What scope to transport by bicycle?

[allworlds]

Getting back into the hobby after a while not doing much. I currently have a Heritage 76 but yearn for something better. I'm looking for better lunar and planetary views for at home, and also something I can stick on my bicycle and take out to somewhere semi-dark for deep sky viewing. So I need something reasonably rugged since even in a foam case it's going to get shaken around more than it would in a car. Putting the scope in a backpack would be gentler on it, but I don't like riding with a backpack, but I'll do it if it's the only reasonable option. Weight isn't the worst thing, there's 20 kilos of bike and mumblety-five kilos of me after all, but it's enough to make me disfavour EQ mounts with counterweights at least. Size is the big factor, I'd rather not be strapping an enormous Dob to the luggage rack. (Sure, I *could*, but still.)

Budget is currently vague. I'd say £500 at most but I might have quite a bit less to spend, so ideas at a range of price points are welcome.

So far I'm thinking a Mak-Cas might be the best, compact and good planetary performers and I think they're reasonably robust?

I wondered about spotting scopes but unless there's one that can take standard astro eyepieces I think it would be too limiting.

Short-tube refractor? Also compact but I don't think so good on planets?

I potentially *could* take the Heritage 130 or even the 150 - can someone tell me the outside dimensions of the collapses tube on either? But would I end up arriving with the optics light-years out of collimation every time?

[Guest]

I certainly understand the worries about Collimation but the Heritage 130 or 150 would be darn near ideal, i believe they now make a GoTo version as well that is close to your proce range.  @cajen2, can you help the gentleman out with some specs? 

[Clarkey]

I think the Mak option would be a good one for planetary and lunar. The closed tube would be quite robust for transportation and the long FL would suit too. To be honest the mount is more likely to be an issue for transportation. The only real -ve of a Mak is the limited FOV. If you get bored with the planets and moon there is less flexibility when compared with the heritage range.

I don't think the ST refractor is good, not only for the FL, but the low F ratio will give lots of CA on bright objects such as planets.

[cajen2]

10 hours ago, Mike Q said:

I certainly understand the worries about Collimation but the Heritage 130 or 150 would be darn near ideal, i believe they now make a GoTo version as well that is close to your proce range.  @cajen2, can you help the gentleman out with some specs? 

But of course!

The 150p OTA is 25cm in diameter (at its widest point where the truss rods are) and 41cm in length. It's very easy to remove from the base (Vixen dovetail). The base, if transported as one piece, is 39cm at its widest and 45cm high, including feet. The whole base could be disassembled for transport and thus make a much smaller package.

The 130p, as far as I know, isn't much smaller.

[lvan]

A Heritage 130/150 is made for this. The collapsed tube of my 130p is 40cm long, 22cm at its widest point and 3kg's. It's the only time i use a backpack. You could also try transporting it in the original box if you had it.

Edited September 29, 2022 by lvan

[Dave scutt]

@Roog has the best idea.

Ditch the bike and get a ride on dob 

[Ratlet]

13 minutes ago, Dave scutt said:

@Roog has the best idea.

Ditch the bike and get a ride on dob 

I can only imagine you riding that like the dude on the bomb in Doctor Strangelove

[Guest]

17 minutes ago, Dave scutt said:

@Roog has the best idea.

Ditch the bike and get a ride on dob 

Ok.... Where did you find that?  I need that in my life. 

[Ratlet]

1 minute ago, Mike Q said:

Ok.... Where did you find that?  I need that in my life. 

If you do get one and take it on the road, it (and you) might not be in your life for long 🤣

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, Ratlet said:

If you do get one and take it on the road, it (and you) might not be in your life for long 🤣

I have an order in for a Orion XX16G.  It weighs almost 200 pounds and it could live on it and be very easy to move the scope around.  

[cajen2]

27 minutes ago, Mike Q said:

Ok.... Where did you find that?  I need that in my life. 

IIRC he modified a mobility scooter.

[allworlds]

Thanks @cajen2 and @Ivan and all.

