Holiday

[Pip]

Hi all

A couple of months or so ago I bought myself a WO Megrez 72 from our freinds at FLO specifically to take on my holiday. I went out a got a good quality camera tripod (which fitted in the case) and flight case from Maplins.

Decided to take OTA and bits as hand luggage and it did look pretty on the X-Ray but no problems at all, much to my releif.

Anyway at the hotel one of the owners wanted to have a look at the moon late one night so I ran to the room grabbed the bits and 5 mins later it was set up next to the pool. He took one look shut his mouth and then called anyone who was around to come and look. It was then decided that he wanted to look at the full moon a few days later so we arranged to go on the hotel roof and they kindly said they would turn of all the roof lights.

So there we were looking at the full moon and I wazed round to Jupiter and what a pleasant surprise I had, there it was clear and crisp with all 4 moons. I could just make out the 2 dark lines of cloud. Brilliant. So I upped the power a bit and it was fantastic. So we then the owner had all the guests that were in the bar come up and take a look, there were Greeks, Americans, English and Russians (slightly confusing when explaining anything)

All in all it was a wounderful night, I only wish Saturn was up it would have been great to see their faces with that. I only took one filter, polarising for the moon and 2 eps, 15 and 25mm, and a 3x barlow. I was hugely impressed with this scope and would recommed it to anyone.

I go to a small island that has not got that much light pollution, even from the hotel roof and there are parts that have no lights at all. I will be going there again next year and so will my little baby in it's case

Pip

[daz]

Excellent stuff Pip!! I love those sorts of reports!!

So, just where is this little island???

[anthony]

Cool. Excellent stuff

Anthony

[Ford Prefect]

Hi pip

I also have a WO72, which im planning to take on holiday to portugal in august, glad to hear you got it through hand luggage I was a bit worried they would think its a dangerous item .

cheers Jon

[Pip]

Hi

Daz - The island is called Poros, it's part of the Saronics group and it's about 1 hour by hydrofoil from Athens. Unfortunately none of the tour operators go there, we go independently (known the owners of the hotel for 8 years or so).

Jon - Went through T5 and no questions at all. Would suggest you make sure you only have the scope, eps etc in the flight case nothing else.

Pip

[Tim]

What no Germans?????

Great report btw

TJ

[Talitha]

Pip, thanks for sharing this.. you're a great Astro-Ambassador!

[dogfish]

Hi Pip

This is very encouraging as I've just bought the WO Megrez 72 myself (not had a chance to look trhough it yet and one of it's intended uses was as a travel scope to take abroad. Also interested to hear that it fits in the Maplins flight case (bought one of these as well recently). How did the tripod fare (which one was it)?

Cheers, Martin

[DanDare]

Loved reading this Pip - well done

Roy

Poros, sounds like you should taken your binoculars! :lol:

(coat is on and taxi on way)

[Pip]

Hi Martin

Sorry for the delay in answering but I've been very busy, the tripod I used was a Velbon DV-7000 which was bought from Jessops (not cheap 99.99). It worked very well, it took the weight of the scope, dielectric, barlow and eps well and was quite sturdy. I took the head of the triopod and the legs fitted in a normal medium/large suitcase wrapped in a big towel, the head fitted in among the rest. Weight was about 3.5kgs for the tripod and 5.5kgs for the scope and bits in the flight case.

Hope this helps you out

Cheers Pip

PS where are you going? somewhere nice I hope

[Coops]

Guys if you have any issues at Heathrow regarding your baggage or concerns lets me know

I work for Scandinavian airlines in T3.

But anything to do with optics,scopes,etc would not be an issue.

All sorts of odd things go thru the screening process :shock:

But if you are not sure PM me and I can give you my mobile number feel free to call.

Especially if said item ends up in Hong kong and your on one of the Greek islands :x

Pete

[lunator]

Pip

It sounds like a great time for everyone

Those sorts of sessions are the best

Cheers

ian

[dogfish]

Hi Pip

Thanks for the info on the tripod - I'll be sure to have a look at them. I was considering the AstroTech Voyager Alt-Az mount, but they're relatively heavy and I don't think they fold up anywhere as small as the photo tripods. As for a trip away, still not settled on a place yet; that'll be determined by when I can get away from work, quite fancy SW Crete though, or perhaps Egypt if it's later in the year. Somewhere with some :sunny:

Pete, thanks for the offer, I might take you up on it if I add anything else.

Cheers, Martin