Show us your travel kit

[DRT]

That sounds excellent, Mark.

That is a very nice collection of glass to have in a travel bag  

[Highburymark]

Thanks Derek - only just realised it was this thread where the original discussion on the portability of Stu's FC took place. Love the look of your set up too - in the C5 and TV60 you might have the perfect travel pairing

[DirkSteele]

I have a variety of travel kits, which really depend the on the journey to be taken. A single flight with a major carrier probably sees the APM LZOS 105. The big consideration is the mounting solution needs to be more robust and that takes up more of the checked baggage allowance,

Just before sunrise in the desert in Oman.

 

If I have smaller connecting flights then the Tak FC-76 DCU (split tube) can come, as it did on my honeymoon last month.

 

If the connecting flight is really limited, as it was in 2015 which involved a helicopter, the the Tak FS-60 comes.

Or the FS-60Q in Namibia in 2016

[Highburymark]

Excellent travel options Matthew. We're lucky that there's never been such an array of great plane friendly scopes on the market. I've never taken anything bigger than a 3'" ED or a 4" Maksutov abroad, so looking forward to the FC in darker skies. 

[Tyson M]

I am glad I saw this thread. I just bought a Nikon bag and replaced two cases (scope and eyepiece case).

Inside:

Skywatcher Equinox 80mm w/ tube rings/7" dovetail

1.25" Baader Solar Continuum filter 

1.25" 13% moon filter

2" Lumicon UHC filter

1.25" 32mm, 25mm Plossl

1.25 Televue 13mm nagler T6

1.25" TV 2x, 3x barlow and a 5x powermate

1.25" Barska zoom eyepiece.

1.25" 45 degree prism diagonal

1.25" Lunt Hershel Wedge

2" WO dielectric diagonal

2" Meade SWA 20mm  

2" TV 31mm Nagler T5

TV Red dot finder with riser


In the future, I plan to remove the 20mm Meade SWA, and see if I can fit a soon to be purchased DSV-M mount in there.  That will remove the need to carry out my last case, with the porta II mount head. Tools, adjustment cables. I can also probably remove the 1.25" 45 degree diagonal and TV red dot finder if I need to make space.

Then it will be truly grab and go. Grab the backpack and put it on, grab the tripod and head out the door. 
 

 

 

 

[Highburymark]

29 minutes ago, Tyson M said:

I am glad I saw this thread. I just bought a Nikon bag and replaced two cases (scope and eyepiece case).

Inside:

Skywatcher Equinox 80mm w/ tube rings/7" dovetail

1.25" Baader Solar Continuum filter 

1.25" 13% moon filter

2" Lumicon UHC filter

1.25" 32mm, 25mm Plossl

1.25 Televue 13mm nagler T6

1.25" TV 2x, 3x barlow and a 5x powermate

1.25" Barska zoom eyepiece.

1.25" 45 degree prism diagonal

1.25" Lunt Hershel Wedge

2" WO dielectric diagonal

2" Meade SWA 20mm  

2" TV 31mm Nagler T5

TV Red dot finder with riser


In the future, I plan to remove the 20mm Meade SWA, and see if I can fit a soon to be purchased DSV-M mount in there.  That will remove the need to carry out my last case, with the porta II mount head. Tools, adjustment cables. I can also probably remove the 1.25" 45 degree diagonal and TV red dot finder if I need to make space.

Then it will be truly grab and go. Grab the backpack and put it on, grab the tripod and head out the door. 
 

 

 

 

Very nice Tyson - lots of nice kit and I can vouch for the Equinox as a great travel scope - this must be the world's first grab and go set up that includes a 31mm Nagler!

[Tyson M]

The Equinox is probably one of my most enjoyed scopes ever. Grab and go viewing is definitely my style. 31mm nagler is a part of that joy at a dark site. It has to come. 

This scope and my Lunt LS60Tha B1200 are my two favorite. 

I simply dont have much time to use my big SCT much, even though the views are phenomenal.

I am hoping to get out more with it now that I am done night school, but we have a small car so space is vital either way. 

Edited June 19, 2017 by Tyson M

[GavStar]

Impressed by DirkSteele's think tank backpack I decided to buy a thinktank accelerator backpack for my tv85. Just received it today and everything fits well. Just a bit bigger than my ultra portable tv60 which has previously been my aeroplane travel scope. With the mount going into my hold luggage I think this will work. I like planetary viewing and with Saturn so low in the UK it seems that I'm going to have to go abroad to get a nicer view. For this the tv85 will be much better than the tv60. Plus for widefield dso hunting the tv85 should be a lot of fun. I've got trips to southern Portugal,Cyprus and Gran Canaria over the next 9 months so all I need to do now is persuade my partner that it's fine for me to use up my hand luggage allowance on telescope stuffs Her comment this evening was I still needed to take the nappies in my hand luggage!!

