What telescope would you bring on a trip with low luggage capacity

[skysurfer]

Imagine you go on holiday and you are tight on capacity of taking luggage with, e.g. organized tour or business trip or an excursion where you want to look at the sky and naked eye is not enough, but taking a 25cm Dob or even a 10cm refractor on a mount is even too much ?

You'll probably take only one instrument and what one ? Binoculars ? A small APO ?

For me it was in Jan 2007 a night walk to Mt Sinai in Egypt. I knew it would be very dark, so I took my 10x50 binos and anjoyed a lot !

What would you do on such a trip ?

[Kunama]

I would take my Stellarvue F50W2 finderscope and 3 Vixen LVW eyepieces.
This little finder is excellent and with the LVWs it is a match for many small refractors.

[Allan_L]

Yes, tough decision. I settled for a good pair of Astro Binos, my Orion 9x63 mini giants.
And a small ball-head tripod or mono pod.

[Stardrifter_WA]

I agree Allan. I recently bought an 8x32 Leica Ultravid binocular for travelling. They are surprisingly good for their size, even for astro. I don't take my Fujinon 7x50's as they are simply too heavy to carry around, which is why I bought the Leica. With the need to take my camera gear a small binocular makes life a little easier. It is all a matter of compromise really.

Cheers Peter

[anj026]

I generally use a binocular when there isn't room for much else. However on longer trips away with the family I like to take the TV60 with a porta mount. It can be quite useful for nature watching as well as a bit of astro.

The trouble with a scope is that even if the scope is tiny and compact, the mount rarely is. The porta mount can be squeezed under the car seat once the head is removed from the tripod.

[skysurfer]

A tabletop altaz tripod can be an option. Of course, you need a table but it is better than nothing.
I have an 80mm f/6.3 short achro which weighs only 1.7kg (OTA only) but can even be used handheld with the 24mm Panoptic in it (21x) when nothing available to put the tabletop tripod on. Then it is just a monocular but with superb image sharp to the edges and large FOV (app. 68º, actual 3.3º) due to the eyepiece.

When some has a bright telephoto lens (e.g. Canon 70-200 2.8L) there is a simple way to make a shorttube APO refractor of it. Barlow and diagonal needed. Barlow is required for two reasons: 1. otherwise too short back focus, 2. f/2.8 cannot be handled by eyepieces without many image errors.
This makes a nice 70mm f/5.6 portable APO.

[Profiler]

I am ashamed to be able to answer this question from a lot of trial and error which really equates to having purchased and thereafter sold quite a few small refractors and burnt money in the process.

For super light travel I would agree with Anj that the TV-60 is the ultimate APO for visual use when travelling with little else other than the shirt on your back. However, I would regard it as a little limited in terms of what you can get out of it. Moreover, for the TV-60 I don't think you really need the telepod as a standard smaller camera tripod is sufficent and lighter.

HOWEVER - if your plane ticket permits carry on luggage and you can travel with more then the shirt on your back then without any doubt the ultimate travel APO for visual use is the TV-85 coupled with the Telepod. Swap the 2' everbrite diagonal with a 1.25 to reduce weight and pack a 3-6 Nag zoom, 9 or 13mm T6Nag and a 20mm Pentax XW.

As I mentioned before I have had a lot of trial and error with Taks and Vixens as well and whilst all are excellent in their optics in terms of portable utility the TV-85 is the easy winner.

[Stardrifter_WA]

Hi Profiler :hi:

I did think about the TV60 before I bought the Leica binoculars, it was certainly a lot cheaper, but then I considered that the binoculars were more versatile anyway, particularly for travelling OS; I don't want to have to leave it in the car or hotel room because it is too bulky to carry everywhere. The Leica are very compact, yet still gives a very good view of the stars, considering its size. Actually, I compared it to the Fujinon 7x50 that I own and , pretty much, only now use the Leica for casual viewing. But that could be because it cost me a packet, so I better use it, hey? :P No, it is very good. :)

Whilst in the US, I intend to have a look at a few compact APO's. :D

Cheers Peter

[skysurfer]

What about this apo ?

When you bring a telephoto lens you can make an adapter with 32mm PVC plumbing tube socket and a rear lens cap a little scope below.

This is 53mm f/14 (a 70-300L with 2.5x Powermate) and with a 24mm Panoptic it works even handheld (31x).
During daylight viewing of tree branches it provides an almost color-free image and high contrast.

[Stardrifter_WA]

Great idea. :)

[anj026]

That is a good idea. It would not be too difficult to make a table top mount out of the porta by fabricating a short base to replace the aluminium tripod. :thumbsup: