clumsy beginnings

[Andrew*]

Well, just a few days into my observing life and of course everything isn't going entirely smoothly.

firstly, how do you all keep your scope? There's an unused shed in the place I live, and I thought it woudl be an ideal place to keep it, so I don't need to bother with cool down time etc. But of course in practice, other factors become more than apparent. it's in the middle of overgrown and damp ground, so trying to get the scope across it is rather tricky, with its legs getting caught on every bramble and mine getting caught in every puddle. But that comes only once you've got it out of the door. Surely most doors are the same width, and the tripod legs need to be carefully navigated to get them through every time you move the scope? In order to get it back inside (gave up on the shed) the other night, I just lowered the legs, but then I have to heighten them again outside, which, with my method, is a long and tedious process.

For now it's just a practicality problem. I was wondering how other astronomers get beyond this obstacle with telescopes twice the size and half the portability of mine.

AstroPhethean

[Kain]

Basticaly take the scope out in bits, and set up outside.

Thats what I do with bost scopes.

Kain

[Ant]

Depending on the scope that I have on the mount at the time I store and move the scope in one peice.

The trick to door ways is spinning the mount round as you go through. i.e. get the first leg through the door and as the second leg approaches the door then spin the tripod round so that the second leg goes through and then the same with the third leg. Similar to the way you get a sofa through the door where the sofa is twice as wide as the width and taller than the height of the door way.

Like most things there is a way, you just need to get your head round it!

Most people remove the scope and weights for moving which does help. It is possible to get the tripod through the door without collapsing it - you don't want to go down thast road unless you have to!

Ant

[Martin 2]

I take my mount in and out set up, yiu have to navigate it through the door which is a pain and then through a narrow archway, but its quicker than breaking it down.

M2

[Saso]

First I have a combination of HEQ5 and ED80 - then I can take this combination out and in without any trouble. But now I mostly observe with HEQ5 and 200 mm reflector so I must bring mount and telescope in and out separately. It is too much weight and combinartion is too big. So in future I hope that I can build observatory. I certainly spent more time out.

Saso