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Baader Travel Companion - my new travel/grab and go refractor


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My current grab and go/travel scope is the televue 85 which is a lovely scope and fine for aeroplane travel. Here’s a recent thread of it going overseas.

However, I’d like to get closer to 4 inches of aperture particularly for planetary observing. I’ve liked the look of the Baader Travel Companion for a few years now - it seemed to tick all the boxes: aperture, short length, light, fluorite and also a fast focal ratio for nightvision use. However, from the Baader website it appears unobtainium...

Then last year, another UK astronomer, Clem, managed to get one and so I decided to enquirer directly with Baader as to wait times. So I was very surprised to get a swift reply saying that they could supply one in six months. That was in January and it’s actually taken 10 months but today my Baader Travel Companion arrived ?

Obviously it’s cloudy this evening but I’m hoping to get First light tomorrow - forecast looks good.

I did have one immediate issue with it - an annoying graunchy focuser but after a quick search on StargazersLounge, I found some advice from Moonshane which sorted the problem - the fine focuser knob needed to be moved a tiny amount away from the course focuser to stop them rubbing. Now the Baader steeltrack is buttery smooth.

Initial impressions on build quality are excellent (as it should be for the price). It seems perfect on the skywatcher az gti Mount. I’ve put a few photos below including one of the travel companion next to my tv85 - as you can see the Baader is actually slightly shorter but has an extra 10mm of aperture. More updates to follow..

 

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So I had first light with the Baader last night. Unfortunately the seeing wasn’t great, so I wasn’t able to push the magnification as much as I wanted to. But what I did see looked great. M45 with my ES 92 17mm was very beautiful.

It doesn’t show the quality of the views but I did a quick phone shot of the moon anyway.

Certainly a very positive session from the scope’s perspective (not so much the mount - had problems with synscan and the sky safari linkup for some reason I haven’t resolved yet)

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Lovely looking scope Gavin.

I've drooled over them on the Baader website myself, but thought they'd stopped building them.

I love the quality of the build ; everything looks top notch. Baader make some quality gear, don't they ?

But the fact you and Clem have been successful in sourcing one gives me more reason to be optimistic that one day.........

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20 minutes ago, Tubby Bear said:

Lovely looking scope Gavin.

I've drooled over them on the Baader website myself, but thought they'd stopped building them.

I love the quality of the build ; everything looks top notch. Baader make some quality gear, don't they ?

But the fact you and Clem have been successful in sourcing one gives me more reason to be optimistic that one day.........

If you contact Baader direct by email they will let you order one - I know someone else who ordered one about a month ago. He was given a delivery of about a year though. They are certainly not making lots of them - rarer than an Astro physics Stowaway!!!

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That would be me getting on the list for the Baader. I was also on the AP list, thinking I would get whichever was made available to me first. 

Having snagged one of the AP92  Stowaways which hopefully will be delivered before Christmas, I have no intention of getting the Baader.

But yes, one year was the quoted time

@GavStar, that's a lovely looking scope mate!

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1 minute ago, nicoscy said:

That would be me getting on the list for the Baader. I was also on the AP list, thinking I would get whichever was made available to me first. 

Having snagged one of the AP92  Stowaways which hopefully will be delivered before Christmas, I have no intention of getting the Baader.

But yes, one year was the quoted time

@GavStar, that's a lovely looking scope mate!

You’ll note Nicos that in the end I didn’t follow the conclusion from our discussion - when the email came through from Baader it was just too tempting ?

Im really looking forward to seeing the new AP Stowaway soon hopefully ?

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13 minutes ago, nicoscy said:

Stretching to a FTF will cost an additional EUR 731 if it is installed by Baader. I asked Thomas Baader when I got on the list for the Baader 95.

That’s quite a lot! The Baader steeltrack works very well for my purposes even with a long night vision stack so I think I’ll stick with it.

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The steeltrack requires a bit of fine tuning every few months but it is quite smooth overall if you maintain it. The craftmanship is not up to FTF levels, but it is much lighter.

Not the same lifting capacity - it being a crayford focuser, but it is a pretty good unit and looks good.  My only "objection" to it is the placement of the finderbase!!!

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15 minutes ago, nicoscy said:

The steeltrack requires a bit of fine tuning every few months but it is quite smooth overall if you maintain it. The craftmanship is not up to FTF levels, but it is much lighter.

Not the same lifting capacity - it being a crayford focuser, but it is a pretty good unit and looks good.  My only "objection" to it is the placement of the finderbase!!!

Yes agreed silly placement of the finderbase holes - too near the centre so the eyepiece will block the finder a fair bit. I’ve just attached the finder base to the wholes on the other side of the tube rings which does the job for my red dot finder.

Interestingly the finderbase holes look much more sensibly positioned on highburymark’s lunt focuser.

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What's the ID of the mounting rings? Perhaps you can add a 3rd ring (not the same, something a bit rounded thank you) to mount your RDF.

Re the Lunt steeltrack - it is the earlier model. I had this on one of my scopes. Yours is the latest iteration. 

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19 hours ago, Tubby Bear said:

Btw........i have been quoted a 1 year wait time.

 

This was after me having a rethink (again)  about a LZOS 105 650

I really can't make up my mind. I may change it yet (again)

Its mainly the weight of the 105 thats the issue, almost double the Baader.

It's a difficult choice, and I can imagine the temptation to go for the heavier scope because its more readily available. All id like to add to your quandry is that i had two great refractors some time back, a largeish aperture but heavyish ED apo and a light weight but small ED apo. I found that after buying the smaller scope I would use the little grab and go more often and for longer periods. It never failed to impress me despite its diminutive size! Perhaps the lighter scope may prove to be the wiser option in the long run?!

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I think you are right Mike, thankyou.

Today in the gym, i picked up and trained with a 4kg kettlebell and an 8kg kettlebell

and imagined the idea of taking a scope away (on a plane) with similar weights.

Although the 8kg mass felt manageable, i don't think i'd be too keen lugging it around for too long.

The 4kg option felt so much easier.

 

Not taking anything away from the APM 105 of course, its a stunning scope by all accounts.

And looking at Gavins pictures and reading the available reports, the Travel Companion seems equally good.

We are lucky to be able to have all these amazing scopes to tempt us......

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