Contents of the bag are:

Televue 85

2 inch Televue everbrite diagonal

21mm Televue ethos

Leica asph zoom

Leica 1.8x extender

4mm Televue delite

Hitec Astro dew controller

8ah tracer lithium polymer battery

astrozap dew tape

Petzl tikka headtorch

Unihedron sky quality meter 

Giotto air blower

Edited June 21, 2017 by Gavster

[John]

Some very nice and interesting portable gear in these posts

I don't take astro stuff with me on holiday apart from small binoculars and those get used mostly for wildlife / birding.

I find that it's good to have a break from the hobby from time to time and I appreciate it when I get back

 

[GavStar]

John, I agree with you that the focus on holiday should be spending time with our families and taking a break from normal life. I'd only take some telescope stuff with me if I thought there was the likelihood of seeing objects that I either couldn't see or were low in the sky in the UK. I was in Barbados earlier this year and from there some Southern Hemisphere objects are visible which was a real incentive to take some gear with me.

Edited June 21, 2017 by Gavster

[John]

2 minutes ago, Gavster said:

John, I agree with you that the focus on holiday should be spending time with our families and taking a break from normal life. I'd only take some telescope stuff when th me if I thought there was the likelihood of seeing objects that I either couldn't see or were low in the sky in the UK. I was in Barbados earlier this year and from there some Southern Hemisphere objects are visible which was a real incentive to take some gear with me.

Makes sense Gavin. I was in Florida a couple of weeks back and we are in Costa Rica in September but I'm resisting the tempation. Wildlife seems to take centre stage on holiday which both my wife and I are interested in

Edited June 21, 2017 by John

[noah4x4]

17 minutes ago, Gavster said:

Impressed by DirkSteele's think tank backpack I decided to buy a thinktank accelerator backpack for my tv85. Just received it today and everything fits well. Just a bit bigger than my ultra portable tv60 which has previously been my aeroplane travel scope. With the mount going into my hold luggage I think this will work. I like planetary viewing and with Saturn so low in the UK it seems that I'm going to have to go abroad to get a nicer view. For this the tv85 will be much better than the tv60. Plus for widefield dso hunting the tv85 should be a lot of fun. I've got trips to southern Portugal,Cyprus and Gran Canaria over the next 9 months so all I need to do now is persuade my partner that it's fine for me to use up my hand luggage allowance on telescope stuffs Her comment this evening was I still needed to take the nappies in my hand luggage!!

Contents of the bag are:

Televue 85

2 inch Televue everbrite diagonal

21mm Televue ethos

Leica asph zoom

Leica 1.8x extender

4mm Televue delite

Hitec Astro dew controller

8ah tracer lithium polymer battery

astrozap dew tape

Petzl tikka headtorch

Unihedron sky quality meter 

Giotto air blower

Not got a photograph, but my travel set up is similar, except I use a Samsonite wheeled back pack that is the correct size to accomodate the (trimmed down) original packaging foam for my Celestron Nexstar SE4 (tube + mount), yet still be under 55cm x 35cm x 20cm typical airline limit. Combined weight is around 7 kgs, with loads of "pockets" so room within the 10kgs hand luggage limit for Starsense, a few eyepieces etc (wrapped in bubble wrap). My power supply is a 98WH Tracer, so under the airline 100WH limit for Lithium batteries. I then put my 10kgs tripod in my in the hold suitcase. Means I can typically only take 10kgs of clothes, but that's not impossible. I have just flown to Tenerife (great skies above the clouds on Mt Teide). I did get asked to open my hand luggage for inspection, but no problem.

[Jkulin]

When I travel I prefer to combine my general photography with Widefield Atrophotography, just returned from Meigne-le-Vicomte about 30 miles South of Le-Mans, beautiful dark skies and I managed some rather nice images of the Milky Way, I tend to use my Nikon 800 combined with a Samyang 14mm F2.8 Lens or my Leica T with an 11/23mm F3.5 Lens. The Skywatcher Star Adventurer is perfect for this and I have achieved up to 450secs unguided with just a very tiny amount of trails.

My Leica only has 30sec max exposure, which means in a true dark site of shooting at ISO3200 F3.5, but the images are really quite lovely.

I travel with a MS Surface Pro to download my images and Polar align with my QHY Polemaster, I use a Carbon Manfrotto Tripod set low to the ground for stability and weight saving. The Hanger was an accessory to point me North in the picture blackness.

Edited June 25, 2017 by Jkulin

[StargeezerTim]

The Stargeezer Intercontinental Astro-imaging System

 

Please note the technically complex mounting system (Amazon basics, cost nearly £11), and the mobile phone, complete with Stellarium.