The 130 is a maybe then; I'd have to check it in person I reckon. But could be a good shout if my budget falls towards the lower end. I'd like a Mak-Cas but I'd be paying a premium for it, and I'd need to check the size of the mount too.

[Swoop1]

I did wonder about cycle transport of a scope and toyed with plans (in my head) for a Bob Yak type trailer with the scope tube suspended in a frame on bungees ala James Bond transporting sensitive liquid explosives.

[Artik]

I suggest take a small refractor. I got svbony sv501p 60mm/400mm and I was truly surprised how many things you can see.

If you get something like ST80 on a good travel photo tripod (not one that comes with travel scopes) you'll have both decent views of DSO and portable system.

Note for planetary - you don't need to go to dark places but in general if you are afraid of chromatic aberrations with short large aperture refactors you have two options: spend on some ED/semi-apo refractor. Or just add a simple aperture mask and trade off some aperture for lower CA.

Also note I own 102/660 refractor - and planets look fantastic 

Edited September 30, 2022 by Artik

[allworlds]

FLO have the Nexstar 102 SLT Maksutov reduced in price. Buy or avoid? The aperture is a bit less than I was aspiring for (would prefer 5 inch) but it seems like it will tick the compact size box. Anyone got good or bad experiences with the mount?

Edit: Or, for a comparable product, Skywatcher's 102 Mak on the AZ Pronto. Obviously manual vs GoTo, but I'm interested in how the stability compares. Wobbly mounts are not fun.

Edited October 3, 2022 by allworlds
Other scope

[LukeSkywatcher]

It's probably been said already (I didn't read all the comments). A small short tube refractor would be great. They rarely lose collimation, sturdy little things etc etc. I have a Bresser ARxs 102. Granted I don't take it for a bike ride.

The Skywatcher Heritage 130P or 150 are also great travellers. The collimation on them is tight. I've had a 130P since 2009 (I think), and never needed to collimate it. 

My Bresser 102 (stock photo). Mine has no tube rings for attaching. Its a Dovetail mounting. 

My Skywatcher Heritage 130P (Stock photo).

Edited October 3, 2022 by LukeSkywatcher

[LukeSkywatcher]

P.s.- PLEASE don't consider anything like this: Celestron 70mm Travelscope. Yes, it comes in a nice backpack. The scope is just OK. The tripod is absolutely a no go. You'll throw it in the bin.

Lesson learned by myself.

[allworlds]

A few have suggested the short tube frac. And I could get for example a Startravel 102 on an AZ3 for pretty much the same price as the Mak on the Pronto. I hear the advantage that they're probably the most durable type but my doubts are threefold. One, unless the f ratio is very short they're not coming in as compact as the Mak. Two, the CA is putting me off (and I'm pretty sure apos are well out of my budget). And three, if I want a scope that's good for widefield and poor for high power, I already have that in the Heritage 76. I think I'm taken by the idea of a Mak as almost the exact opposite.

And yes. I used to have a "department store" 60mm frac bodged onto a lousy photo tripod. It did an OK job looking at the Sun with a Baader film filter on the front; watched the Venus transit in it. But pointing at anything at night was hopeless.

[LukeSkywatcher]

3 minutes ago, allworlds said:

A few have suggested the short tube frac. And I could get for example a Startravel 102 on an AZ3 for pretty much the same price as the Mak on the Pronto. I hear the advantage that they're probably the most durable type but my doubts are threefold. One, unless the f ratio is very short they're not coming in as compact as the Mak. Two, the CA is putting me off (and I'm pretty sure apos are well out of my budget). And three, if I want a scope that's good for widefield and poor for high power, I already have that in the Heritage 76. I think I'm taken by the idea of a Mak as almost the exact opposite.

And yes. I used to have a "department store" 60mm frac bodged onto a lousy photo tripod. It did an OK job looking at the Sun with a Baader film filter on the front; watched the Venus transit in it. But pointing at anything at night was hopeless.

