Backpack Telescopes?

[alan_g]

Hi all,

I'm looking for some advice for my 1st telescope purchase. I live within walking distance of some great observing sites & as I don't drive (yet) I need something as portable as possible. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to link to other sites but I've had a search around and found a few models that are sold as travel scopes, I'm wondering if any of these are worthwhile?

Or is it better just to look at small telescopes and buy a backpack to transport them? My budget is up to around £200.

Finally I'd appreciate any advice on minimising wear & tear as I'm going to be lugging it about quite a bit.

Thanks

A

[rowan46]

to be frank there isn't a telescope thats that great for astronomy thats good for backpacking certainly not at your price level some of the better birding scopes are great for the moon and ok for planets but nothing shows deep space as this requires apparture. I would suggest a good pair of binoculars an adaptor and tripod they will be almost as good on the moon and better than a birding telescope at wide views. these are expensive but they are excellent Pentax 10x50 XCF Binoculars With Case: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

[rowan46]

the minimum backpackable astro telescope in my opinion is Celestron C5 Spotting Scope but as you can see its outside your budget

[kris h]

If i was going for a easy setup backpack telescope i would get

a Celestron C90 that costs £172 and then you will need a

Horizon heavy duty £80 & then a E P set

Revelation photo-visual kit £127 and you could make your own dew

shield? then if you had that you could carry the scope & the E Ps in the

backpack & the tripod by hand for all that the price is £379 all these

items are from FLO also some spotting scopes are just like having

half a binocular but you should keep your eye on the for sale

section see what comes up

clear skies

[rowan46]

sorry I said minimum backpackable scope for astro I meant best some of the refractors are better on planets but this is the portable scope for dso's imho

[LukeSkywatcher]

A few months ago i bought a Celestron 70mm Travelscope. It comes with its own backpack and tripod. I bought it simply to take as hand luggage onto flights.

The scope itself while only being 70mm aperture is great. It gives very nice widefield views. The tripod that it comes with is absolutely USELESS.

Very nice travel scope let down by the supplied tripod.

Well worth the £100 cost.

[ronin]

Scope wise the SW Startravel 80 is £87 and the 102 is £153 BUT that is scope only. Both are achro's and both f/5, so both will have chromatic abberation. See the FLO site.

However they are (from the name) intended for easy transport.

The problem is: What mount are you intending to use, I assume that the £200 would include the mount.

If I remember both say they come with scope rings so I guess that the addition of a dovetail would mean they could go on a decent camera tripod. That however isn't great, they don't move easily. But camera tripods are designed more for transport the telescope tripods, more leg sections so shorter when closed up.

The ST102 will be about 16-18" long overall so easy to fit in a backpack. The ST80 will be shorter say about 14".

The WO 72 is presently around the £350 mark and I would guess that most ED scopes are outside of £200.

The problem is the mount to be used.

[DrGui]

If you can get your hands on a Meade "Backpack" telescope I think that would fit the bill. I purchased one a couple of years ago and I found it to be acceptable for lugging around with minimal effort. The goto mount works well (unless its -30c). North American price is $250.

[umadog]

Something like the Meade backpack scope could work but there will be compromises in terms of aperture and stability. Compromises is the name of the game with telescopes, however, so don't let that put you off getting something that works for you. If you're prepared to increase your budget a good deal then there may be some interesting options.

[jdrose]

I'll second the celestron c 90. Great scope, and it comes with a backpack. If you look around, you can get one with a really crappy tripod too lol. Google celestron c90 backpack and see what you find.

In terms of price, it's one of the best deals around for a small scope, and its an sct too. Its also 90mm as opposed to the 60/70mm you get in that price range.

Its great for wide field views and variable star observing.

[onesmallstep]

Hi

Several suppliers sell the Meade ETX-80 as a backpack bundle but the cost is around the £280-300 mark so you may need to rethink your budget.

An alternative to a scope is to go down the binocular route with 20x80 bins and the Horizon 8115 heavy duty tripod. Depending on the make of binocular this combo should come in on or under budget leaving spare cash for a starmap and red light torch.

[yeti monster]

Trawl fleabay for Skymax 90, I was lucky enough to get one for £50 on an EQ-1 mount. The scope can be mounted on a conventional camera tripod, although this leaves you with Alt/Az control rather than equitorial. If the weight of the EQ-1 doesn't bother you, then lugging it about is worth the effort.

[great_bear]

Since the original poster asked this question back in January, and indeed, hasn't even been online since February, I suspect the question is now somewhat moot

[umadog]

Maybe he just reads slowly?

[Nexus 6]

These older posts can catch you out if you don't check the date the thread started.