Telescope Case

Setting up the scope for each observing session takes around quarter of an hour, at least. A fair amount of this time is spent in and out of the house to get all the kit out. It takes the same time again to pack up afterwards before i can write up my log and get to bed.
It usually takes two to three trips for just the telescope, the OTA, the tripod and mount and a bag of bits including the tray, the tracking controls and the counterbalance weight.
I’ve looked for an inexpensive scope case to fit my Skywatcher 130M with little joy. I had a bright idea though and a quick search suggested that the large travel cover that golfers use to put their golf bag and clubs in might well do the job. I do play a bit of golf sometimes so I visited the local driving range to take a look and found one that was reasonably priced at £30 and had a bit of padding and wheels. I see from the link that the online price has gone up a tenner since though. A very helpful assistant asked me if I was taking my clubs on holiday and asked where I was going. “..erm no, it’s not for my clubs.”. I then had to explain it was for a telescope just in case he thought I was intending to move a body or anything.

A bit of work with a Stanley knife, a camping mat and a roll of gaffer tape and I’d made a protective sleeve for the OTA tube.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was away at the weekend so took the ‘scope in this, which fitted across the back seats without too much trouble. The whole thing is quite heavy although most of that is in the counterweight which I stuffed down at the bottom. It seems to provide reasonable protection. I do have to remember it contains a sensitive instrument rather that a set of clubs and not bash it around or wheel it up or down steps or kerbs.

 

Indoor astronomy

A cloudy one tonight so I took the opportunity to sort some kit out. I ordered a new finderscope which arrived on Monday, a Skywatcher 9×50 RACI (right angled corrected image). I also ordered an extra base.
I attached the extra base with double sides sticky pads, butting it up to the collar of the OTA (optical tube assembly) to give it a bit of stability. I wasn’t ever intending to drill new holes in the OTA to fix it. The extra base was to take the old RDF (red dot finder) which I still might want to use. The extra base is to the right of the eyepiece holder in this photo.

I did set the scope up but only to test out aligning the finders with the OTA. Sky was just orange with cloud. Got everything lined up nice though and packed up.
I used to leave the RDF attached to the OTA but I didn’t think that was a great idea for either finder now. The RACI is too heavy so something will get damaged and I’d rather not put any strain on the sticky pads holding the RDF base on. An excuse then to reorganise the foam cutouts in my eyepiece case. It is satisfying to have everything fitted snugly in there. Left spaces for future eyepieces I have my eye on.

Final job of the evening was to wrap some red film round one of the camping lanterns and put a piece inside a torch so I have decent redlights so as not to impair the night vision when observing.