That's another thing to factor in when transporting a scope on a bike (I assume a motorcycle). Tripods and mounts are not the easiest of things to transport unless in a car etc. 

 

 

[RT65CB-SWL]

Would you be towing a bike-trailer ? - I think that would be the safer option of transporting a 'small' 'scope in backpack/rucksack whilst cycling.

Slightly off topic...
Many years ago when I had a Yamaha FS1E, I used to have a Konus Maksutov. [image below].

 
note: not my image.

I strapped my camera/photo tripod along the side of the fuel tank and seat and strapped the 'scope, e/p's, etc. [in the included padded bag] on top of the fuel tank.
I got some 'odd' looks from other road users and the TV police in their 'panda' cars.    

Edited October 9, 2022 by Philip R

[allworlds]

I went to buy a Skymax 102, it was out of stock on FLO, ordered from Harrison, they refunded because they were out of stock too, other places were either out or didn't have live stock info.

So I put in a lowish bid for a Meade ETX 105 on eBay, thinking it would probably go for more, and only ended up being the winning bidder! First light was just now.

The good: The lunar and planetary views are crisp and sharp and wonderful and everything I wanted. The NEB on Jupiter had little waves and filaments, there was a bright zone just south of the SEB, all the kind of stuff I couldn't have seen before. I don't have a clue what's what on the Moon but craters stood out so sharply. Saw Saturn (and Titan) but it was low and the seeing seemed iffy. I don't really know how to star test but Vega showed diffraction rings and I guess they looked centred? No deep sky yet, not with tonight's near-full Moon. I got it in an enormous and very well padded hard case, but if I get a smaller bag that's still adequately padded it'll fit nicely in my bike's rear basket.

The bad: The finder is in a stupid place. It works well enough as a finder (8x25 right angle, kind of cute) but gets in the way of my nose when I try to use a short eyepiece. I ended up breaking out the Barlow just so I could get some more physical distance from the scope. Quikfinder or Telrad on my shopping list I think. The Autostar controller's display ghosts worse than an original Gameboy, I actually thought it was broken at first until I slowed the text scrolling speed way down, and it's kind of sluggish in general. I guess that's state-of-the-noughties computers for me.

The ugly: When I powered up the mount it would slew left, but trying to slew right gave a horrible noise and a weak jerky motion. After turning it off and on a few times and playing with the clutch a bit the azimuth motion is completely busted, the motor whirrs but the scope doesn't move. (So I never actually got to test the sky alignment and goto). So it's a manual mount until I get that fixed. It's usable enough manually, same as the Heritage 76 pretty much, maybe a bit more trouble in the alt axis.

[RT65CB-SWL]

The ETX drives are notoriously poor. Luckily when I ‘won’ mine, (also from eBay and the 105), it was just the OTA.

The OTA can be removed from the forks, but it does take time and patience. Then if you wish, you can attach a dovetail bar underneath the ABS plastic. If you do, don’t over tighten, otherwise the threaded retaining fixings will become loose. It happened to me! Then accident. A cheap dovetail [a short white-metal alloy] snapped when I was attaching it to the saddle of a mount and it fell on a grass lawn. The only damage was two of the three mounting points snapped and a long crack on the plastic. Collimation was unaffected.

Below are are few images of my ‘re-modded’ ETX105...

and the ETX to SCT adaptor and SCT 1.25” visual back...

At the time of posting, the dovetail bar is secured to the OTA by a pair of ‘padded’ Jubilee/hose rings as shown below. I am planning on removing them and replacing with a pair of rubber lined Munsen/pipe rings. BTW - this is my ‘grab & go’ setup. It is normally mounted on my TeleOptic Giro or AOK-AYO mount.

For all things ETX related, then I recommend this site... http://www.weasner.com/etx/menu.html

PS... apologies in advance if you have seen my images elsewhere on SGL. 

Edited October 9, 2022 by Philip R

[Roog]

I have a similar challenge as I am looking for a scope to take with me camping and space weight capacity is limited. I recall seeing a nice looking Altair scope of about 100mm aperture.