Camping with my dob

[poncho]

Hi guys

First time i am trying to take my dobsonian out.

Will be driving about 3hours, on road.

I willl prob try and pack in the original packing if i can.

Will the alignment hold generally or will i have to collimate?
Any tips!!?
Will charge my jump starter power pack

[Stonius]

Nah, you'll need to collimate, possibly even your secondary too (at least check it).

I would also thoroughly recommend putting tape over any bolts. It's amazing how they work loose over 3 hours driving. Seriously, if you don't tape it, things will work loose and rattle around.

Markus

[zenith]

I've had good luck traveling with mine, I check the collimation and its surprisingly not as bad as you'd think it might be after traveling. Never had any lose bolts, I remove the finder scope and telrad and have the focuser draw tube all the way in.
I put the camping mattress in the car, a sleeping bag on the mattress and the scope on that, place a couple of pillows around the tube then a dooner over the top. Tuck it into bed nice for the trip :thumbsup:

[glend]

Secure it so it doesn't kill anyone if you can. Restrain it in a vehicle, slip it through a seat belt or put a tiedown strap around it attached to an anchor point. Don't drive on corrugations. Forget taping up screws, never heard of one working loose.

[AstralTraveller]

Don't you have a collapsible dob? You have to collimate anyway.

[MichaelSW]

Poncho,

G'day.

I travelled with my collapsable OTA packed away all secure in the original box for a couple of years - Astrofest, School nights, Urban Observers. Arrive. Unpack. Put the light shroud on. Eventually I thought it was all a bit tedious.

Then it was with tube collapsed lying across the back seat. Arrive. Put the light shroud back on. In time, that became a bit tedious too.

Now, the extended OTA with shroud in place is laid down safe and securely in the back of my Camry wagon. Arrive. Put part A on part B and screw in the handles.

Collimation is not a major part of the experience.

Cheers.

[poncho]

Perfect thanks all for the input. Will just strap her in and hope for the best.

Now just have to hope no one pinches her from the car when we go snorkeling!

[AEAJR]

I would suggest you place the scope or the packing around the scope on some kind of bubble wrap or foam bed to absorb any shocks that may happen on the road. This should help reduce the shock to the scope and limit the impact on the alignment.

Checking collimation is always a good idea. I have taken mine about 30 minutes to a darker site just laying in the back of the SUV with no packing. I lay it on foam mats of the type you use on a shop floor. Has held collimation quite well.

[poncho]

Update

Worked brilliantly, just lay down the two pieces in the back, wrapped in a quilt, pillows x4 around it.
Was in fine collimation when i got there :)
But on the way back was some offroadness - so will have to check.

[Emc2]

Collimation is always made to be this big bad difficult thing to do.
It really is just a setting and in fact only a pretty minor adjustment. The more on practices for the adjustment of this, the easier it'll get . In time it becomes a routine setup that is done in a few minutes before moving on to the next thing.

[stevejack]

I used to pack a blow up queen mattress and wrap my dob in that.
Blow up the mattress just enough to provide suspension / protection from the rest of the vehicle. It worked really well as packing, and if we didn't use the mattress it just folded up into nothing with the air removed. Saved carting around a big foam box :thumbsup:
Edit: always used a laser to check collimation when we arrived and usually tweaked it. I did this every viewing session regardless.