Mel, you funny gal.
No, I'm afraid I cannot carry this scope.
I have to rely on hubby for that job (i.e. if we take it in the car etc) I can hoick it up over ledges and bumps using the tension handles (something that's called a "crab shuffle
), but that's it. The height of the scope (as it's on wheels the base sits 8cm off the ground) comes to my bottom lip, and if I stand in front of the tube, err let's just say except for my shoulders, I don't think much of me would be seen.
It does look impressively big next to me, so when someone says they have a scope, I like to say, pfft take a look a my scope
I'm getting better at judging how much I can yank it around and hoick it over stuff without it tipping.
The smaller scope is for a quick grab'n'go to throw in the car or just for a quick session. The 10" is no fuss and easy to get out, for sure, but I tend to do long sessions with it studying deep sky objects. I do a lot of binocular observing for quick sessions, so this will take that place to a certain degree (I will still maintain bino viewing tho). I love star clusters, and I don't need a huge scope to do a lot of cluster observing with. And my neck gets mighty sore from long sessions of bino viewing.
My advice, don't get rid of your little scope just yet, it may come in handy.
Seems most people here have got at least one grab'n'go scope, and for good reason.
I'm on fb as well, so why don't you "friend" me sometime.