pop up tent

[cosmic dave]

are these pop up observatories still in production ?

[Sirius_Starseed]

NICE!!!

[JamesM]

Dave, I don't know the answer but I'm not convinced of their practicality. It's looks very small and those cross members are going to impede the scopes movement and viewing. I wouldn't fancy trying to get gear in and out of it and the high sides restrict the lower field of view.

At Kelling Heath two years ago, I was fortunate to be invited into a proper observation tent which contained a large birth at one end, and although I was skeptical of its real practical benefit, I was pleasantly surprised how much it kept the wind out and help protect the gear from passing feet etc. That particular tent is expensive but given that it rained during the Salisbury Star Party, the idea of just zipping it all up after a night's observation and just toddling off to bed in the end compartment was very seductive.

James

[JB80]

The website on the tent doesn't really give away much.

I have been looking at a few tents and am quite surpised at the cost, am thinking I will just rig up something of my own instead as I don't really require it to be portable. But a cheap pop-up tent like that I would consider, cheap being the major point.

[weareborg]

I have one of those, but Ive never used it. It's not really suitable to a Newtonian on either a dob base or an EQ type mount. Its more suited to refractors and SCTs in my opinion. It is quiet big though.

[peterb]

Doesn't look very practical to me, surprising just how much space you need even around a small setup and as mentioned already its going to be very restricted in field of view. Wouldn't think there would be much room to move once you'd got a scope in.

[astromerlin]

When I planned to setup at the Salisbury star party I was concerned about leaving it all setup, will it rain? So I bought a 120mm x 120mm toilet/utility tent. I was quite impressed with it as it only took a second to erect and covered my SW250 and EQ6 and was quite easy to move about. It did rain heavily on one of the days there and my setup kept dry as a bone.

Once I'd finished for the night I just pulled up 4 pegs and moved the whole tent across to cover my rig and pegged it down and zipped up the door. Job done.

[RobH]

We currently have the 12 inch dob set up in the back garden covered up by a toilet tent too as there isn't room in the observatory for 2 scopes. The neighbours thought that Amanda was making me use it as a loo when I was staying out in the obs all night

I can vouch for how effective astromerlins tent was at Salisbury, as we were camped next door, and I bought one as soon as we got home.

Cheers

Rob

[JamesM]

I must admit whilst thinking back to the Salisbury Star Party, there were quite a few of those 'toilet tents' in fact so many, it reminded of a scene from the film 'Day of the Triffids' - I'm sure they were breeding. :D:D I was impressed with your set up Astromerlin and its surprising what you can fit in them!

Clear skies

James

[astromerlin]

Hi Guys, Yes I was well happy with it although I was concerned when the wind got up a bit as I only had it pegged out on the 4 guide strings but it seemed to fair quite well.

[weso]

i have to say i had a good laugh at the youtube vid, but after reading this further a toilet tent sounds like a real good idea. especially if your gonna do an all nighter...

[m.tweedy]

how about this

http://www.astronomica.co.uk/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.browse&category_id=20&Itemid=1

[Jamie]

This is my pop up tent..... A bit over the top but it does pop up.....

[Beyond_Vision]

The pop up tent isn't much cop as it has a very limited apeture. I have the astro tent from astronomica and it's faired pretty well at several star parties.

Regards

Kevin