Taking telescope on easyjet flight

[Buzz Lightyear]

Hi,

Would any of you attempt to take your telescope on a flight, i have been looking at taking it as 2 seperate sports equipment items @ £18 each, but would have to select golf or diving equipment.

would the actual scope be man handled and possibly damaged even if it was packaged correctly?

its my EQ5 mount with 200p scope.

regards,

paul.

[Doc]

Not something as large as that. I would a small refractor that could go as hand lugage.

[Carbon Brush]

I would only take a reflector as hand luggage and the 200P is obviously over size. I have seen too much hold luggage thrown by the gorrillas (handlers), fall off trailers, get dropped off carousels, etc. Claiming for damage afterwards is fraught with obstacles.

I would put the mount (well packed) in the hold and keep a small refractor in my cabin bag.

I know the cabin baggage dimensions vary between airlines. But as a rough guide you could take an ETX90, or Skywatcher 102(F5) with you.

This is of course subject of course to stupidity to do with weapons, chemicals, etc. You are probably already thinking of ways to pack the OTA with liquid explosives carried by your accomplices, so you can fire shards of objective lens at the cockpit door.

Sorry to sound so negative. But I have had to have check in arguments with pre-booked dive gear. My camcorder innards have been 'sniffed' by an electronic nose, the list goes on.

Just take a bucket & spade. Ah spade - weapon. Drat. OK a paperback book.

[kniclander]

I took a 150 dob on a flight in its original box and it was fine. it comes all the way from China like that and probably isn't treated too gently so shouldnt be a problem.

[Mark at Beaufort]

I took my PST to Turkey for the total eclipse, as hand luggage, but security gave it a good going over. The tripod (photographic type) went in the hold with the suitcases.

Mark

[ollypenrice]

I have flown with well boxed refractors both in the hold and the hand luggage. I think reflectors might be a bit more of a worry. One guest did simply book a seat for his gear as musicians do. It was by prior consent and worked okay, in principle, though he did break something.

Baggage handlers are indeed sometimes a menace and needlessly violent with luggage. I've seen it endlessly at first hand. But let's be fair on the security issue. They have to be careful. Explosives in trainer soles, in perfume bottles... A telescope is a metal tube capable of holding enough plastic to take out Heath Row. They can't just ignore this.

Olly

[pete_l]

All the luggage is handled by ground crew, not the airline. So whichever carrier you are going with won't matter. However, I've seen enough "mishaps" with luggage that I wouldn't trust them with anything that couldn't withstand a ten-foot drop - landing on any of it's sides or edges.

I have however quite successfully carried my ETX125 as hand luggage a few times - though that was before all the current hysteria, and not on Easyjet/Ryanair. On any of the no-frills airlines, overhead locker space is the single scarest resource (apart from courtesy ) and things that get put in the lockers tend to get mistreated, crushed and bashed about, in the fight to get that one, last bag up there.

The problem with taking it as sports equipment is that it's not sports equipment. Such is the absolute power of even the lowest newbie in airline staff that they could simply and arbitrarily refuse to carry your 'scope and you'd have absolutely no recourse and could even get arrested if you try to argue with them. Just how lucky do you feel?

[boboco]

Depending on the airline and airport you can take fragile items all the way to the security gate and hand them over as fragile items. I have seen tv cameras go this way often with little packaging - so I assume (dont sue me!) that there is at least reasonable handling.

Then again I have seen (at Delhi) a huge flat screen tv come out on the conveyor belt for collections upside down (very clearly marked which way was up) and then fall off the conveyor only to be shoved back on, only to ....

My PST took some explaining at a US airport "its a telescope", "I cant see through it", "its for looking at the sun" - blank stares ;-)

[pete_l]

My PST took some explaining at a US airport "its a telescope", "I cant see through it", "its for looking at the sun" - blank stares ;-)

One piece of advice I was given when transporting my scope was to have a copy of an astro magazine with a picture or advertisement of it. That way you could show people that there was such a thing as the item they were questioning you about.

[LukeSkywatcher]

Small refractor and tripod in a backpack.

JOB DONE.

I bought a 70mm Celestron Travelscope so i can take it away with me as hand luggage. Good scope..............rubbish tripod. But for 100 euros.................a bargain.

[kentronix]

Most certainly as hand luggage only for me. I make a point of watching the luggage monkeys throwing expensive looking guitar cases and golf clubs in to the hold, its like a cross between rugby and tetris. A little bit of entertainment before take off. I most certainly wouldnt trust them with my scope. In fact I dont know if anyone remembers all my strange measurement requests just after I joined this lovely forum, but I chose mine specifically so it would fit in a carry on bag. I would imagine any insurance wouldnt cover anything with a mirror of glass in it either.

[E621Keith]

I wonder how those wide life or sport photographer transport their big telephoto lens? I am sure a refractor transported in the same way should survive the trip.

As for reflector, the secondary will probably come off and wreck everything.

[LukeSkywatcher]

I wonder how those wide life or sport photographer transport their big telephoto lens? I am sure a refractor transported in the same way should survive the trip.

In nice big hard aluminium cases.

[pete_l]

I wonder how those wide life or sport photographer transport their big telephoto lens? I am sure a refractor transported in the same way should survive the trip.

In nice big hard aluminium cases.

And they check them in especially to get a customs carnet to prove (when they bring them back home again) that they didn't buy their kit while "away" and aren't therefore trying to dodge import duty/VAT. Doesn't matter too much if you're only travelling within the EU. But if you're taking valuable optics further afield, it' might be worth considering.

[E621Keith]

And they check them in especially to get a customs carnet to prove (when they bring them back home again) that they didn't buy their kit while "away" and aren't therefore trying to dodge import duty/VAT. Doesn't matter too much if you're only travelling within the EU. But if you're taking valuable optics further afield, it' might be worth considering.

Thanks Pete. This is good advice, I don't want custom slamming me with import duty and 20% VAT when I come back from observing oversea. If I ever travel oversea with my scopes.

[TheTalescopeMan]

Personally, I would believe all the fear-mongering about the need for high levels of airport security just a little more if they also barred passengers from taking glass bottles of duty-free onto flights. A broken bottle obviously makes a far better weapon than many items that are banned from hand luggage, but who wants to let security issues get in the way of making profits from duty free?

[Buzz Lightyear]

thank you everyone, my other option is to take my car all the way to greece, at least i can carry my scope, eps, books etc, i also climb so i will be taking all my other gear too. the only problem is it will cost £400 each way where easyjet is only £150 each way. the reason i will want to take my scope is because i will be there all winter and the skies are pretty clear.

[angusb1]

The price of a metal flight case for my 10" newt and equatorial mount was so astronomic I think it wouldn't be worth doing unless you were going to be travelling by air often with it. I have a feeling it was something like £500 for a case for the scope.

[Kane]

For £500 quid you might be better off buying something overseas then posting it back in the proper packaging before you come home .....

[brantuk]

I simply wouldn't take an Easy Jet flight. Once was enough lol

[dogfish]

I've taken my Megrez 72 on an Easy Jet flight to Majorca. I have a nice 1500 Peli case that a friend gave me (thanks Kenny), so it went as hand luggage with my meaty tripod in my case in the hold. The airport security people weren't the least bit interested

I recommend it though if you're going anywhere in southern europe as there are so many more objects you can see. I wouldn't take a reflector though, so it's an excuse to buy another telescope.

Cheers, Martin