Will a 10" dob be safe in my four wheel drive off road

[Jemmo]

I do quite a bit of four wheel driving I get to some very remote and awesome places. Places that would be amazing to set up my dob. I'm just wondering how safe it would be in my four wheel drive on rough tracks. Do people take theirs out bush and have any tips. If not I'd rather not risk it and leave it at home.
Attached a picture of my 4x4 just for fun

[barx1963]

Adrian
Without knowing exactly which 10" dob you have, as a rule they are fairly robust. My 12" went on trips a lot with no issues, of course rarely off road.
The worst that could happen is the primary coming loose, but the cells usually hold these quite well, I have never heard of one coming loose.
Other issue might be dust, but covering up the tube say with a sleeping back will stop that and cushion it a bit.

Malcolm

[Jemmo]

It's a bintel if that helps. Yeah I would probly wrap it up in towels and sleeping bags see how I go

[Jemmo]

I would expect after bouncing around it would go out of collocation but I recently got a laser collimator so should be fine

[barx1963]

Yep, Bintel GSO dobs are pretty robust, should be fine.

Malcolm

[N1]

Question is will you be safe from your dob when things get ruff...:P

[Jemmo]

Thanks Malcolm I feel better about it now. Hahaha mirko your a bad man

[Chris.B]

I have wondered the same thing, we have a Prado. If on the back seat under some padding no issues on most tracks.
Only issue is finding a clearing with enough sky. In the bush could be tricky, but in the scrub and desert country go for it, great idea.
I took my 90mm refractor on a trip up the centre, only got it out a few times.

[Waxing_Gibbous]

You should be more worried bout it becoming a deadly missile should you have to brake hard!!!!
Snakes or even wombats might want to make it their home.
Heck, you could probably rent it out as a holiday cabin!

Beware though, the truly unexpected.
A country cop questioned me once as some old lady thought my SW12" looked like a mortar tube or drug paraphernalia. :lol:
To his credit he took one look and sussed it out.

As others have noted, it's a toughie and apart from re-collimating should be OK.

Happy Trails,
WG

[deanm]

We do an annual 4WD trip every year - and we do really serious stuff.

I've taken my C6 + NEQ6 on every trip to almost all of the central Australian deserts. After hours and hours of those dreadful corrugations, I always expect something to have fallen off or at least for it to lose collimation, but no - it just hangs in there.

I used to pack the OTA in the original shipping box + styrofoam, but now just use a Pelican case.
Once saw a lunar eclipse while camped on the banks of the Diamantina river out of Birdsville - magic desert skies!

Dean

[Jemmo]

Sounds awesome mate. I can't wait to get awesome skies. I will of course strap it down somehow and wrap it in sleeping bags to absorb some bumps. Glad to hear you do serious stuff with it in the fourby because I do lots of full on vic high country driving I will definitely pick my lines careful with it onboard though haha

[UniPol]

I suppose if you are really serious, the mirror/cell can be removed and packed to avoid damage. In my experience, placing the mirror/cell back in the tube doesn't present any problems and collimation is either spot on or close to spot on and doesn't that long.

I recently purchased a new SkyWatcher Black Diamond 12" Newtonian reflector OTA and upon opening the box the the mirror was missing! It turned out that the courier was on the lazy side and delivered it a few days later. Naturally I was quite happy after receiving the mirror as it was extremely well packed as to avoid damage in transit.

[Jemmo]

I did think of removing it but I'm too worried about the mirror surface I'd rather have nothing touch it. I did think long and hard about that though.

[UniPol]

The tried and true method of packing, storing and transporting mirrors is a wooden box with tapered timber inserts glued to the inside of the base supporting the coated side and a flush fitting removable top duct taped or screwed down. I'm sure you know this but may be useful information to members not in the know.

[Jemmo]

Did not know that. Thank you for the info. I'm bit of a noob to telescopes. I got the dob 2nd hand few months ago

[creeksky]

I drove 250ks with mine on the back seat with cushions either end (at each door) cushions under, and 12 ks of dirt road..no probs.Didn't lose colimation.
Pack all your bedding around it and it will be snug and safe as a baby.;)

[AG Hybrid]

This is why you should keep the packing foam. With my skywatcher, it came with nice soft packing foam. One half at each end to support the ota does nicely. From Sydney to Wiruna which is about a 3 hour trip with a dirt and gravel road to the finish my ota's usually only out of collimation by about 2mm. That's even after packing, unpacking and assembling the ota on its mount.