What's the best travel scope?

[Guest astrojohn]

Hi all,

I'm looking for a good scope for airline travel - that means 5-7kg cabin baggage (ie the scope), about 600mm long;

and 20-23kg check-in.

Any decent scope needs a stable mount for visual, and a bit of wide field AP would also be nice, but this needs to share the case with a few clothes! I was thinking about the Ioptron Smart EQ, but that's not available yet and might be a bit small for the 4"

refractor I have in mind - so I might stretch to the weight of the new EQ30.

Scope wise, I think it's a 4"APO vs a 6" SCT. I have been thinking seriously about a TV NP101, but recently heard about the

Altair 102 f7 APO - seems to be getting very good reports, or the 102 f6.5 APO. Do I really need to spend more than double the price?

Your comments and suggestions would be gratefully recieved!

clear skies,

John.

[Doc]

I would say all those scopes you mention are a little big for hand luggage especially the Televue.

I would say a William Optics GT81 or similar.

[Brantuk]

Yup - I agree with Doc - a Meg 72 or GT81 or any small doublet would fit the bill nicely for travel. Small refractors fit nicely in luggage and give very sharp contrasty views and good wide angles. They also mount easily - I'd buy a cheap camera tripod at the other end so I didn't have to carry it on planes and maybe take a favourite pan/tilt head with you. Hope that helps

[Guest Steve]

I took my Williams Optics 66m Petzval to the south of France this summer and it was great. It packs small and with a Barder Hyperion Zoom in the case it was pretty versatile.

I was in the car so had the luxury of the AZ4 mount, but I've tried it on a decent photo/video tripod and it was perfectly usable.

Edited August 22, 2012 by Steve

[Guest Tweedledum]

Whilst the frac's are always mentioned, it is also worth considering a small mak!. You can probably get away with using a decent photographic tripod as the mount, and you would certainly get it on the plane in hand luggage. Small and reasonably bullet proof!! (Very limited for any AP work, but then the mount you travel with would probably preclude that anyway!

Just be careful how you stow your tripod, my travelling one folds up and it looked like a pistol on the x-ray machine causing air lanka a panic!

In the uk my 120mm short tube frac goes everywhere, either in the boot or roof box. Has to cope with snow, sand and dog slobber :-).

Cheers

[Guest astrojohn]

Funny you should mention Maks Damien, my first travel scope was the ETX90 - fits nicely in a cabin bag and only 3.5kg. Snag is, it's f13.8, good for moon and planets, ideal for eclipses, but the 1250 focal length means deep sky objects at 90mm aperture are far too dim. Last year I found an ETX125 tube, but thats f15!

so I'm not much better off ! There arn't any focal reducers available for these Maks either.

I reckon I can carry a short tube refractor up to 100mm in the cabin if I get the right one ( the NP101 is only 4.1kg!), the Altair 102 f7 has a detachable focuser

(just in case I meet a jobs worth at check in!). A 100mm will gather 56% more light than an 80.

cheers,

John.

[Guest astrojohn]

Sorry Damian, I didn't recheck my spelling! - spotted it as soon as I had clicked to post!

[Guest Tweedledum]

Hi John,

No worries, you would have a job with my surname . The high focal length and smallish cost (c£300 for a 127mm mak) might swing it!!.

Best Regards

Damian