Thanks for your replies and the fine well considered advice. I will take my binos for sure and a tripod - leave the scopes at home. If my 6-inch Mak had an AZ mount I'd take it but with all the EQ gear it's almost as bad as the Dob re transport and a lot more cumbersome to set up and pack up. Making a grab-n-go AZ mount for it is something that's been on my backburner for years. Life's too short. But one of these days... I could take Lil' Hubble, my 8-inch Dob, but it's got set-up pack-up issues as well. (I really only made it for the Northern hemisphere observing. Very compact to transport but fair effort to put together and break down. It's kind of like a Meccano Dob.)
Glad to see IIS going strong and still populated with knowledgeable and helpful folk like yourselves!
