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Travel telescope


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Hi,

I use the Celestron 70 travel scope, which comes with backpack but rubbish tripod. It's a great little scope and lightweight. You would need a tripod if you want to use it for photography or serious observing though.

Good luck ?

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6 hours ago, Zookooza said:

I am looking for a travel telescope with capability. Packing is a major concern. I need suggestions 

You might want to give folks a bit more detail. Travel on aircraft? What is your budget and how much room can you spare for astronomy kit on your travels. Binoculars are a good option for any travel plans. 

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15 hours ago, Zookooza said:

I am looking for a travel telescope with capability. Packing is a major concern. I need suggestions 

What sort of travelling, by land or air; the romantic in me would like to include "by sea", but I digress.

Difficulty in packing can be an issue with both modes of travel.  A Celestron C90 90mm Maksutov would serve in both instances.

Optics Planet carries the kit, and for less than $150, but the site will not allow me to link directly to it...

http://www.opticsplanet.com/

It comes with a tripod and backpack, and you can't beat that price.  My brother got one last year.  The tripod isn't that great, nor the finderscope, and could use replacements, but the telescope itself is very good.  I've used it more than he has, but on another mount.  This is how it arrives...

kit.jpg.1a8d53870a3cea11a5091877ed052776.jpg

...and a steal.  It makes for a good spotting scope during the day, as it comes.  For use at night, it would need a 90° star-diagonal...

http://agenaastro.com/celestron-1-25-telescope-star-diagonal.html

...or... http://agenaastro.com/gso-1-25-90-refractor-mirror-star-diagonal.html

The C90's long focal-length, at 1250mm, would be ideal for moderate-to-high powers, for the Moon, the planets and double-stars, in addition to the brighter yet smaller deep-sky objects.

If you'd prefer low-power wide-field views...

https://telescopes.net/store/explore-scientific-bresser-comet-edition-set-ar102s-refractor-telescope.html?gclid=CjwKEAjwq5LHBRCN0YLf9-GyywYSJAAhOw6m1Xn8cEDyaIYloVZfJ9XevVerqMSIa7A7lhCMdFzsxBoCApTw_wcB

That one would be a bit brighter.  Higher magnifications would require a 2x barlow...

http://agenaastro.com/gso-1-25-2x-achromatic-barlow-lens.html

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No matter where or how i travel, the only bit of gear i take with me is a set of 10x50 bins. The Celestron 70mm Travelscope is a great little scope, but the tripod is useless so you need an upgrade and that upgrade wont fit in the backpack.

If travelling by air, as good as the Heritage 130p is as a scope it simply cant be carried on as hand luggage. It would need to be checked in and paid for as excess/oversized luggage. 

 

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4 hours ago, LukeSkywatcher said:

No matter where or how i travel, the only bit of gear i take with me is a set of 10x50 bins. The Celestron 70mm Travelscope is a great little scope, but the tripod is useless so you need an upgrade and that upgrade wont fit in the backpack.

If travelling by air, as good as the Heritage 130p is as a scope it simply cant be carried on as hand luggage. It would need to be checked in and paid for as excess/oversized luggage. 

 

Being a Texan, I took travel to include road trips since I don't fly unless it's over 700 miles, and I've got only one day to get there.  The Heritage 130p would stow away in a trunk (boot?) or the back of an SUV or van quite easily during such travel where an 8" dob would not.  The OP really needs to define what "packing concerns" entails.

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I intend to pack my 80mm F/6 triplet for my trip to the USA. The 23 kg check-in luggage allowance allows me to pack an EQ3 tripod in the hold (7kg without counterweight, and I have a lightweight solution for the latter) though normally I would settle for taking a carbon tripod with a mini-giro head. In most cases I simply take the 15x70 bins, rather than a scope.

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1 hour ago, happy-kat said:

Tripod looks interesting, what is it please?

The mount is the TS optics geared head alt/az mount for photo tripods from Teleskop Service £119.

The tripod is a Ravelli photo tripod.

The slo mo controls make tracking so much easier than an ordinary photo head.

Avtar

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4 hours ago, avtaram said:

The mount is the TS optics geared head alt/az mount for photo tripods from Teleskop Service £119.

The tripod is a Ravelli photo tripod.

The slo mo controls make tracking so much easier than an ordinary photo head.

Avtar

Are the gears clutched to be able to quickly move the mount from object to object?  I can't find any mention of this in any description of the mount.

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40 minutes ago, kilix said:

If you really really want it to be small, what about Kasai PICO 6 or PICO 8? :icon_biggrin:

Cutest little MAKs, and AFAIK, of decent optical quality.

classifieds-751-0-15464800-1466727835.thumb.jpg.976221bac47ba4261c967820d0fff1be.jpgimg_0247.jpg.92552bb4b7aeafa807e484ee5cbaa0d0.jpg

Would something like this give a good view of the sun in white light? Because it would be really handy for taking on holiday to the solar eclipse  

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A small Maksutov Cassegrain with a suitable solar filter would certainly work well on the eclipse. During totality you can remove the filter, the moment the chromosphere reappears, it is time to put it back quickly. I would go for a PICO-8 rather than a PICO-6. The PICO-6 is only 60mm in aperture, which is a bit small.

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7 hours ago, Louis D said:

Are the gears clutched to be able to quickly move the mount from object to object?  I can't find any mention of this in any description of the mount.

Gears are  clutched.

Avtar

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32 minutes ago, avtaram said:

Gears are not clutched.

Avtar

Correction, just had a look at the mount, the gears are clutched.

I never use the clutch so had forgotten about it, normally if I want to look in another direction I just pick up the tripod and move it.

I find it much easier this way than fiddling with the clutches in the dark.

The whole system is very light and can be carried around with one hand.

Avtar

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