Help for my daughter and a tiny balcony

[Dibp]

Hello All 

my daughter is a teacher and has just got her first flat in Hove. It has an absolutely tiny balcony, only about 3 feet deep but an amazing sky view. She really wants a cheap telescope she can use on the balcony but the footprint she has to work with is tricky. I took down my dx5 C5 in the hope I could let her have this and allow me to upgrade a bit (aperture is everything etc) but the mount just doesn’t work on the balcony. Any suggestions for a small table top or any ideas at all would be gratefully accepted! Can not let her waste the sky she has access to! She would be happy with anything that could show the moon and a hint at Saturn’s rings

[bosun21]

A Skywatcher Heritage 130 would be more than enough telescope to allow her to see a whole host of targets including the rings of Saturn, Jupiters moons and the moon etc. It's a tabletop telescope which only requires a small steady table to sit it on. Or even the smaller Heritage 100.

Edited April 30 by bosun21

[dweller25]

Perhaps this Dobsonian on a table top ?

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-heritage-130p-flextube.html

Edited April 30 by dweller25

[Dibp]

Just now, bosun21 said:

A Skywatcher Heritage 130 would be more than enough telescope to allow her to see a whole host of targets including the rings of Saturn, Jupiters moons and the moon etc. It's a tabletop telescope which only requires a small steady table to sit it on.

Thank you 

I will have a look now. I think the only other thing I may need to take in to account is how easy would it be to collimate- I live a gee hours from her so would be tricky to have to go down there a lot. I only have experience with my one and only C5 which has held itself remarkably well!

[bosun21]

Just now, Dibp said:

Thank you 

I will have a look now. I think the only other thing I may need to take in to account is how easy would it be to collimate- I live a gee hours from her so would be tricky to have to go down there a lot. I only have experience with my one and only C5 which has held itself remarkably well!

The smaller Heritage 100 has a fixed primary mirror which comes aligned from the factory.

[Elp]

Note that looks West facing so you may struggle to see the moon at times, interesting targets you'd have to also wait until theyre close to setting, unless you can look towards south, south-west.

 

[Dibp]

3 minutes ago, Elp said:

Note that looks West facing so you may struggle to see the moon at times, interesting targets you'd have to also wait until theyre close to setting, unless you can look towards south, south-west.

 

I know it is going to have its challenges but I am just so pleased she has caught the bug and reached out for some help! Her and her partner are spending most of their salaries on the rent so have decided to get a small telescope just to do a bit of exploring 

[Dibp]

25 minutes ago, bosun21 said:

The smaller Heritage 100 has a fixed primary mirror which comes aligned from the factory.

I have a feeling she may just get this as a moving in present along with a couple of redundant eyepieces I have. I did not realise it was so inexpensive!

[Tiny Clanger]

You might be able to find either a window clamp or a hide clamp intended for birdwatchers etc spotting 'scopes that would suit whatever form the balcony rail or barrier takes ? That would remove the awkward tripod leg problem, and make them able to use a small 'frac . or binoculars. I'd want a secure tether on the instrument as well though, just in case ...

[Elp]

The heritage is probably the best bang for buck. I'd go for a 60mm apo refractor (I'm biased as I have one) as they're quite small but then you'd need a good mount and tripod, more expense and it'll take up more floor area, a pier type tripod will also solve the tripod leg span problem as long as you can accommodate the feet square with the balcony railing.

[Bivanus]

I was also thinking at a solution to mount a small refractor / large binocular on a balcony. I've found two things:

1. Robtics site : https://www.robtics.nl/en/photo-tripods/1951-robtics-micro-adjustable-table-window-sill-mount-for-spotting-scope.html

2.FLO site: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/opticron-spotting-scopes/opticron-car-window-mount-40502.html

However , the Heritage line might be the best bang for buck. Maybe give a thought to the Heritage Virtuoso model that also have some tracking and even the possibility to upgrade to Go-To?  https://www.firstlightoptics.com/heritage/skywatcher-heritage-114p-virtuoso.html

[PeterStudz]

There’s also a Heritage 100p for sale on this site. For the price it looks like a bargain!

 

 

[Neil H]

Hi can't you fit a wedge to the railings and leave it there so you just fit the scope when you want 

[Dibp]

1 hour ago, PeterStudz said:

There’s also a Heritage 100p for sale on this site. For the price it looks like a bargain!

 

 

Unfortunately I haven’t been here ling enough to have access to the classifieds. Have had a look at astro buy sell but nothing suitable on there. The balcony railings have quite a wobble on them - made me feel a bit uncomfortable when I grabbed them to see if I could just clamp something on. 

[Cornelius Varley]

8 minutes ago, Dibp said:

Unfortunately I haven’t been here ling enough to have access to the classifieds

Yes you have. You now need more than 25 posts for access to the classifieds section.

[Dibp]

14 minutes ago, Cornelius Varley said:

Yes you have. You now need more than 25 posts for access to the classifieds section.

Aah. Only one more post to go then!

[Dibp]

1 hour ago, PeterStudz said:

There’s also a Heritage 100p for sale on this site. For the price it looks like a bargain!

 

 

Thank you for this 

I have contacted Grumpius - as you say at this price it is an absolute baragin

[Dibp]

Just a thank you to you all 

My daughter has been in contact with Grumpiusmaximus and bought the Heritage 100p! 
Now that could only have happened with all your help and advice. 
 

Thank you all and Duncan in particular.

I am now off to hunt for a zoom eyepiece to get her started - or should I upgrade my Celestron one? Hmmm

 

[jjohnson3803]

There's at least one thread on Cloudy Nights about putting a mount on a balcony railing:

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/711634-balcony-telescope-platform/

It reduces the space required by quite a bit.

Good luck!

[Gfamily]

On 01/05/2024 at 07:13, Dibp said:

Just a thank you to you all  

I am now off to hunt for a zoom eyepiece to get her started - or should I upgrade my Celestron one? Hmmm

 

The Svbony 7-21 zoom is a compact lightweight* decent eyepiece that's reasonably well priced.

It's the one that sts in my refractor case, so it's usually the one I start with. 

* The 8-24 zoom is over 2x the weight, so would be more prone to unbalancing the scope.

Edited May 6 by Gfamily

[JOC]

On 30/04/2024 at 16:33, Tiny Clanger said:

You might be able to find either a window clamp or a hide clamp intended for birdwatchers etc spotting 'scopes that would suit whatever form the balcony rail or barrier takes

Ducatigaz has some mounts that fit over his opened car window and clamp to the inside of the car - they then take his camera.  You could probably make such a thing work by adding a couple of boards each side of the balcony railings with a couple of nuts and bolts.  Then add a standard tripod plate to the bottom of the small telescope, like I did here, by knocking up a little plate and a couple of nuts and bolts to mount onto this tripod below.  Also don't forget the possibility of a triangular plate mounted across the corner of the balcony to provide a 'table'