I can just about get this into my suitcase... It does work. Here is one from Oz.

 

[DaveS]

Just put this together

Star Adventurer, ASI1600, filters, Leitz 180 f/3.4 Apo-Telyte-R.

May put it on my Miller Solo legs as it has a 75mm leveling bowel.

[Tyson M]

I had to do some reshuffling of my grab and go backpack. The 31mm nagler and 20mm meade swa were simply too heavy.

 

The bag was so full that it felt like I may be compromising the structural integrity of the straps- and it was a brand new expensive backpack.

 

Plus the 31mm nagler was hard on the Equinox 80mm focuser. I will be more selective on what eyepieces I use.

 

I plan to use a 32mm plossl and 22mm panoptic and 13mm nagler with 2x and 3x barlow and 5x powermate 

[Stu]

On 21/06/2017 at 22:43, John said:

Some very nice and interesting portable gear in these posts

I don't take astro stuff with me on holiday apart from small binoculars and those get used mostly for wildlife / birding.

I find that it's good to have a break from the hobby from time to time and I appreciate it when I get back

 

Given your skies I can understand that John.

When holiday represents the best sky you get in a year, you tend to appreciate it more and take whichever scope you can cram in with with everything else!

[Stu]

6 hours ago, Tyson M said:

The 31mm nagler and 20mm meade swa were simply too heavy.

I can sympathise with this! I remember when taking a scope abroad once, I think it was to Egypt, I was over the 10kg limit anyway, and ended up with a 22mm type 4 Nagler in my coat pocket, along with a number of other small but quite heavy items! Managed to get away with it though!

[DirkSteele]

On 21/06/2017 at 22:43, John said:

Some very nice and interesting portable gear in these posts

I don't take astro stuff with me on holiday apart from small binoculars and those get used mostly for wildlife / birding.

I find that it's good to have a break from the hobby from time to time and I appreciate it when I get back

 

For years, my girlfriend now wife has actually used the lure of astronomy to get me to go to some interesting places that I might otherwise have had some trepidation about. Very smart on her part!

 

She even checks when new moon is so it sits in the middle of a two week vacation to maximise darkness. I am lucky! The most extreme example is our recent wedding and honeymoon. We worked backwards from a new moon to determine honeymoon departure (6 days after the wedding) and the actual wedding day which fell around full moon.

 

However, unless it a specifically Astro focused holiday as some of the trips to Namibia have been, I try to keep it to just three sessions during the holiday, early evening, around midnight and early morning, so I get a shot at all the interesting DSOs.

[BGazing]

Just to report that, for our Greek vacation, I packed my clothes like a ninja (wife was astounded) and squeezed both Evolution 8 and (admittedly very compact) Borg 71 with carbon fiber into my estate. 

No such thing as car with a boot too big.

The only thing is that for Mars opposition 2018 I will have to take my gear in a submarine to get Mars above 30 degrees...

Edited August 2, 2017 by BGazing

[RobertI]

On 23 July 2017 at 14:15, DirkSteele said:

She even checks when new moon is so it sits in the middle of a two week vacation to maximise darkness. I am lucky! The most extreme example is our recent wedding and honeymoon. We worked backwards from a new moon to determine honeymoon departure (6 days after the wedding) and the actual wedding day which fell around full moon.

Wow, what an understanding wife you have, she knows you well! I have to say my wife is also very understanding, she knows how important astronomy is to me and is very 'tolerant' , never questions my purchases, and is supportive but then again when I'm outside she gets the TV to herself!

[fireballxl5]

My travel setup for local dark sites and beyond. Tak FS60CB usually with F4.2 reducer (fl=252mm) but shown with 1.7 extender & flattener (fl=610mm) for the solar eclipse. Just added guiding kit for some nighttime imaging at this focal length on my AstroTrac. Camera is a modded 40D.

[DaveS]

My travel ki Mk II

After a fruitless night faffing around trying to find the Veil on holiday, when I got home I put everything on a spare dovetail and added the RDF from my Megrez 90 and a lead counterweight I had lying around. I had to counterbore the outer holes for the socket screws I had,

And drilled and tapped a 1/4"" Whit for the mount at the new balance point.

Just got to try it out now. No clear nights for the foreseeable.

There's enough spare capacity for a finder-guider if I want one.

[Paz]

On 6/17/2017 at 23:10, DirkSteele said:

That's a very nice photo - I bet Takahashi would pay money to use that one for their advertising!

[DRT]

Tomorrow I head for the Galloway coast with the hope of some dark skies. 

My travel kit consists of an Ercole mount on a Berlebach tripod and this lot...

 

...and a Quark and a box of bits and bobs. 

Slumming it in the south of Scotland ?

 

Edited August 4, 2017 by DRT