with the help of Microsoft WorldWide Telescope in Sky mode for my city. Last week, I took a plunge and bought my first telescope, a Meade LX70 R5.

Yesterday, the telescope came in and I took several hours putting the thing together and learning what the various knobs and adjustments mean/do. Going to take a bit of time playing with how a German Equatorial Mount works.

Either way, my question, is now that I have the telescope put together, how do I breakdown the pieces and store them for carrying to various locations?

The OTA, with the diagonal mirror, is 43" long with a 5" (120mm, technically 4.72") aperture. The tripod is roughly 40" in length when the legs are retracted. The German Equatorial Mount itself seems unusual in how to carry with it's odd shape and counterweight.

Either way, this is what I am planning on picking up and asking if this is a good choice:

Orion Soft Padded Case 43" L x 9" W x 11" H - Used for OTA and Tripod

Pistol Case, Padded - German Equatorial Mount (already own, from other projects)

Eyepieces - Came with Purchase (Meade 4000 Series Eyepiece Set)

I am unsure on what to use for the counterweight and bar for storage.

Is this a good choice of products to make the telescope mobile or do others have better suggestions/ideas?

Thanks!

[Zyllos]

Guess nobody has any good suggestions or ideas?

Last night, I performed my first observation. The breakdown of the telescope isn't bad. Using the pistol cases to told the EQ mount, counterweight bar, and a few other pieces worked as well as I should have hoped!

But I am still on the fence about use of the Orion Soft Padded Case.

[jonathan]

It looks like a typical EQ mount set up.  You may be able to retract the counterweight bar into the body of the mount for transport and storage (you may need to remove the polar scope if fitted), this would be your choice but personally I leave my counterweight bar out as I stand the tripod upright for storage with the mount still attached, it can also be put on the back seat of a car like this for transport, the only things I remove are the OTA and the heavier counterweight if I've used it (for my larger / heavier scopes).

I don't store the mount or tripod in a bag or case as I don't intend to walk very far from my house / car with it.

For safe storage and transport of the OTA I would highly recommend using the original packing that it arrived in and finding a suitable plastic storage crate that it will comfortably and snugly fit into, I picked up a Curver box for just this purpose quite cheaply from a local discount shop, it has room for my 8" SCT OTA plus finder scope and a few other bits at one end, the original packing keeps the OTA in position so long as I keep the box upright.

You may not need to remove your diagonal or eyepiece depending on what case solution you end up with, I always remove mine because the scopes don't fit safely in their respective storage places with them attached.  Don't be afraid to modify your original scope packing to accommodate the diagonal if you want to keep it attached.  Always replace the caps to the OTA and other pieces if you do remove the diagonal or eyepiece for storage.

For the eyepieces consider a foam-filled flight case, they can be bought relatively cheaply from electronics stores (typically used for electronic devices or camera equipment), you don't need to spend a fortune to get something good enough to keep your eyepieces safe.  Pluck foam makes it easy to pull out the shapes you need, there is a thread in this forum somewhere about eyepiece cases.  I keep my diagonal, dew heater, eyepieces, and various other bits in a couple of flight cases.

Whatever storage you end up with, start collecting those little sachets of silica gel, they will absorb moisture to keep your equipment dry when moving from a cold environment into a warm one, or if there is a lot of dew about.  Keep your cases closed while outside to prevent the dew from forming on the inside surfaces.

[Zyllos]

It looks like a typical EQ mount set up.  You may be able to retract the counterweight bar into the body of the mount for transport and storage (you may need to remove the polar scope if fitted), this would be your choice but personally I leave my counterweight bar out as I stand the tripod upright for storage with the mount still attached, it can also be put on the back seat of a car like this for transport, the only things I remove are the OTA and the heavier counterweight if I've used it (for my larger / heavier scopes).

I don't store the mount or tripod in a bag or case as I don't intend to walk very far from my house / car with it.

For safe storage and transport of the OTA I would highly recommend using the original packing that it arrived in and finding a suitable plastic storage crate that it will comfortably and snugly fit into, I picked up a Curver box for just this purpose quite cheaply from a local discount shop, it has room for my 8" SCT OTA plus finder scope and a few other bits at one end, the original packing keeps the OTA in position so long as I keep the box upright.

You may not need to remove your diagonal or eyepiece depending on what case solution you end up with, I always remove mine because the scopes don't fit safely in their respective storage places with them attached.  Don't be afraid to modify your original scope packing to accommodate the diagonal if you want to keep it attached.  Always replace the caps to the OTA and other pieces if you do remove the diagonal or eyepiece for storage.

For the eyepieces consider a foam-filled flight case, they can be bought relatively cheaply from electronics stores (typically used for electronic devices or camera equipment), you don't need to spend a fortune to get something good enough to keep your eyepieces safe.  Pluck foam makes it easy to pull out the shapes you need, there is a thread in this forum somewhere about eyepiece cases.  I keep my diagonal, dew heater, eyepieces, and various other bits in a couple of flight cases.

Whatever storage you end up with, start collecting those little sachets of silica gel, they will absorb moisture to keep your equipment dry when moving from a cold environment into a warm one, or if there is a lot of dew about.  Keep your cases closed while outside to prevent the dew from forming on the inside surfaces.

Thanks for the silica gel idea! Never would have thought about that.

Unfortunately, the original packing for the OTA was just a cardboard box and styrofoam on the ends. Maybe that is good enough?

The tripod was also shipped this way but maybe I can reuse the same technique that you mentioned for the OTA in the same manner.

Either way, thanks for the ideas and tips!

[jonathan]

You could cut the Styrofoam in half so that you have a top and bottom (or just the bottom half) that you can place the OTA into, if you stick it down to the inside of the box or plastic tub it can form the basis of your OTA case.

I think the tripod and mount should be hardy enough to survive OK in the padded bag you mentioned, although as mentioned I haven't bothered with that.  Some put the mount in a separate flight case with custom-cut stiff foam, when you're putting something that heavy in it's worth spending a bit more on a strong case.

[Blazar]

HI. I just use the original cardboard and styrofoam. I have added the silica gel sachets within the boxes. The mount is also moved in its original box. the tripod is just thrown in the car as is. I then built a battery box and that houses all the other bits and bobs...and also have an eyepiece case. Its all the little bits you collect that add up in the end (dew heaters & shield, focus mask, etc....) so this is all the gear set up at a dark site:

[Zyllos]

Sorry that I have not posted on here for a bit...been pretty busy at work.

I tried using the original cardboard box with styrofoam and it seems to work. It does make the telescope in 5 pieces for carrying (1 for OTA, 1 for tripod, 1 pistol case for mount, 1 pistol case for other pieces, and case for eyepieces).

Also, good idea instead of leaving the styrofoam pieces whole, cut them in half and just lay the OTA and tripod in their own boxes seems to work nicely until I can decide when/if I want a carrying case for the OTA and tripod.

Now I just need to learn the skies and if I want to continue to learn using the RA/Dec setting circles.

Thanks, Jonathan and Blazar.